The Veneto Jazz-produced festival of contemporary and electronic music, Nu Fest, lists two events in Venice for the month of April, on the 6th and 29th: a concert by the Solaris project (Giorgio Li Calzi, Manuel Zigante) at Fondaco dei Tedeschi and one by Impro Brain Sound Pod (Paolo Dellapiana, Valeria Sturba) at Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi. An architect and electronic music producer, Paolo Dellapiana is a known character in the international experimental music scene, and had once been in the line-up of cult band Larsen. For Nu Fest, Dellapiana authored a new project together with singer and poly-instrumentalist Valeria Sturba. Electro-acoustic instruments, complex, custom-assembled modular systems provide the duo with the power they need to push their research forward in the world of avant-garde sound. On stage, an original light cone will house the performance. Both with Larsen and individually, Dellapiana took his music around the world on long tours. He shared the stage with international legends such as di Einsturzende Neubauten, Swans, Neurosis, Breach, Crash Worship, Ulan Bator, Michael Gira, My Cat Is An Alien, Allun, Ronin, The Living Jarboe, Backworld, Xiu Xiu, Thalia Zedek, Dresden Dolls, Amber Asylum, Current 93, Johann Johannsson, Baby Dee, Fovea Hex, Piano Magic, The Dead Texan. Since 2021, he is resident producer at Centrale Fies. Valeria Sturba is a composer, singer, and instrumentalist. Graduated in violin, she also plays the theremin, keyboards, synthesizer, loopers, and other sound gadgets. She participated in many international festivals such as Umbria Jazz, Electromagnetica (Chile), B-Classic (Belgium), Dong! (Denmark), Tectonics (Scotland), Dancity, RoBOt; and worked with Tristan Honsinger, Ernst Reijseger, Enrico Gabrielli e Calibro35, Stefano Bollani, John De Leo, Cristina Donà, Stefano Benni, Hamid Drake, Lino Guanciale, Anna Maria Hefele, Giancarlo Schiaffini, among others.

Solaris, at Fondaco dei Tedeschi on April 6, two musical itineraries converge on a common territory inspired by Tarkovsky’s film. The project came to be in 1986, when Zigante’s cello and Li Calzi’s electro-acoustic trumpet met and created a modern re-hash of classic Bach and Artemyev. Manuel Zigante founded the Quartetto d’Archi di Torino under the guidance of Piero Fanulli (Quartetto Italiano) and composer Gyorgy Kurtág. Giorgio Li Calzi is a composer, trumpet player, and producer as well as a cultural promoter and director of art performances. He wrote jingles for FIAT and Birra Moretti, music for theatre and dance performances, and played with Wolfgang Flür (Kraftwerk), Lenine, Jon Balke, Marconi Union, among others.