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Minus is a collective dedicated to exploring new artistic languages at the intersection of improvisation, electroacoustic music, multimedia and performing arts. Active since 2017, it develops practices and performances aimed at redefining and spatially extending improvisational processes, placing listening and the relationships between performers at the core of its work. The name Minus reflects a precise aesthetic stance: subtracting in order to create space, identity and community.
Influenced by electroacoustic and avant-garde practices, the collective focuses on the construction of flexible forms through predetermined structures and complex interaction systems. Within this framework, it explores the boundaries of electroacoustic improvisation through a multimedia approach, engaging in dialogue with other expressive forms such as dance, theatre and audiovisual art. The ensemble operates as an open platform and has collaborated over the years with artists from a wide range of disciplines.
Over the years, Minus has developed and presented projects in partnership with theatres, research centres, festivals, and cultural institutions, benefiting from commissions, production support, residencies, and hosting programmes. Its collaborators and partners include Societas Teatro Comandini, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Bologna Modern, Tempo Reale, FontanaMIX Ensemble, Curva Minore, Orobie Residenze Artistiche, among others.
Members
Federico Pipia
Composer, director, sound artist and improviser, founding member of the Collective, also known as Pipya.
Currently a PhD Student in Sound and Performance Studies inside Bologna Conservatory, his field of interest are theatre, cinema and audiovisual, improvisation, acousmatic composition, performances, live electronics and music productions; he performed or developped his projects in numerous theaters, venues, international festivals and residencies (Triennale Milano, Montreux Jazz Festival, Societas Teatro Comandini, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Biondo Palermo, Compañía Nacional de Danza de España, Danza Urbana, Tempo Reale and many others) often having the opportunity to produce new works. His research focuses on the relation between sound, words, body, space, image and the combination of traditional techniques and new technologies.
Simone Faraci
Composer and improviser, founding member of the Collective, whose artistic research focuses on improvisation and experimental electronic music. He mainly composes music for sound installations, dance and theater, and his live activity spans both underground and institutional contexts, with works presented in Italy and abroad. As an improviser, he has performed with Francesco Giomi, Alvin Curran, and Giancarlo Schiaffini.
Since 2019 he has collaborated with TREE (Tempo Reale Electroacoustic Ensemble), with which he has performed numerous concerts and released albums with the French label Elli Records. His discography includes solo releases (Echo ex Machina, 2021; Mføku, 2023; [ˈfʊ.mu] 2026) as well as several albums with Minus Collettivo and TREE. He teaches Electroacoustic Music Composition at the Bologna Conservatory and is coordinator of educational activities at Tempo Reale.
Daniele Carcassi
Also known as Abo Abo, he's a sound artist, performer, composer and sound designer working between experimental music, spatial audio and live electronic performance. He often collaborates with institutions and organisations including IRCAM, Venice Biennale, Tempo Reale, Fango Radio. In 2025 his work received an honorary mention at Ars Electronica.
Since 2015, his practice has focused on the interaction between sound, space and listening, using modular synthesizers, custom multichannel systems, field recordings and electroacoustic processes. His work spans performances, installations and sound design projects presented in theatres, festivals, clubs and independent cultural spaces across Europe and Asia. Working with both synthetic and organic materials, he creates immersive sonic environments that explore movement, texture and perception through sound.
He is co-founder of DE RIO, an independent label, collective and event series dedicated to experimental and electronic music practices.
Milena Punzi Anfossi
Cellist, composer and performer working across contemporary classical music, experimental sound and audiovisual performance. Her practice integrates cello performance, electronic processing, improvisation, and visual dramaturgy, treating sound and image as a unified compositional field.
She has collaborated with artists including Nicolas Jaar, Mette Henriette, and Johan Lindvall, and has performed internationally across major European festivals and venues.
Her work spans acoustic compositions, site-specific pieces, and audiovisual performance formats, including Spheres (2024), where live cello, electronics, and visual systems interact in real time, and Tacto (2024). Her discography includes releases such as Telas (with Nicolas Jaar), Conductions – Live at Nuova Consonanza (2022), and All’improvviso – An Imaginary Soundtrack (2024).
Mattia Loris Siboni
Composer, sound artist, and musician based in Bologna. His work spans acousmatic composition, multichannel performance, and sound design for audiovisual and theatrical contexts, with a focus on spatial listening, perception, and the interaction between sound objects and environment.
His works have been presented internationally in festivals such as Cinema Ritrovato, Tempo Reale Festival, AngelicA Festival, Fondazione San Fedele and Seeyousound International Music Film Festival, among others.
Active as performer and improviser in solo and ensemble contexts, he is a member of Minus and the duo Catopter, and co-founder of Slowth Records, a label dedicated to experimental and electroacoustic music.
Giovanni Magaglio
Composer, sound artist and performer working at the intersection of electroacoustic music, live electronics and audiovisual systems, also teaching inside Firenze's Conservatory. His practice focuses on the integration of sound and image through real-time processing, combining instrumental gesture, sound design and visual computation in performance and installation contexts.
He has developed projects across theatre, multimedia performance, and site-specific audiovisual works, collaborating with institutions such as Tempo Reale, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Biennale College Musica.
Active as a performer and technical operator, he works with live electronics, audio programming, and audiovisual systems design, building custom environments for performance and research-based artistic projects. He is a founding member of the collective Minus.
Caterina Dufì
Also known as Vipera, she's an artist whose multidisciplinary practice brings together poetry, sound and voice. Her work unfolds through performative acts shaped by a dense and tactile poetic imagination, seeking heightened sensations and states of presence. Moving between songwriting and spoken-word performance, she develops works where language, sound and vocality become sites of transformation.
She has released two albums, Tentativo di volo (2021) and Acerbo e divorato (2023). In 2025 she published the artist’s book Del nostro scavo continuo, created with Emanuele Caprioli and Simone Spampinato (Amalgama Edizioni). Together with Eugenia Delbue, she forms the duo ETEREA NOISE, a spoken-music project forthcoming on ZPL.
Her texts have been published in Exit Poetry (La nave di Teseo, 2026), Poesia. Rivista internazionale di cultura poetica (Crocetti Editore, 2026) and Troppo cinici per amarci (Agenzia X, 2025). In 2024, she was awarded the Alberto Dubito Prize for Poetry and Music.
Riccardo Tesorini
https://www.riccardotesorini.com
Composer, sound designer, and multimedia artist, working across sound installations, live performances, electroacoustic composition, audiovisual productions, and projects for theatre and cinema. Always fascinated by the relationship between music and images, he began his artistic career exploring different forms of sound in space and time.
His compositions and performances have been presented in: United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Estonia and Cyprus.
His work encompasses composing music for theatre, including collaborations with playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi, soundtracks, sound design, electroacoustic projects such as Haou Nebout and Eezu, as well as the creation of sound installations and sound art.
Biagio Cavallo
Sound designer, musician and composer based in Bologna. His work spans performance, sound art and improvisation, with an expressive research practice that moves between algorithmic programming for multimedia applications and experimentation within performative and installation-based contexts. He developed custom performance environments exploring the intersection of acoustic instruments, digital processing and real-time interaction.
Alongside his solo projects playing saxophone and live electronics, he is actively involved in numerous collaborations with artists and collectives in the fields of visual arts, theatre and dance.
He has worked, performed, exhibited and collaborated with international festivals and institutions across Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, Switzerland and the U.S.
Andrea Geremia
Composer, drummer, improviser. During the years his research focused throughout the exploration of sonorities derived from an extended use of prepared drums, mixing acoustic snare, live electronics and machine learning to investigate the possibilities offered by the percussive instruments beyond the traditional terms. Lately he's been questioning the relationship between instrument and electronics, aiming to redefine the snare drum as control surface.
His academic education as electronic composer started in Rome with Michelangelo Lupone and continued in Bologna, where he studied improvisation practices with Francesco Giomi.
Interested in programming and computer science as sound tools, he also works with algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Former members
The collective counts a number of past member whose presence strongly influenced the first years of research:
Marco Giampieretti, electronic musician, founding member, inside the collective until 2021;
Niccolò Salvi, electronic musician and guitarist, founding member, inside the collective until 2024;
Matteo Pastorello, electronic musician, member until 2024, still collaborating;
Vincenzo Germano, bass player, electronic musician, member during 2018.
Selected Projects & Performances
Rustle
Description
Rustle is an audiovisual live improvisation that explores the relationship between sound, space, and environment through the concept of sound ecosystems developed by Minus Collettivo. Conceived as a site-responsive performance, the work unfolds through the continuous interaction between performers, technological systems, and the surrounding space, treating the environment not as a neutral container but as an active component of the improvisational process.
Using a multichannel spatialized sound system, electronic sounds, voices, and field recordings generate an immersive and constantly evolving sonic landscape. The audiovisual dimension extends this experience through a visual environment that combines pre-recorded materials with real-time data processing, creating shifting topographies that react to the dynamics of the performance.
Rather than presenting a fixed composition, Rustle develops as an emergent ecosystem in which sonic and visual events influence one another through processes of listening, adaptation, and transformation. Drawing from Minus Collettivo’s ongoing research into environmental and electroacoustic improvisation, the work investigates how collective action, spatial perception, and technological mediation can generate forms that arise from relationships rather than predetermined structures.
Credits
Concept – Minus Collettivo
Development – Minus Collettivo
Live Visuals – Giovanni Magaglio
Premiere – [2025] Dedans Dehors (Tempo Reale), Serra Madre, Bologna
ArounD
Description
ArounD is a site-adaptive improvisation system centered on space, movement, and listening. Each performer operates through a hybrid setup consisting of two fixed stations and one portable instrument, creating a constantly shifting network of sonic relationships across the performance area. Movement is not conceived as a theatrical gesture, but as a compositional parameter that directly influences musical interaction, proximity, and the perception of sound.
The performance unfolds through the continuous negotiation between performers and environment. As musicians move through the space, new listening perspectives emerge, altering balances, interactions, and collective decision-making processes. The physical characteristics of the site—its dimensions, acoustics, and circulation paths—become active elements of the improvisation, shaping the development of the musical form.
Rather than presenting a predetermined composition, ArounD establishes a framework of rules and relationships within which performers generate the work in real time. The project reflects Minus Collettivo’s ongoing research into collective improvisation and spatial practices, investigating how movement through space can become a catalyst for musical form and shared listening.
Credits
Concept – Simone Faraci, Federico Pipia
Development – Minus Collettivo
Agenda
[2022] PrimaVera Contemporanea, Curva Minore, Palermo
[2022] Festival Catalysi, Societas Teatro Comandini, Palermo
[2022] Rami d'Ora, Alpi Orobie, Sondrio
[2024] Collagene, D.A.S., Bologna
Havél
Description
Havél is a work of sound theatre for voice, acoustic instruments, and electronics that explores the relationship between sound, space, and presence. Premiered on 14 October 2021 in the Former Church of San Mattia in Bologna, the piece integrates both the architectural characteristics of the site and a multichannel sound diffusion system into its dramaturgical structure. Rejecting a conventional frontal stage configuration, the performance unfolds throughout the entire space, inviting the audience into an immersive listening experience in which movement, distance, and spatial perception become integral components of the work.
Drawing on verses from the biblical Qohélet, Havél develops a sonic narrative centered on themes of impermanence, transience, and cyclical return. These ideas are reflected in a sequence of distinct scenes, each characterized by its own sonic identity, spatial organization, and timbral world. Rather than following a linear development, the work progresses through a succession of contrasting situations that continuously redefine the relationship between performers, sound, and space.
At the center of the work is the voice, investigated at the intersection of theatrical performance, vocal expression, and electroacoustic transformation. Through the dialogue between the live performer and her electronic double, the voice becomes a shifting presence, moving between corporeal and mediated forms, intimacy and distance, singularity and multiplicity.
Combining elements of concert performance, theatrical action, and immersive sound installation, Havél reflects Minus Collettivo’s ongoing interest in the performative and spatial dimensions of electroacoustic practice.
Credits
Commissioned by FontanaMIX Ensemble
Dramaturgy, Sound Direction – Federico Pipia
Improvisation Coordinator – Simone Faraci
Live Electronics, Objects – Simone Faraci, Federico Pipia, Niccolò Salvi, Mattia Loris Siboni
Live Electronics, Turntable – Daniele Carcassi
Voice – Valeria Girelli
InScape/OutScape
Description
Inscape/Outscape is an improvisational practice that explores the relationship between environmental sound, human intervention, and collective listening. Developed through site-specific research and fieldwork, the project investigates how musicians can interact with an existing soundscape without simply occupying it, but rather becoming one of the forces that shape its ongoing evolution.
Drawing inspiration from ecological approaches to listening and the observation of natural sonic environments, the work focuses on the dynamic balance between endogenous sounds—those already belonging to a place—and the sounds introduced by performers. Improvisation becomes a process of negotiation in which listening, adaptation, and response take precedence over individual expression.
The project examines the threshold between musical performance and the construction of an artificial soundscape. Through the gradual emergence, transformation, and disappearance of sonic events, Inscape/Outscape treats the performance environment as a living ecosystem, where human and non-human agencies coexist and continuously influence one another. In this perspective, sound is understood not as an isolated object but as a relational phenomenon that emerges from the interaction between performers, space, and context.
Credits
Concept – Minus Collettivo
Residency – Orobie Residenze Artistiche
Time Out
Description
TIME OUT is a monthly series of free improvisation events conceived as a meeting point for musicians, sound artists and improvisation collectives from across Italy. Founded by Minus Collettivo in 2023 and hosted at Bar Modo Infoshop in Bologna, the project provides an open environment for experimentation, exchange and spontaneous collaboration.
Each session brings together one member of Minus Collettivo and a changing group of invited performers from diverse musical backgrounds, ranging from electroacoustic improvisation and radical music to noise, jazz and vocal experimentalists. With no predetermined rules, scores, or stylistic constraints, every performance develops through collective listening and real-time interaction.
Over time, TIME OUT has become a recurring gathering for Bologna’s improvised music community, fostering connections between local and visiting artists while encouraging encounters between different approaches to improvisation. More than a concert series, the project functions as an informal platform for artistic exchange, contributing to the circulation of ideas, practices and collaborations within a broader network of experimental musicians.
Credits
Concept – Federico Pipia
Performers – Minus Collettivo and invited guests
Production – Bar Modo InfoShop (Stefano Vanacore)
Guests 2023/2026 (Alphabetical) – Laura Agnusdei, Francesco Atilio, Nina Baietta, Maru Barucco, Giacomo Bertocchi, Bienoise, BlueRing, Tobia Bondesan, Domenico Bosio, Alessio Bruno, Michele Bussone, Francesco Canavese, Biagio Cavallo, Filippo Cassani, Maltempo Collettivo, Caterina Dufì, E-Cor Ensemble, Andrea Fabris, Simone Farò, Giuseppe Franchellucci, Antonio Freno, Andrea Geremia, Francesco Giomi, Simone Grande, Michael Harding, Giulia Impache, Francois Laurent, Salvatore Miele, Francesca Naibo, Mirjana Nardelli, Dino Piccinno, Marco Porcelluzzi, Milena Punzi, Matilde Sabato, Andrea Sanna, Giuseppe Sardina, Pietra Tonale, Tim Trevor-Briscoe, Christian Duka, Leonardo Vita, Giacomo Zanus, Marta Zigante
Other Projects
TRÄ(U)ME
TRÄ(U)ME is a work of sound theatre that explores the relationship between live music, video, voice, and poetry. Commissioned by Bologna Modern 2019 and premiered on 18 October 2019 at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the project was developed in collaboration with the Contemporary Poetry Center of the University of Bologna and the Teatro Galante Garrone school.
At the center of the work is an investigation of voice and language as sonic and theatrical phenomena. Acousmatic voices, invented languages, spoken texts, and poetic fragments coexist within a multilayered dramaturgy in which poetry functions not as a narrative framework but as a source of images, memories, and associations, contributing to the construction of a psychological space populated by imagined places, dreams, and relationships.
Credits
Commissioned by Bologna Modern 2019
Dramaturgy and Sound Direction — Federico Pipia
Musical Direction — Simone Faraci
Performers — Daniele Carcassi, Simone Faraci, Marco Giampieretti, Matteo Pastorello, Federico Pipia, Students from A. Galante Garrone School
Video — Elide Blind
MOSSO
MOSSO is a performance project developed through a collaboration between Minus Collettivo and Laagam, two groups engaged in improvisational practices within the fields of music and dance. Emerging from a series of encounters and collective experiments conducted during the Live Practice events organized by Laagam in Milan and Bologna, the work explores the relationship between sound and movement as a space of negotiation, reciprocity, and transformation.
Credits
Scenic Action — Laagam (Erica Meucci, Francesca Siracusa)
Sound — Minus Collettivo
CLAN
CLAN is an improvisational practice for any ensemble involving a conductor. Drawing on the tradition of conduction, the project redefines the role of the conductor by shifting attention away from musical parameters such as pitch, rhythm, texture, or dynamics and toward the intentions that shape collective improvisation and the relationships between performers. Through a system of predefined gestures, the conductor guides modes of interaction rather than sonic results. Musicians may be invited to collaborate, oppose one another, imitate, isolate themselves, establish dependencies, or attempt to redirect the course of the performance. In this framework, improvisation becomes a dynamic field of social relations in which musical form emerges from negotiation, conflict, cooperation, and collective decision-making.
Credits
Concept, conduction – Federico Pipia
Performers – Minus Collettivo and invited guests
TUTTO
TUTTO is a conceptual improvisation system based on a deck of 64 cards. Rather than prescribing specific musical actions, the cards provide simple verbal prompts that function as catalysts for interpretation, reflection, and decision-making. Each performer receives a set of cards and is free to determine how, when, or even whether to respond to their instructions.
Credits
Concept – Simone Faraci
Deck Design – Federico Pipia
Releases
CASA BASE – Slowth Records, 2021
CASA BASE is a multimedia project combining a series of video improvisations with a dedicated album release. Its core concept is a game piece: a system of controlled improvisation for musicians performing at a distance, inspired by the structure and dynamics of baseball. Developed by the members of Minus – collettivo d’improvvisazione from an idea by founding member Simone Faraci, the project was born from the need to keep making music together during a period when playing in the same space was impossible.
Baseball offered both a spatial and conceptual model. On the field, players are physically far apart and connected only by the trajectory of the ball—much like musicians exchanging musical ideas remotely as streams of data. The sport also embodies a unique notion of synchronicity: the tension between pitcher and batter hinges on instinctively calculating the ball’s latency. This delicate, almost unattainable synchrony became a key inspiration for the improvisation system behind CASA BASE.
Credits
Concept and Musical Coordination – Simone Faraci
Musicians – Daniele Carcassi, Biagio Cavallo, Simone Faraci, Giovanni Magaglio, Matteo Pastorello, Federico Pipia, Mattia Loris Siboni, Niccolò Salvi
Mixing – Giovanni Magaglio (tracks 1 & 2), Simone Faraci (track 3), Federico Pipia (track 4)
ROUND – Tempo Reale Collection, 2020
ROUND is an improvisational practice developed through the research of Minus – an improvisation collective. It is a system of rules that guides the relationships between musicians during performance, aiming to create a modular form through “construction modules” and “diversion modules.” ROUND is not a predetermined sequence of events; rather, it outlines a set of possible situations and offers performers a range of viable paths, while always leaving them free to choose.
In ROUND, the musician is invited not only to play but above all to listen—making room for others, fostering a sense of communal meaning, and avoiding the mere juxtaposition of individual contributions. When listening, one can perceive an elastic form unfolding in real time, in which different improvisational situations emerge in a continuous cycle.
Credits
Concept – Simone Faraci
Development – Minus Collettivo
Musicians – Giacomo Bertocchi (Clarinets, Alto Saxophone), Daniele Carcassi (Digital Set, Soundscapes), Filippo Cassani (Saxophones), Simone Faraci (Prepared Piano, Objects, Live Electronics, Synthesizer), Giuseppe Franchellucci (Cello), Marco Giampieretti (Synthesizer), Michael Harding (Drums), Giovanni Magaglio (Sampler), Jacopo Mittino (Synthesizer), Giovanni Onorato (Objects, Live Electronics), Matteo Pastorello (No-Input Mixer, Radio, Live Electronics), Francesco Perissi (Electric Guitar, Voice, Live Electronics), Federico Pipia (Live Electronics, Bass), Niccolò Salvi (Synthesizer)
Recorded in Bologna at MicroBo Studio, Round #6 recorded in Florence at Tempo Reale / Studio B
Mixing – Marco Giampieretti, Matteo Pastorello, Federico Pipia, Niccolò Salvi
Mastering – Marco Giampieretti
Cover Illustration – Valerio Immordino
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