Pursuing Art: The Many Hats of Raffaele Pezzella

Italian sound artist Raffaele Pezzella is a very busy fellow. In addition to his long-running Sonologyst project, he runs his own music & printing label, and curates underground electronic and experimental compilations across the globe, in addition to other musical side projects. Truly one obsessed with spreading varied forms of art across the globe, M[m] was able to sit down with this champion of the arts to discuss his projects, influences, and possible challenges he faces with his expansive interests.

 
M[m]: Your project Sonologyst has been active for quite a while and has evolved wonderfully over time. What were your main influences when starting your project and what is currently inspiring you?

Raffaele The origin of the Sonologyst project dates back to the late 90s, after I attended a two-year course in sound technique and electronic music. My first EP Memorie Elettroniche Sonore was released by the English label Peoplesound at the end of the year 2000. For many years I didn't make music, and then picked up where I left off with the new name of Sonologyst in 2012.

My first musical reference points were Brian Eno's ambient music and the experimentation by pioneers of electronic and concrete music (Stockhausen, Nono, Henry, etc ..). Over the years other influences have stratified such as that of Jon Hassell from whom I learned to conceive improvisation in a "vertical" way, that is, according to an oriental rather than a Western approach. Today I can say that, after ten years of work, I no longer have a particular reference or, if I want to look for one, it is in my own music of the past years, with respect to which I try to work out a further development path.

 

 

 
M[m]: What are the origins of the Sonologyst name?

Raffaele The name comes from the title of a Clock DVA song, "The Sonology Of Sex" from the album "Buried Dreams". I loved that word and it’s meaning a study of sound in a variety of disciplines. I then added the "t" to the word Sonology to indicating I’m behind the project.

 

M[m]: You mention Brian Eno was a key influence- was there a particular album that impacted you, and do you have a favourite period of his work?

Raffaele The Brian Eno album that I loved the most is undoubtedly "On Land" from 1982. A seminal record, the quintessence of the dark ambient and bible for anyone who wants to know the origins of this musical genre. 40 years ago this record contained practically all the elements of what would become a musical genre in its own right: the lack of rhythm, drone music, subtle or impalpable melodies, the overlapping of numerous layers etc .. With "On Land” Eno invented the dark ambient well before anyone else took their first steps in that area. Just as he invented world music with the"Possible Musics"  albums which he collaborated with Jon Hassell (another great master of twentieth-century music), and "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" where he collaborated with David Byrne, also a seminal album, among the most important works of contemporary music ever. Those are three albums I would recommend to anyone who wants to understand why electronic and electro-acoustic music is produced in a certain way today.

 

 
M[m]: Has there been any new tech/gear that has developed since you've started recording that you cannot imagine living without?

Raffaele  Well, when I started studying sound technique and electronic music at the end of the 90s, practically all the key tech currently used(hard disc recording software, analogues and software synths, plugins etc ..) already existed. Over time they have developed enormously, but I can't say that there are some really new ones that I couldn't do without.

 

M[m]: On your latest album, Interdimensional, you explore a very abstract concept dealing with the very remote future of the human species. Do you find it easier to compose to these types of concepts vs art and literature?

Raffaele  Actually, since my early sound experimentations I never imagined making music that was not related to other forms of art and culture that I love (cinema, literature, visual arts, science and philosophy). Initially when I started the  Sonologyst project I wanted to create imaginary sonic documentaries referring to those worlds. This probably goes back, not having received a standard musical education, and being self-taught. I never felt the need to work specifically in a musical language, but I have always had strong suggestions and inspiration coming from my listening to music and my readings and visions of films, documentaries etc ..). In some way, my project could be considered belonging to the tradition of the Italian library music that flourished in the 70s, though much more focused on electronic experimentation rather than on established musical genres like jazz, rock, classical etc... the way it was in the case of the 70's Italian masters.

 

 

 M[m]: You've now put out a few releases on Cold Spring- how did you first get introduced to the label, and how did you start working together?

Raffaele  I was contacted by the head of Cold Spring, Justin Mitchell, probably around 2017. Justin appreciated some music I had published till then on the Sonologyst Bandcamp page, and he asked me if I could be interested to have an album published on his label, which I was very honoured to have. So I made a final version of the album "Silencers. A Conspiracy Theory" and in 2018 it was published on Cold Spring. Since then we had an inspiring collaboration that is still going on. I'll be always thankful to Justin for recognizing my music among so many projects around. We released together three albums that are a very important part of the whole work I did in terms of music.

 

M[m]: you talk about the project being in the tradition of Italian library music- what names do you see as key to the scene of the 70s, and do you have favourite releases/ track in this genre you advise checking out?

Raffaele   It is not easy to pick a few favourite names as the ranks of Italian composers of library music and film soundtracks is huge. But if you ask me to name a few, along with some reference records, I'd tell you:

 Egisto Macchi - "Il Deserto"

Giuliano Sorgini - "Africa Oscura"

Lesiman - "The Future Sound Of Lesiman"

 
They are much less well-known musicians than others such as Ennio Morricone, Piero Umiliani etc .., but probably much closer to the type of sound we are linked to. In particular, Egisto Macchi was part of the GINC project (Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) of which Morricone was also part, and in addition to the musical works composed in that project, he was the author of countless sound comments for documentaries and broadcasts for RAI (Italian Public Radio and Television). Also, he established, in 1967, the Studio R7, a laboratory for experimental music in Rome.

 

 

M[m]: As for art and literature, you founded and run the label and publishing house, Eighth Tower, which has put out some truly amazing compilations. When being inspired by another's art, do you find you hear and feel what you want to record while experiencing it or does this come after you decide you want to pay tribute to the piece? How does your composition process differ between art that springs directly from you versus that which is done in tribute/inspiration? (if any)
 

Raffaele  Those are two rather different issues. If we talk about my creative process, it is difficult for me to understand if the desire to pay a tribute to some work of art or human thought arises first, or if it’s first the intention to create music after I have appreciated that work. Both things are probably true at the same time. With the Eighth Tower publications, however, it is certainly the first case. When you have to give an editorial imprint to a label that publishes records and books based on themes regarding a certain genre of culture, you have to plan the projects well in advance. The ideas are therefore based on the knowledge accumulated over the decades, or sometimes from the discovery of something completely new to me, but in any case, everything is more coordinated and planned than in the case of my personal creative process; there the instinct plays a more important role. Sometimes the two needs meet each other, as it happened with the Yog-Sothoth project, an anthology of horror stories inspired by the Lovecraftian deity of Yog-Sothoth that I’m going to publish shortly. That anthology was planned in the series of dark fiction books, but I loved so much the Lovecraft Mythos that before to publish the book I made a full album with the same title under the moniker of “The Great Old Ones” (published on Eighth Tower), and I had a lot of fun to do it. This is an example of a project I work on just because I loved it.

 

 
M[m]: Eighth Tower has started publishing books in addition to CDs. Has printing books presented any unexpected challenges that releasing CDs hadn't prepared you for?

Raffaele  Well, although there are some elements in common, those are two completely different jobs just because music and literature, in this case narrative, are quite different means of expression. Without going deep into an analysis of the differences between the two means, which would take us very far in the discourse, certainly the first difficulty I encountered concerns the selection of the material to be approved. For example, let's take the case of an anthology. To listen to a song and decide if it can be part of a themed compilation of the Eighth Tower, you can take a few minutes, while reading a single story and evaluate whether or not to include it in a collection of stories, it may need several hours, depending on the length of the tale. In addition, about post-production I personally take care of the mastering of the music tracks, while for the editing of the stories I have to turn to a person from UK or US, considering that my English would not be up to a job like that.

 
 

 
M[m]: In 2015, you started the Unexplained Sounds Group, which does an amazing job at showcasing experimental music scenes from all over the world. What was the genesis for this project? How do you discover new, unheard scenes from other areas of the world?

Raffaele  The "Sound Mapping" project of experimental electronic and electroacoustic music stems from the approach I used in the creation of the Unexplained Sounds Group label. I was not interested in developing yet another label that regularly produces and releases records by more or less interesting artists. Instead, I wanted to create something alive, which was constantly changing. So, I started from social networking and through word of mouth I nurtured hundreds of contacts with musicians from all over the world, working on the "regional" compilations, the radio streaming program, and the publications of the annual reports, in an attempt to constantly and fluidly document what’s happening in the world of "other" music. I don't know how successful this strategy has been so far; it's not up to me to judge my own work, but that is the basic idea. Now I know that you guys at Musique Machine liked it :)

 
M[m]: As well as your sonic endeavours- do have any other artistic outputs- be it writing your own literature, or painting/ drawing- if so could you detail these?

Raffaele  When I was very younger, I wrote a series of short stories, while more recently I dedicated myself for a period to industrial collage, taking care of some album covers of the ZeroK label, and of my side project RhaD. I would like to return to writing sooner or later and in particular to write short stories in collaboration with my fellow writers, experimenting with storytelling techniques similar to those used when composing a piece of music in collaboration with another remote musician. I think that kind of approach can lead to very interesting and unpredictable creative twists in the development of a short story.

 

 

M[m]: both your project and label are very influenced by literature. Please could you discuss a few of your favourite books/ stories? And please explain why they impacted you?

Raffaele  Certainly one of the books that opened my mind to a new way of conceiving literature and art, in general, was "Naked Lunch" by W. S. Burroughs. I read that book in 1992 and I remember it was quite a revelation to find that things "could have been done differently" in terms of art. Extrapolating that lesson by bringing it into my musical listening was a short and fundamental step. Subsequently I must say that I have increasingly approached the form of the short story because synthesis and conciseness are aspects that I prefer in a work, especially literary. During the latest decades my favorite authors have been J. L. Borges, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Dürrenmatt , E.A. Poe, J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, Joe R. Lansdale, Thomas Ligotti, and H.P. Lovecraft. In particular, of the latter I am studying in depth the so-called Cthulhu cycle, a complex of a dozen stories in which Lovecraft has created a universe dominated by forces that are incomprehensible to us, a world in which the human species has no hope of salvation. To this Lovecraftian universe, I am dedicating a series of musical and fiction publications on the Eighth Tower label, including the re-issue of the compilation "Nyarlathotep. A Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, a tape previously published in 1997 by the Portuguese label Kadath. What I find most interesting about Lovecraft's work is the fact that, beyond the recovery and re-evaluation of its writing, and the great interest that the younger generations have in its narrative world (which is a world that has been further developed in the work of countless writers who have continued the stories of Cthulhu around the world in recent decades), is the fact that its cosmic horror is also the subject of investigation by many philosophers of so-called contemporary nihilist thought, particularly in the US. It is odd, at least, that Lovecraft is listed by many of these thinkers in a list that includes Shopenhauer and Kirkegaard, when the author of Providence had no intention of creating a philosophical thought, and was even the first to underestimate his work, preferring to devote himself to edit other writers manuscripts, rather than to write his own stories.

 

M[m]: Where do you see Sonologyst, Eighth Tower, and Unexplained Sounds Group in twenty years?

Raffaele This is a very complex question, especially since the projects you have listed are very different from each other and potentially have different consequences and perhaps unlike durations. I obviously hope they all survive long term. With Eighth Tower I recently created an online magazine of "dark culture" on the Patreon platform (https://www.patreon.com/eighthtower), in order to have a more constant and direct contact with my followers who love the project in its entirety (records, books, interviews, reviews, podcasts on topics that affect music, cinema, fiction etc ..). This platform will become the collector of all Eighth Tower activities over the next years.

For the Unexplained Sounds Group I have several projects in mind for the future, but if we want to project ourselves twenty years from now, it could probably be nice to direct an Unexplained Sounds Festival in my city and curate seminars for musicians and small publishers. At that time probably my best resource could be to share my experience with other people to help them in developing projects.



Finally, for Sonologyst and my side projects like The Great Old Ones, I don't have many doubts. Not being able to live without having my own creative musical space, I believe that in twenty years you will always find me playing with electronic instruments and equipment in search of possible unexplained sounds.



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A huge thanks to Raffaele Pezzella for the time spent with these questions and all the work he does to spread art and awareness all over the world.

Sonologyst - https://sonologyst.bandcamp.com/

Eighth Tower Records - https://eighthtowerrecords.bandcamp.com/