Italian musician and producer Stefano Guzzetti recently released his new album Hexa. With a more electronic sound made with hardware synths, Hexa is a journey towards an ideal place for humanity. We had the chance to have a talk with Stefano during Christmas holidays.
Hi Stefano, your name appeared many times on SOM, so it was natural to talk with you about your new album and your musical career. Starting from Hexa, the delicacy I found in its sound stroke my attention because it gives the songs a state of grace. Why did you look for this delicacy in this album?
I had Hexa in mind for a long time; I wanted a further step in the union among piano, strings and electronics, more than in the previous Lumen. It was important to use old and new hardware synths, every sound is generated by a machine in my studio. Hexa is linked to eighties because from my 11 to 15 years I used to program computers to make them play and the sounds in Hexa are typical of a certain electronic made with machines like Yamaha DX7. So it is a tribute to that period of my life, to that musical aesthetics in harmony with my contemporary piano sounds. It is also a journey to a better place, far from the situation we are living now. It is not escapism, it is a reflection about being “better places” as humans. The space journey is a metaphor and you can find spatial sounds and tracks like “Collision” in which a rocket explodes. This is why the choice of delicate sounds and the bursting grace. Taking the best sounds of the past to imagine the future, like Interpol did in their first two albums, masterpieces of the post punk renaissance.
In Hexa piano lines are crucial, what is your relationship with piano and how much is it important for you?
I usually compose on piano, sometimes I start from a certain sound but it is not the rule. So it is very important for me. This year I will release a track every month, as a diary, it will be called Piano Diary and finally it will become an album: they are all piano compositions. As a child I studied organ, only afterwards I embraced a bass guitar for my post punk adventures but piano remains my point of reference. I like to play piano removing the mute and I use it as one of the many timbres at my disposal.
“The Perfect Coma” evokes tension, with metallic sounds: what about this track?
We don’t live in an ideal world, life is made of tensions and moments of happiness. Those strident sounds are very interesting and perfect for a track called “The Perfect Coma”. It is the state of ecstasy present also in suffering, a limbo from which something lighter can start. To be appreciated life needs those moments of coma, in their function of preparing something different. It is an invitation to appreciate our lives. This is something close to moments of meditation, in which silence is central.
What is your source of inspiration in composing your music?
I grew up listening to classic music, years before this modern classic hype. In the 80s and 90s some musicians played the music that now is trendy, like the English avantgarde. I used to listen to Wim Mertens, Michael Nyman (thanks to Peter Greenaway’ movies), Arvo Part. They were not considered classic, they were contemporary: musicians like Max Richter started playing music of the American and English minimalists. I used to listen to them along with Brian Eno and Sakamoto and I dreamt to play it with real instruments. Now I can play the music I always wanted to.
What is your relationship with the instrumental panorama represented by musicians like Fennesz, a kind of music more related to noises and glitch?
I studied electronic music at music academy and in the beginning when I composed with my computer I created electronic music. So it is a close relationship. In Hexa you find “From The Cabin”, in which there is a lunar sound which is, appropriately modified, my fridge! I also teach sound design for movies at University of Cagliari (Italy) so treating sound material for me is natural. Sounds and light are made of frequencies, every sound contains a group of frequencies and sounds in nature are often notes, so everything is sound.
You are also part of rock band Antennah: which was the meaning of your reunion after 20 years and what were your feelings?
It was beautiful to be together after so many years and it was like time hadn’t passed by. After founding the band, when the band signed for Consorzio Produttori Indipendenti I left, because I had electronic music in my mind. I felt free to do my own things but on the other hand there was a little bit of regret. So when we met again and realized that there was the same energy it was a very enjoyable surprise. Sparkle, the new Ep, is the product of this new adventure and we have new material that we are looking forward to share.
You are the owner of 2020editions, what are your goals with this label?
My goal is primarily to release my own music. Music industry has changed so much that this label for me as an independent artist is essential. I see myself as a craftsman and I like to do everything by myself. When I think it is worth it, then I decide to produce other’s music. I like to underline that in 2020editions I collaborate with Chris Bigg, the graphic of 4AD, who gives a precise aesthetics to my releases.
What is your recent favorite music and what are your next projects?
I spend my days composing music so I listen to music only when doing something else. Anyway, my favorites of recent years are Hikari by Ian Hawgood and the beautiful Ex:Re by Elena Tonra from the band Daughter. My next projects are an orchestral arrangement of Hexa, which will be released for Mute Records, the Piano Diary I mentioned before and an album with Luca Bergia from Marlene Kuntz. So it will be a pleasure to stay in touch with SOM.
