Franco Nanni began his musical career at the end of the 1970s in the forge of the electronic music course at the Bologna Conservatory with Gianfelice Fugazza. After various experiences on the Bolognese scene, he publishes Lost Time, an example of “Italian disco” from the 1980s. He then made his debut with his first solo album ELICOIDE in 1987 flanked by Paolo Grandi on double bass. A meditative and mystical record, almost ignored in Italy but appreciated in the USA, Japan and Canada, which a couple of decades later will become a cult for collectors all over the world until its reissue (in the thirty years since its release) on double vinyl with the original recordings of ’87 and other unreleased ones of the time (Affordable Inner Space 2017).
In 1990, L’angelo dei numeri was released with an extended line-up that also added a suite of entirely acoustic pieces to electronics. In 1995 VITA was released, an almost entirely electronic work sung by Silvia Testoni, distributed by BMG-Ricordi.
From that work 23 years of silence followed. In June 2018 Nanni and Grandi played together again after three decades, on the Macao stage in Milan (here the full video), performing the original vinyl tracks in a new version, with a new piece that becomes the opening track of Our time, the duo’s new vinyl released on the Orbeatize label in May 2021.
2022: two important releases on streaming platforms, electronic and acoustic respectively. In Wet, a new electronic project, the minimalist discourse becomes more “pop”, and combines the two long instrumental pieces with a sung track, based on a literary fragment by David Foster Wallace; the percussive sounds make their entrance with rhythms that recall the Underworld of the best years, but also very recent experiences such as the Portico Quartet.
A life collects the intimate moments with the piano written over a quarter of a century, marking a heartfelt return to the acoustic and to a more meditated and physical expressiveness.
On May 12, 2023, the album AFTERGLOW has been released in streaming: seven piano improvisations made in the evening’s afterglow. The songs are inspired by Raymond Carver’s verses, which also form the title of each song.
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