Elia Piana's new album samples tribal instruments from a Brescia gallery's hidden collection

Italian musician Elia Piana (born 1990 in Gardone Val Trompia) released his new album "Sotto l’albero tutto si copre" on October 19, 2024, via Greek label Dasa Tapes. The album features fifteen short, intense tracks built from samples of ethnic instruments from the private collection of geologist Carlo Fasser, stored in the basement of Galleria dell’Incisione in Brescia, directed by Fasser's wife Chiara Padova. Piana discovered the collection through the gallery's director Caterina, Fasser and Padova's daughter. The album title quotes a haiku by Matsuo Bashō about hidden beauty. Piana recorded the instruments instinctively without tuning, then manipulated the sounds using electronic devices including Monome Norns, Ciat Lonbarde Cocoquantus 2, Plumbutter 2, and a small modular synthesizer. The cassette format was chosen by the label for limited editions. Piana has previously worked with museums such as GAMEC in Bergamo and Centro Arti Multiculturali Etnosociale in Brescia. With singer Claudia Ferretti, he sonified works by sculptor Giuseppe Rivadossi and ceramicist Giuseppe Messinese at Musil, the Iron Museum of Brescia. In 2021, he collaborated with musician Alessandro Pedretti to sonify the permanent installation "Molecole" by sculptor Milena Berta in Capo di Ponte. Piana remains skeptical of AI in music, preferring emotion and spirituality.