About

Short Biography

Roberto Musci is an Italian experimental composer, multi-instrumentalist, field-recording artist and sound artist based in Milan.

His work moves across electroacoustic music, field recordings, non-Western musical traditions, acoustic instruments, electronics, sampled materials, theatre, cinema, dance, sound installations and digital art. Across albums, soundtracks, installations and live projects, Musci explores listening as a cultural, physical and imaginative act: a way of connecting distant geographies, archival traces, acoustic gestures and electronic transformation.

Field Recordings and Travels

Between 1974 and 1985, Musci travelled extensively through Africa, India, the Near East and the Far East, studying local musical traditions, making field recordings and collecting instruments. These experiences became the foundation of a musical language in which documentary sound, memory, ritual, technology and composition coexist.

Key Work

His collaboration with Giovanni Venosta produced a body of work that remains central to Italian experimental music, including Water Messages on Desert Sand, a landmark recording that combines field recordings, acoustic instruments, electronics and non-Western musical materials.

Selected Areas of Work

Musci’s practice includes music for film, video, theatre and dance, live soundtracks for silent cinema, poetry projects, multimedia works, sound installations, digital art and generative AI-based visual research.

Selected Collaborations

Musci has collaborated with a wide range of artists and musicians from the Italian, European and international experimental scenes, including Giovanni Venosta, Walter Prati, Giorgio Magnanensi, Tiziano Tononi, Daniele Cavallanti, Massimo Mariani, Moni Ovadia, Chris Cutler, Jon Rose, David Moss, Steve Piccolo, Suzanne Ciani, Elliott Sharp, Keith Tippett and Third Ear Band.