Alessio Greco is an electro-acoustic music composer, multimedia artist and live performer based in Italy. Signed to Rudiment, Pyteca, Apnea Label, Black Line Recordings, Lett Records, Little Hill… his compositions are a combination between electronic and experimental music such as glitch, ambient, mental techno, drone. We recently saw him at the Venice International Art Fair and the Rome International Art Fair making an A/V installation of his recent album “AvIS” on the label Pyteca. As multi-talented having several strings to his bow, he also curates the festival “A Night Inside” in Latina. 

Welcome, a glass of? 
Thanks for hosting me, undoubtedly a big glass of Guinness Beer!

Where do you come from? 
I was born and live in Italy, and it is here that I studied electroacoustic music composition at the Conservatory of Music in the city where I currently live.

Who are your main influences?
I vary a lot in the genres that influence me and that I listen to. From modern and contemporary electroacoustic music, to ambient, to techno, idm, and various electronic music especially experimental. I really like listening to Raster artists. I especially appreciate Milian Mori and Grischa Lichtenberger, who are two really fantastic artists, artistically and humanly speaking, and with whom I had the fortune of sharing the stage. I also follow the artists of INA GRM a lot (Le Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) is a pioneering French public centre in electro-acoustic research founded in 1958, Editor’s Note), then Kassel Jaeger, Ryoji Ikeda, MONOCOLOR alias Marian Essl, Alex Guevara...

What is your current A/V Live setup and since when do you perform?
I use a very basic setup. A laptop with ableton and max/msp, and a midi controller, which allows me to manage everything, both the audio and visual parts. I have always played music, I started as a drummer, then I moved on to electronic music, especially drone and ambient at the beginning. My journey in audio visual began about a year ago, as far as installations are concerned, a few months later.

What is the most important during your performances? 
The audience's response. What matters most to me is that those who listen and watch what I do are totally immersed in the path I accompany them on.

Do you invite the audience to interact?
Not in a concrete way, at least for the moment; but I think that the audience is also part of the performance itself, it's something that happens magically, unconsciously, when you are absorbed in what you are immersed in.

What prompted you to produce? 
As I answered before, I have always been a musician, so it is something inevitable. The moment there is the need to express something, the magic happens.

If I mention Rudiment? 
I met Stanislav Tolkachev in person. There was this opportunity to have an old techno track of mine on a compilation of his label Rudiment, full of very important names in the scene. I couldn't miss an opportunity like that! He is an all-round artist that I respect a lot.

How did you link up with Vincenzo Pizzi, the founder of the label Pyteca?
With Vincenzo there is first of all a friendship. We go to more or less the same places, we are in the same scene, we have also played together. There is artistic and human appreciation on both sides. In 2023 there was the opportunity to include one of my songs on a compilation of various artists on his label. This year I proposed a more complex work and a complete album, on which a re-work of one of my songs was done by him and another by one of the guys from the Pyteca roster, Davide dhavv Marilungo.

What does the "AvIS" album represent for you? 
It is just a new starting point for further experimentation in music and visual art. AvIS has also been presented as an installation at the Venice International Art Fair 20th Edition and the Rome International Art Fair 12th Edition.

Your definition of mental techno?
A techno outside the classic schemes of the genre, more to be listened to with the mind than to be danced to.

What effects are you looking for on the listener? 
Emotion, immersion, mental journey.

What is the biggest inspiration? 
My entire life, all the experiences that have made me the person I am and that interact with it every day.

Which artists would you like to work with and why?  
I think Alex Guevara. I really like his work, and it would be a real honor for me to collaborate with him. I'd be curious to see what could come out of experimenting and mixing our approaches to creating visual art and music.

Ep or album?
Album.

Your top 3 venues/festivals? 
A house show in Antwerp, in an incredibly suggestive place. Another one, a local electronic music festival at Circolo H, unfortunately this club no longer exists, where I shared the stage with Z'EV (Stefan Joel Weisser). Finally, the A Night Inside Festival, of which I am the organizer, in which I shared the stage with Milian Mori and Grischa Lichtenberger.

If I tell you AI?
It's probably a great tool if used in the right way, I see that it's becoming very popular among artists lately. I don't think it's something for me.

Your best experience? 
Touring around the world. It is an experience that allows you to learn about and interface with different cultures and realities. I think it's the best way to continuously learn and grow.

Any ritual before a gig?
I don't have any particular rituals, in fact I don't have any at all. Perhaps the only precaution is to double-check all the cables just before the performance.

Do you consider yourself as a “media artist”? 
Sure, that's what I am.

If you could teleport for a few days, where would you like to go?
In space... I would like to lose myself looking at planet earth and all the other planets, from space. The sensations you feel, the sounds you hear, what your eyes perceive.

Sun or moon? 
If you think about it... the sun is the moon of the day, and the moon is the sun of the night. Aren't they the same thing?

Your top 5 new releases? 
- dhavv "Dove Cado"
- Gábor Lázár "Message"
- Nicola Ratti "III"
- Sergey Chernyshov "28012022"
- Toru Izumida "Air Texture"

Your top 5 oldies?
- Autechre "Fleure"
- Kassel Jaeger "Dissipation of Light"
- Milian Mori "I Listen 5"
- Pechblende "For All The Unshed Tears"
- Pechblende "In All This Beauty I Despair"

Your projects for 2025? 
I am working on new projects, musical compositions, video art, but especially audio-visual installations. I would like to be able to exhibit them as much as possible, in as many places as possible.

Interviewed by Sabrina Bouzidi /