music
Spirals and spirituality, palindromes, the “Golden Circle” – the circle of perfection of the Fibonacci sequence – and even the Ouroboros, the serpent that eats its own tail, in an infinite cycle where beginning and end intertwine. These are the concepts Italian guitarist, composer and electroacoustic researcher Stefano Pilia explores on his third and latest solo album Spiralis Aurea. After a visit to Futa Pass, the largest war cemetery in Italy – which contains the remains of over 30,000 German soldiers killed in the country during the Second World War – Pilia began to reflect on the meanings behind the geometry of the site; a place “shot through” with thoughts of landscape, history, symbols and rituals.
Over the past two decades, Pilia has stood out as one of the most innovative and singular artists in Italian experimental music. Born in Genoa and based in Bologna, since the early 2000s he has been exploring the sculptural properties of sound and its association with space, memory and the suspension of time. For this new record he has assembled a set of fine instrumentalists to help him explore the concepts of sacred geometry. Highlights include Adrian Utley and Alessandra Novaga, who accompany Pilia in the performance of Spiralis Aurea.
Adrian Utley is a renowned English musician and producer, recognised as the guitarist for the trip hop band Portishead. As a producer, he has recorded artists such as Jeff Beck, Alain Bashung and Perfume Genius. Alessandra Novaga is a guitarist from Milan with classical training who, in recent years, has explored the more experimental side of composition and improvisation with the guitar.
