A drop in the ocean of time; a wave cascading through the body: since her breakthrough album Patterns of Consciousness ( Important Records, 2017), Italian composer Caterina Barbieri has used vivid modular synthesis to explore how sound can induce both metaphysical and psycho-physical responses in the listener. Subsequent albums have been met with growing critical acclaim: the razor-sharp rave melodies of Ecstatic Computation (Editions Mego, 2019); then Spirit Exit (light-years, 2022) which incorporated a “bigger universe of sounds”^[1] — strings and guitar — while emphasising the potent dualities at the heart of Barbieri’s compositions: monumental and intimate, pristine and dense, unerringly futuristic yet capable of evoking a deep primeval energy. An important evolution of her music, Spirit Exit was described by critics as “incantatory and beautiful^[2]” and a “record of spellbinding songcraft.^[3]”

However, Barbieri’s probing electronics have never been contained by the album format. Her practise, informed by an education in classical guitar and electro-acoustic composition at the Conservatory of Bologna and Stockholm’s famed centre for sound art, Elektronmusikstudion, relies on live performance as means of compositional development, growing each song in front of an audience, and in a unique space, as if it is a “living organism.”^[1] This is how the tracks on Patterns of Consciousness and Ecstatic Computation were written, gradually assuming a sweeping, crystalline form over the course of many months. The latter was hailed by Pitchfork as a “dreamachine for the ears,^[2]” describing Barbieri as a master of “entrancing listeners.^[2]”

In just a few short years Barbieri has played a slew of the world's most important music festivals, from Unsound and Atonal to Primavera Sound and Sonar, and has presented her work at prestigious venues including London's Barbican Centre, Biennale di Venezia, Haus Der Kunst in Münich, Berlin’s Volksbühne, Mexico City’s Museo Anahuacalli, Ruhrtriennale, Philarmonie de Paris and Festival de Cannes, among many others.

2022’s Spirit Exit full artistic vision was realised across a series of ambitious live performances in collaboration with visual artist Ruben Spini and lighting designer and scenographer Marcel Weber, where digital projection, fabric, and fog are meticulously arranged to create an event of “mythological” proportions, one in which Barbieri and her iridescent music appeared to exist at the threshold of a new dawn.

In 2023, Barbieri turned her attention to Myuthafoo, a suite of compositions recorded at the same time as Ecstatic Computation and using the same creative sequencing processes for her modular synthesiser. The composer regards it as a “sister album” with Resident Advisor calling the album an “enormous, intimidating, completely enveloping work.^[4]” Like Spirit Exit and a reissue of Ecstatic Computation, it was released on Barbieri’s light-years label, not only a home for her own music but a platform for kindred, avant-garde spirits, including saxophonist Bendik Giske, techno producer Nkisi, and avant-pop artist Lyra Pramuk.

Just as Barbieri keeps a diverse group of collaborators, her music exists amid many different lineages. It is in conversation with twentieth-century composers such as Éliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, and Laurie Spiegel, women who pushed electronic music into deeply psychological and psychedelic spaces. So too has it won support from cutting-edge musicians like Aphex Twin and Björk. Like those artists, Barbieri creates her own sonic universe, audible in each infinitesimal synth blip to crescendo of resplendent cosmic awe, her music having the effect of almost sling-shotting the listener through space itself.

Barbieri’s work is ultimately rooted by her own philosophy, what she describes as “radical immanence.^[5]” This refers to sound hitting the ear, getting transduced into electrical impulses, and the listener vibrating with the air around them — thus connecting with their immediate environment in hitherto unexpected ways. She says it is also a means of uniting the “physical world with the metaphysical, the material and immaterial.” ^[6] With every polyrhythmic pulse and euphoria-inducing trance sequence, the idea becomes clearer, simultaneously anchoring the listener in a single moment while awakening in them the sprawling expanse of time.

Academia

Prior to and concurrently with her early music career, Caterina studied electroacoustic composition as well as classical guitar at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna, in which she earned a bachelor's and master's degree, respectively. She has also earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Bologna with a thesis in ethnomusicology about Hindustani classical music and minimalism.

Music career

Caterina's work explores consciousness and the psychoacoustic effects of repetition. Most of her compositions make use of modular synthesis, and she was first inspired by the Buchla 200, though she has stated she is less interested in the hardware and prefers to focus on the music itself.^[7] She is often cited as a minimalist composer and takes a no-frills approach towards composition.^[8][9] In 2020 she composed the soundtrack for John and the Hole, which was selected for that year's Cannes film festival.^[10][11]

In July 2021 she announced the launch of her independent label, light-years.^[12] In April 2022 she released the single "Broken Melody" and announced her fifth album Spirit Exit, which was released on July 8, 2022.^[13] Recorded during the first two months of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Milan, the album is also the first in her solo work to feature strings, guitar, and vocals in addition to synthesizer.^[14] Critics noted that Spirit Exit was also more taut and condensed in sound compared to previous albums, owing to its development occurring in her home studio.^[15]

Discography

References