Stasi (first study on Jakob Ullmann’s Horos Meteoros)
Prompted by the compositional techniques of Jakob Ullmann and the throat singing of the Inuit populations, Fonassi establishes the conditions of the vocal performance of two performers – Letizia Fiorenza and David Sautter – in the recording room: the two vocalists are induced to constantly maintain a single key, opposing his imbalance. The static horizon generated by the convergence of the two vocal forces in a point of mutual balance, continuously threatened by imbalances and predominances, is carved out according to the parameters of spectrographic analysis and a process of filtering the stereo signal.
Performed in studio by Letizia Fiorenza and David Sautter.
Singers are asked to maintain a certain tune for the total duration of 50’.
Mixed and processed on AudioSculpt by Francesco Fonassi with the technical assistance of Marco Liuni (IRCAM); produced by Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, on May, 2013.
Stasi (First Study on Jakob Ullmann’s Horos Meteoros), Pièce for two voices and spectrographic signal processing, polaroid series, stereo, 50’, 2013
Fig. 1 — Stasi, installation view at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013
Fig. 2 — Stasi, listening setting at DOCVA Viafarini, Milan, 2013
Francesco Fonassi (b. 1986, Italy) is a sonic artist, independent researcher, musician, sound designer/producer working in the field of sound based performances, transmission/transmedial art and experimental music since 2006.
His work, developed through actions, recordings, environmental configurations, radio transmissions, listening sessions, sculptural prototypes, installations and the creation of audiovisuals/sensory spaces, has been featured in institutions, museums, festivals and independent spaces in Europe, Asia and United States.
Since 2018 he co-runs and co-directs Spettro, an independent venue/research sound lab/radio platform/club in Brescia (Italy), part of a big network of sound artists and musicians across Europe.
Forming a primarily ethical relationship with knowledge and with others, the work of Francesco Fonassi acts on the dynamics of perception, forcing reality to clash with the devices of separation and interaction that are implied by and express a general feeling. He does this by focusing on the human tendencies to submit or react to forms of aggression and isolation, interruption and duration, through the experience of listening, which he takes as a threshold on which to explore relationships of activity and passivity, and beyond which to trace out realms of co-belonging. Linking together different form of knowledge, Fonassi designs the space for a multitude of subjects that are no longer passive, both perceiving and perceived, susceptible to developing ways of holding together and resisting inclusion in a self-sufficient whole, be it acoustic or social.
He’s half of the experimental music duo Interlingua and 1/3rd of the electronic trio Chorus Abstracta.