Tuning Limestone
Tuning Limestone
fixed media
2024
Duration: 17:23
Sound diffusion: 4th order ambisonics, octophonic, stereo (binaural) fixed media
Commission: Tempo Reale, Firenze
Tuning Limestone is the result an exploration and mapping of the multiplicity of sound phenotypes that make up the ecosystem of the city of Prato in Tuscany, Italy, documented, processed, and reassembled in a framing process. Just as the marly limestone (dominant in the city's historic buildings and monumental architecture, and very present in the Calvana mountain range northeast of the city) is crossed by veins and points of different color and density, so Prato offers trace and living memory of multiple historical, social, urbanistic, ethnographic and morphological crossings, indelible imprints and elements of shared heritage with a strong timbral connotation. The sound investigation, carried out by documenting different contexts with special recording techniques, was conducted both in a documentary way and through the solicitation of materials, vibrating bodies, mechanical objects and surfaces to analyze their timbral potential and activate a dialogue with the context. Some of these elements were then chosen for their particular spectral and emblematic conformation to punctuate the structure of the composition, restoring a new soundscape at once identifiable and imaginative.
Listen on Sounding Future (headphones recommended)
PERFORMANCES
28-29.11.2024 - SUONO CITTÀ - Urban sound portraits, Area Real Listening space, Prato (IT). [premiere]
31.05.2025 - Electroacoustic Spring 2025, Auditorium – Music Technology and Acoustics – Hellenic Mediterranean University, Rethymno, Crete.
07.07.2025 - SMC, 22nd Sound and Music Computing Conference, Sounding Future SMC curated collection
25.09.2025 - Musica Ricercata 2025, Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Perugia (IT)
30.10.2025 - Dedans-Dehors. Suoni e musica di ricerca a Bologna - Suono Forma, Serra Madre, Bologna (IT).
PNX
PNX
fixed media
2023
Duration: 8:38
Sound diffusion: 4th order ambisonics / binaural fixed media
PNX is an ambisonic acousmatic composition made using only accordion samples. No signal manipulation or synthesis techniques have been used to modify the concrete starting material, except for sound editing techniques. The sampling process and the organization of the material were based on an equal relationship between the traditional sound of the accordion and the noisy components of the instrument mechanics, investigating the very first timbral expression on the borderline between breath and the exact origin of the sound, uniting them in a single sound stream. A process of osmosis, a breath that originates from a central space and develops tension towards an external one, defining a listening perspective inside the acoustic instrument as a living space. PNX is the acronym of “pneumothorax”, a traumatic lung compression that distorts the relationship between the inner and outer pressure, and suggests a parallel with a mechanical investigation, a form of diagnostic examination, exploring all the potential of the instrument. The acoustic space is then defined through the alteration of the mechanical principle underlying the breath of the accordion bellows, building a new dimension according to the assumption of a very close listening point of view to reconstruct an ideal space of timbral exploration.
Composed and produced by Nicola Cappelletti and Nicola Fumo Frattegiani
PERFORMANCES
09.09.2023 - Ars Electronica festival 2023 - Manufacturing Audible Truth, Anton Bruckner Private University Linz (AT) [premiere]
Latitudine X-3
Latitudine X-3
sound installation | performance
2025
Sound diffusion: site specific
Duration: 25:49
Latitudine X-3 is a sound installation with clarinet performances by Raffaella Palumbo, which interacts with Bizhan Bassiri's permanent work Tapesh: The Golden Reserve of Magmatic Thought (2017) in the Bassiri Foundation's Caveau.
Latitudine X-3 is a commission by Fondazione Bassiri
Performances
19.10.2025 - IV° Venti di ottobre, Fondazione Bassiri, Fabbro (IT) [premiere]
DHwtj
DHwtj
sound installation
2025
Sound diffusion: site specific
Composition and installation project: Nicola Cappelletti, Simone Pappalardo
DHwtj explores the boundary and continuity between gesture, sign, and sound, tracing a continuum where certain traditional instruments are explored for their atypical timbral potential through physical computing systems and the use of electromagnetic fields, activated through interaction with a graphic score that serves as a map for the sound investigation. In its first form dedicated to the 50th Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte in Montepulciano, the work is inspired by the concept of a “musical worksite”: the viewer can activate musical instruments, generating sound events that are rooted in the origins of timbre construction, extended and modified in unusual ways, and which recall sound imprints of the city’s soundscape. By exploring the graphic score, which in turn arises from a re-contextualization in the musical and artistic sphere of the iconography of construction site signs, we arrive at a redefinition of the relationship between visual and musical language, composing a semantic code of gestures and sounds that acquires a specific meaning in active relation to the environment and the instruments, making them the physical extension of a single meaningful gesture.
DHwtj is a commission by 50° Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte of Montepulciano.
Performances
11.07-12.09.2025 - 50° Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte - Mostra 50 Cantieri, Fortezza, Montepulciano (IT) [premiere]
Parallaxe.Parataxe
Parallaxe.Parataxe
fixed media
2024
Duration: 6:10
Sound diffusion: stereo fixed media
Parallaxe.Parataxe is an acousmatic composition that investigates syntactic construction through the juxtaposition of sonic moments in which the different synthesis processes used create pathways that shift in the timbral, spatial and spectral range. Thus the musical processes constantly change the point of view of the sound objects, creating an acoustic equivalent of the parallax phenomenon through their relationship to the artificial sound background that arises from the projection of the properties of the foreground figures and their timbral permutation. This was achieved by using different synthesis methods (resynthesis, physical modeling and granular synthesis) applied to different field recordings and concrete sound objects, identifying musical elements in the aural complexity of the materials to create the overall form.
PERFORMANCES
04.07.2025 -Forum Wallis festival für Neue Musik,Ars Acusmatica 8 concert, MEbU Münster Earport, Goms (CH).
15.11.2024 - Daegu International Computer Music Festival, Daegu, South Korea. "Parallaxe.Parataxe"
23.10.2024 - Australasian Computer Music Conference 2024, Futurity. Sydney Campus, – room 4.09, Sydney (AUS).
21.09.2024 - La Hora Acusmatica 2024, virtual concert. "Parallaxe.Parataxe"
27.09.2024 - Musicacoustica Hangzou 2024, Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, Hangzou (RPC).
08.07.2024 - ICMC 2024 Sound in Motion, Paiknam Concert Hall, Seoul (Kor) [premiere].
A Tuning Study: Montepulciano
A Tuning Study: Montepulciano
acousmatic | sound installation
2024
Sound diffusion: quadriphonic; binaural
A Tuning Study: Montepulciano is a site-specific sound installation that originates from the mapping of the tonics, signals, and sound imprints that define the city's sound ecosystem. Deterministic and random processes of synthesis, intrinsically connected to the timbral characteristics of the recorded material through the processes of spectral analysis and auto-convolution, were used to generate a new soundscape, at once identifiable and imaginative. The soundscape was divided into three bands: the upper band (aerial), the middle band (proper to human activities), and the lower band (underground), each of which was investigated with the use of dedicated microphones and filming techniques, documenting the sound contexts both neutrally and through the solicitation of materials, vibrating bodies, mechanical objects and surfaces present in the areas of investigation, in order to analyze their timbral potential and activate a dialogue with the context.
A Tuning Study: Montepulciano is a commission by 49° Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte of Montepulciano.
Performances
12-17.07.2024 - 49° Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte, Chiostro del Comune, Montepulciano (IT) [full work, premiere]
23.11.2024 - DME. Culture and Sustainability 2024, Incomun Lisboa (POR) [Interno Pozzo]
15.04.2025 - Radiophrenia, Glasgow. Radiophrenia shorts 52, [Interno Pozzo, radio broadcasting]
14.09.2025 - Paysages Composés 2025, Jardin des plantes, Grenoble (FR) [Interno Pozzo]
25.09.2025 - Musica Ricercata 2025 - Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Perugia (IT) [Interno Pozzo, Mosaicing]
18.10.2025 - Queens Tape Music Festival, world of tomorrow. Our House Queens, Astoria, Queens, NYCNew York (USA) [Interno Pozzo]
Lo Scoppio
Lo Scoppio
audiovisual fixed media
2023
Duration: 4'40''
Sound diffusion: stereophonic
Scoppio is a small town in the municipality of Acquasparta (TR), abandoned around 1950 following a series of earthquakes. It takes its name from the Latin Scopulus (cliff), due to its dominant position over the plain. Scoppio is a ghost town: the only access is a bumpy road and it’s permeated with peace and harmony, as nature is taking over everything. However, history and the genius loci are overbearingly felt, with a swarm of life permeating every stone. The video starts from the hypothetical discovery of a box of old photos of ancient inhabitants of the village, brought back to life and interacting with the landscape through a work that combines analogue and digital, experimenting with self-constructed photographic filters. The sound is defined by using concrete sounds from an imaginary unearthed memory box filled with everyday objects and mechanical toys. The soundscape created becomes the narration of a potential unrealized future, in a strong relationship with the images, to expose all the physical, historical, and remembrance fragilities of the place. Just as the Latin name suggests a concrete approach to timbre, its "translation" in Scoppio, as result of an elaboration by vulgar linguistic phenomena, becomes the key to understanding the electronic processing and synthesis used and the sound editing, emphasizing the contrasts with the appearance of unexpected sounds.
Music: Nicola Cappelletti
Awards.
Zeugma Landscape 2023 Offical Selection.
Performances
18.09.2023 - Atemporanea Festival 2023, Auditorio Subsuelo, Conservatorio Astor Piazzolla, Buenos Aires (ARG).
29.10.2023 - Narnimmaginaria, Palazzo dei Priori, Narni (ITA).
b_k_n ()
b_k_n ()
fixed media
2023
Duration: 8'55''
Sound diffusion: quadriphonic fixed media
The piece is inspired by the the sculpture "The Broken Circle” by Beverly Pepper, an element of land art in the city of Brufa, in Umbria (Italy).
b_k_n( ) intends to restore the representation of a generating force, of an explosive event that produces the beginning of life and of the world, in a timbrical and structural dimension where the contrast between stillness and dynamism creates a formal balance poised between possibility and impossibility. The overall circular trend, from which sound structures emerge that offer as many interrupted paths of ascent and descent, interprets the materiality of the original work and its conflictual contrast with the landscape, reading it from different distances and according to different angles. The timbrical research aims to recall the materials used for sculpture (mainly steel and concrete), with the preparation of traditional instruments as violin and an electric bass guitar, to generate sound materials to feed many electronic synthesis processes (granular synthesis, re-synthesis and physical modeling) used to build the piece.
The result is a work that associates the materiality of sound and the use of residual timbres as citation s of the associated collective ancestral memory to the universal shape of the circle.
PERFORMANCES
11.10.2023 - Australasian Computer Music Conference, ElectroMUSE, UNE Sidney (AUS)
07.10.2023 - Muslab 2023, Museo Antropologico Y De Arte Contemporaneo, Guayaquil (ECUA)
14.04.2023 - SICM Colloque International, Université de Lille, Lille (FR)
11.04.2023 - UNDÆ Radio #261, Radio Circulo (ES, ARG)
Le Jour et la Nuit A/V
Le Jour et la Nuit A/V
audiovisual fixed media
2021 - on going
Duration: 0'40'' - 4h20'00''
Sound diffusion: stereophonic
Le Jour et la Nuit A/V is the audiovisual version of the same title electroacoustic work for flute and electronics [>].
Le Jour et la Nuit A/V may be presented either as an audiovisual stand alone work or an audiovisual electroacoustic performance, in which pieces are accompanied by a found-footage video fixed media.
PERFORMANCES
09.11.2023 - SiNM 23, SESC Paço, Curitiba (BRA). Le Jour et la Nuit, fixed media audiovisual screening
10.02.2023 - Lund Contemporary, Odeum musikcentrum, Lund (SE). A/V performance. Flute: Agata Tuchołka. A/V electroacoustic perfromance *premiere
Halt And Catch Fire
Halt And Catch Fire
electroacoustic improvisation concert for violin double bass and electronics
2023 -
Duration: 40'00''
Sound diffusion: stereophonic | quadriphonic | acousmonium
HALT AND CATCH FIRE is an improvisational concert for acoustic instruments and electronics. It is the musical translation of an operational instruction that tends to build ambitious architectures, poised between electronic rhythm and timbre permutation, where the elements try to succeed and overwhelm each other in a growing and very rapid cycle that tends to the limit, until arriving at an inevitable collapse point. Halt and catch fire (HCF) is in fact a dummy assembly language instruction used to define instructions that bring the CPU into a state from which it can only be brought out with a reset.
Nicola Cappelletti: violin and electronics
Performances
10.04.2023 - Indigo Art Gallery, Perugia (IT) HACF #02
15.03.2023 - Murate Caffè Letterario, Firenze (IT) - HACF #01
Alla Coniugazione con il Cosmo
Alla Coniugazione con il Cosmo
theatre performance
2021
Duration: 55'00''
Declamation Alla Coniugazione con il Cosmo, made on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the death of Paolo Vinti.
Texts: Paolo Vinti
Declamation: Stefano Baffetti
Music: Nicola Cappelletti and Fab Mayday
Choir: Coristi a Priori
Choir direction: Carmen Cicconofri
Performances
07.09.2021 - Piazza S. Giovanni del Fosso, Perugia (IT) *premiere
Asindeto
Asindeto
for dance and electronics
(2023)
Duration: 22'30''
In Asindeto the relationship between sound and movement defines a narrative structure of dislocated absences, made-up of oppositions made tangible, and builds a sublimated and represented space as the only possible context for the realization of meaning.
Composition, sound: Nicola Cappelletti
Asindeto is a commission and a production by Opificio Sonoro, with the support of the PiGro residency program of Tempo Reale, with the support of the artistic residence of PARC (Performing Arts Research Centre) and with the communication support of Nexus Factory.
Photos: Claudia Ioan / Fondazione Perugia Musica Classica ONLUS
Performances
11.05.2023 - Festival Orizzonti, Auditorium S. Cecilia - Perugia (IT) *premiere












