How did Kafka’s story and your composition mix to create Songs&Voices?
Kafka’s story touches on some aspects of classical mythology, taken to their extreme consequences. In particular, it shows the excess embodied by absence. Reding it, I felt some poetic resonance with the music I had in mind, which came to be as Songs&Voices.

How did you develop ‘subtraction’ in your investigation on songless voice and voiceless song?
Technically, this takes place on several levels and in several ways, all regarding voice in its depth: voice as instrumental body, the vibrating body as instrument, the ability of sound itself to ‘sing’… then, a reflection on how every single minute aspect of sound suggests or disillusions the presence or absence of a given instrumental or vocal identity. Symbolically, I think that the figure of the Sirens, which in Kafka’s story mark a place of extreme limit, may well represent this transition towards the unknown, the border, the frontier. The border, in the classical world, may also be the one separating the living and the dead. The ultimate sense of this music is, in fact, being a eulogy and a monument to my beloved younger sister, who died all too early.

Your work with the Neue Vocalsolisten, who, like you, have been awarded the Silver Lion. How did it all begin?
To meet and work together have been establishing moments in my research work. We just needed to work on the finest details. With the Neuevocalsolisten, we saw eye to eye from day one. We had a common intent to finesse every last detail of every single sound.

How has the work of the modern music composer been influenced by the introduction of electronic elements?
In my case, the use of electronic instruments took place, and takes place, in total continuity with my compositional practice. I rarely ever, or barely, change acoustic sound with electronic digital post-production. I would say that the two aspects I care about the most are, on one side, research the implications of amplification and diffusion that may allow us to access parts of the sound that would otherwise be submersed, obscure, lost in acoustic arrangement to the point the internal balance of the sound is subverted and we might not even recognize the sound as such; on the other side, the use of tools as a workshop for ideas, not sounds. I am particularly interested in exploring, using electronic instruments, abstract, though crucial, aspects of composition like harmony (for example, using complex microtonal temperaments) o temporal writing. In this view, the electronic tool as I use it will rarely produce sound that loudspeaker may reproduce.

How and how much did composition change for you, from your early days to today? How does the future look like?
In some respects, my practice as a composer changed very little, starting with this need I have always been feeling of exploring harmony and time in music. I can easily say that everything that changed is how far did I go in that direction. In other respects, the way I organize projects and my disposition towards composition changed radically, though this is the result of spiritual experiences that life keeps throwing at us. In my case, that did make quite a bit of difference.

What would you say to a fellow composer looking to work in this professional and artistic sector?
I would advise them to be as demanding as they can in their search for their own artistic truth, following their path any place it leads.