Franco Battiato on music, meditation, and cinema in 2007 interview

In a 2007 interview for Cyberzone (issue 21), Franco Battiato discussed his views on popular and experimental music, mysticism, and the role of art. He recalled his relationship with Karlheinz Stockhausen, who invited him to study composition after realizing Battiato could not read musical notation. Battiato credited Stockhausen with motivating him to complete a decade's worth of composition study in three years. He distinguished between high and low music, asserting that high music contains codes of superior existence. On silence, he differentiated between perception with and without thought, likening the latter to the Tibetan concept of empty space. He contrasted his silence with John Cage's, calling Cage's approach Dadaist with only a hint of Zen. Battiato traced his spiritual journey from Aurobindo and Yogananda through Hinduism and Sufism to Buddhism, stating that music saved him from existential confusion. He argued that artists should not address social issues in their work, though as a man he would confront figures like George W. Bush. Regarding his film 'Musikanten,' he defended his belief in reincarnation and criticized film critics as insular clans using self-satisfied language. He dismissed most Italian cinema as box-office driven and stereotypical, preferring art dissociated from conventional narratives.