Ten Italian modern classical albums

Ten Italian modern classical albums to rediscover (from 2010 to today)

Recent years in music have been extremely prolific for albums of every kind, particularly in the smaller scenes we tend to call niche, almost dismissively so. From ambient to minimalism, from electronic music to post-rock, from psychedelia to noise and the new singer-songwriters, there really is a remarkable number of Italian musicians, far from the spotlight of TV and the mainstream, unlucky enough to work within a suffocating market that leaves them floating in a limbo of solitude and indifference from which they deserve to escape. Here you'll find a list of homegrown artists who have delved into the modern classical genre, whose international touchstones are masters such as Max Richter and Jóhann Jóhannsson in particular, but which has spawned followers practically everywhere.
This list brings together very different artists who have released albums from 2010 to the present and who deserve to be (re)discovered by the public. Some of them fit squarely into the modern classical category, others come close to it only tangentially, perhaps with just one album in their whole discography. Their backgrounds and origins vary widely too, ranging from the academic world to the alt-rock scene to experimental electronics. In such a varied sampling, it's hard not to find something of interest. Enjoy the read, and above all, enjoy the listen.

Fabrizio Testa – Music For Adriatic Colonies (2014, self-released)

The mastermind behind the singer-songwriter project The Long Goodbye, set on the Romagna coast, Fabrizio Testa has also pursued a second path under his own name, recording several experimental LPs, among which “Music For Adriatic Colonies” stands out for its quality and originality: a lengthy twenty-four-minute composition (split into seventeen parts) in which he abandons the cursed vocals of the pairing “Mastice” and “Morire” in favor of instrumental music inspired by what remains of the Fascist-era holiday colonies on the Romagna shoreline. “Music For Adriatic Colonies” should be understood as a story about these immense ghost buildings that sit there, motionless, sadly indifferent to the passing of time.
It's a bold attempt at a composition for piano, trumpet, guitar and keyboards, featuring no fewer than eight musicians, and showing an adventurous appetite for decidedly avant sounds and for blending different genres, from free jazz to improvisation, with intrusions of piano that is in its own way classical, in the twentieth-century sense of the term, and touches of vaguely ambient textures. Not quite modern classical in the sense Richter gave the term, but perhaps something more. Eleven years on, this is an album that hasn't grown tiresome and still has plenty to say. (Valerio D'Onofrio)

Federico Albanese – The Houseboat And The Moon (2014, Denovali)

Among the finest names of the Italian modern classical school, one that must be included by right is Federico Albanese. The Berlin-based composer distinguished himself right from his solo debut through the masterful balance between the elegance of his scores and the deep emotional charge injected into them. Eleven years and six albums on, “The Houseboat And The Moon” remains the finest showcase of this gift, displayed impeccably across the thirteen compositions that make it up, from the crystalline, minimalist-inflected simplicity of the phrasing on “Beyond The Milk Wood” to the emotional cradling of closer “Space In Between”. A debut that, with flawless grace, aims straight for the heart. (Peppe Trotta)


Max Fuschetto – Sùn Ná (2015, Hanagoori)

Neapolitan composer Max Fuschetto has for several years now been a reference point on the Italian modern classical scene, thanks to a run of original, convincing albums, often very different from one another, testament to an enviable stylistic range and musical culture (spanning classical to pop music). Among his various albums, all of them worth recommending, we feel it's particularly worth revisiting his second work, “Sùn Ná”, from 2015, a small gem uniting different musical and cultural traditions, from the African one (the title, which in Yoruba translates roughly as “sleep now,” chimes with the Neapolitan word for dream) to the Western one, seeking out what is common between worlds too often kept apart by those who only ever stress the differences, building impassable walls between peoples. The atmosphere is almost devotional, an approach that inevitably recalls “Hosianna Mantra” by Popol Vuh – both for Antonella Pelilli's voice and for the very devotional quality of the musical landscape recreated here – and the Third Ear Band, for the attempt to marry folk tradition with art music. Just listen to “In Preghiera”, which in barely a minute recreates the places of worship of a religion that seeks not to divide but to unite different cultures – exactly what Florian Fricke always held as his ultimate goal. And indeed, as Fuschetto himself tells us, prayer is a universal gesture, present in every kind of culture. (Valerio D'Onofrio)


Paolo Tarsi – Furniture Music For New Primitives (2015, Cramps)

Paolo Tarsi is a young pianist and composer who debuted in 2015 with “Dream In A Landscape”, a brief homage to John Cage's iconic “In A Landscape”, before following up that same year with “Furniture Music For New Primitives”, an album that only tangentially approaches modern classical, being rich in pop influences that combine with his passion for American minimalism.
Inspired by “The Cities Of The Red Night” – the first installment of a trilogy completed by “The Place Of Dead Roads” and “The Western Lands” – by one of the emblematic writers of the Beat Generation, William S. Burroughs, the album boasts some notable guest appearances, chief among them Paolo Tofani (Area) and Enrico Gabrielli (Calibro 35, Afterhours, Mariposa). Tarsi's music has the rare ability to stay within the broad boundaries of what we'd call modern classical while still bringing out psychedelic textures (“Cluster #2”), minimal electronics with alienating timbres (“In The Total Animal Soup Of Time”, “The Melody Haunts My Reverie”), post-rock sounds in the style of Mogwai (“Electric Sakuhin”), right through to dreamlike improvisations (“Construction Dans L'espace Et Le Silence/Minutes To Go”) that plunge us right back into the world of the Beat Generation. (Valerio D'Onofrio)

Bruno Bavota – Out Of The Blue (2016, Sono Luminus)

It only took a few years, marked by a constant process of refinement, for Bruno Bavota to become one of the most highly regarded Italian musicians in the modern classical field, a trajectory that swiftly led him to release music through Temporary Residence. But the real leap in quality came before he landed on the New York label, precisely when, in 2016, the Campania-born composer released “Out Of The Blue” through the equally prestigious Sono Luminus. On “Out Of The Blue”, while keeping the piano central – it remains the absolute, and at times solitary, protagonist – Bavota manages to build a more structured, more expansive sound, capable of making his sketches even more vivid and vibrant. To the brilliant piano writing are added measured electronic touches that stretch out its depth and light, along with precious string textures that heighten its melancholy, dreamlike side (“Out Of The Blue”, “Lovers”, “Breath”). Further enriching this already broad vocabulary are the delicate weaves of acoustic guitar, which accompany the moving pulse of “Heartbeat” and the sweet, enveloping choral warmth of “Warm Embrace”. A triumph of immediacy and fine craftsmanship. (Peppe Trotta)


Marcello Bonanno – Cycle (2017, Almendra Music)

Rigorous, expansive, overwhelming. The pianism of Marcello Bonanno – a Sicilian composer based in Milan – is the perfect synthesis of virtuosity and feeling, pursued with a keen awareness of the lessons of twentieth-century avant-gardes as well as the contemporary moment in which it takes shape. “Cycles” is a whirlwind in which post-minimalism, new classical and jazz undertones intersect; the keyboard seems boundless, offering a complex weave of harmony, dissonance and percussiveness that at times recalls the genius of Cecil Taylor. All of this without ever indulging in cold academicism, instead allowing a profound emotional undercurrent to emerge fully. (Peppe Trotta)


Luca Longobardi – Plume (2017, Paralleli)

A classically trained pianist, Luca Longobardi likes to weave together different musical languages in his work. “Plume” is his most clearly defined work in terms of both language and intensity, a cathartic journey undertaken in response to a painful event. Admirable is the balanced blend of electronics and piano, in the service of delicately drawn compositions distinguished by their constantly evolving textures. Throughout the album, luminous melodic dances (“Eleven Lives”) alternate seamlessly with placid textures steeped in deep lyricism (“Quel che resta della notte”), through which Longobardi sketches feelings as unwieldy as a whale, rendered as light as a balloon, and perfectly captured by the cover artwork designed by Anna Forlati and art-directed by Alessandro D'Angeli. (Peppe Trotta)

Valentina Casesa – KI (2018, Almendra Music)

A commendable solo debut from an artist whose art feeds on the vital energy that springs from sensing the vibrations coming from every element we come into contact with. On “KI” Valentina Casesa translates these into piano work laced with targeted electronic intrusions, made of resonant flows that alternate moments of gentle, enveloping calm with decisive, emphatic emotional surges. Her gaze is fixed on the present, but with the awareness of someone who has thoroughly探ored the past — and as proof of that, the musician chooses to place alongside her original compositions a few pieces by masters dear to her, such as Tōru Takemitsu, Dimitri Nicolau and Ottorino Respighi. A revitalising of memory that, alongside the expansion of her own language fostered by collaborations, projects toward a future in constant flux. (Peppe Trotta)

Laura Masotto – Fireflies (2019, Lady Blunt)

There aren't many modern classical records for solo violin. In this narrow niche, Verona-born violinist Laura Masotto is truly one of our country's finest talents, emerging as a solo artist after her collaborations with the band Maschere di Clara. Her debut “Fireflies” is a small, abstract, ethereal gem in the modern classical discography, with undeniable moments of stasis and ecstasy, as in the ten long minutes of “The Forest” – with viola and cello tuned to 432 Hz – a minimalist sublimation of the attempt to link sound to nature's frequencies. Violin loops layered on top of one another explore sonic matter in a poetic way, with only a loose tie to classical music, standing much closer to a modern vision of the instrument. At times melodies emerge that could fit on a Max Richter record (“Back Home”, “Magnolia”), but more often it's an abstract vision of sound that powerfully takes over. (Valerio D’Onofrio)


Enten Hitti – Via Lattea (2022, Seahorse Recordings)

Enten Hitti, the project of Milanese duo Pierangelo Pandiscia and Gino Ape, must be counted among the most adventurous and, sadly, most overlooked ventures in Italian experimental music. Formed in Milan in 1996, they immediately showed a strong affinity for spirituality and transcendence, clearly linking the Eastern world to the Western one in a sense of the sacred with no god or ideology to impose by force. Their special live performances remain unforgettable, particularly the wonderfully original sleeping concerts (shows running from midnight to dawn, in which the listener turns up in a sleeping bag and can listen, meditate or fall asleep, only to wake up later on), offering what may be a definitive Enian take on music to be listened to, or not listened to. Among their albums, we recommend “Via Lattea“, an LP that keeps a constant balance between the mystical spirituality of Popol Vuh and the neoclassicism of Dead Can Dance. Among the twelve tracks, steeped in a secular religiosity, the title track stands out, opening with a minimal single repeated note (almost like Terry Riley’s “In C”), as does “Compassion Of A Star” (featuring the voices of Claudio Milano and Paola Tagliaferro), an apotheosis of emotion and balance, a poetic vertigo for two voices. (Valerio D’Onofrio)

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