“Johnny & Jane”

Multimedia Chamber Opera

(ARCo Festival 2024, Salzburg)

This composition, created by Michele Bernabei, is a deep exploration of the interaction between percussion, trumpet, and electronics. The piece features a duet between a percussionist, who manipulates prepared turntables as extended percussive instruments, and Bernabei himself on trumpet, utilizing extended techniques such as the “water trumpet,” where water is introduced into the trumpet to alter its timbre and resonance. The analog vinyls on the turntables are carefully prepared to produce unconventional timbres, creating a rich palette of textures and rhythmic gestures. This innovative combination of techniques and instruments establishes a unique dialogue between acoustic experimentation and electronic manipulation, pushing the boundaries of contemporary performance practice.

 (Impulse Festival 2023)

is a reflection on motherhood in its many forms—biological mothers, motherlands, mother nature, and the mother church. Composed over the last two years, it was performed at the Impulse Festival in Graz in July 2023.

This piece, a contemporary reworking of Claudio Monteverdi’s madrigal “Ecco mormorar l’onde,” was my way of processing the profound and painful loss of my mother, and it is dedicated to her memory.

The five objects featured in the performance were created from original designs using Blender, 3D printed, and automated with motion sensors connected to Arduino. These sensors trigger live parameters in Max, making the objects integral to the piece’s interactive and dynamic sound world.

The Last Three Numbers is a trio formed at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) in Graz. The group consists of Michele Bernabei (trumpet and turntables), Carmen Pomen (voice and live electronics), and Lars Tuchel (live electronics).

LTN focuses on integrating acoustic instruments with live electronics, utilizing real-time sound processing, glitch techniques, and rhythmic structures derived from R&B and jazz. Their work emphasizes the exploration of electronic textures and dynamic interaction between the performers, adapting their setup and compositions to a variety of performance contexts.

The ensemble’s approach ranges from structured rhythmic configurations to noise-oriented experimental setups, prioritizing versatility and responsiveness to different environments. Above is a recording of their latest live performance, showcasing their approach to sound manipulation and interplay.

Moloch (/ˈmoʊlɒk/; Masoretic: מֹלֶךְ‎, mōleḵ; Ancient Greek: Μόλοχ, Latin: Moloch; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly condemns practices which are associated with Moloch, practices which appear to have included child sacrifice. In Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl (1955), Moloch is used as a metaphor for industrial civilization and for America more specifically. The word is repeated many times throughout Part II of the poem, and begins (as an exclamation of “Moloch!”).

This project is realized in two versions:

• Version 1: for orchestra, trumpet solo, and live electronics.
• Version 2: for soprano, bass clarinet, horn, percussion, harp, and live electronics.

Through evocative instrumentation and cutting-edge electronic techniques, MOLOCH! delves into the intersection of ancient rituals and modern societal critique, creating a sonic exploration of sacrifice and oppression.

is a site-specific performance that takes shape in the basement of Montaldeo Castle: 4 tape recorders automated with Arduino and a cellist performer dialogue with the beautiful textures of the castle wall enhanced by video mapping. The performance is designed to be adaptable and can be reimagined in various contexts, evolving in a site-specific manner to respond to the unique characteristics of each location. The graphics, created using TouchDesigner, bring an additional layer of immersive visual interaction, seamlessly integrating with the architectural and acoustic elements of the space.

In November 2021, during Austria’s strict lockdown, Lisa Forni (the graphic designer and filmmaker with whom I have always worked closely) and I were commissioned by the Schallfeld Ensemble—a contemporary music group in Graz affiliated with the Klangforum of Vienna—to compose a piece for three double basses.

The core idea was to overcome the failure of “streaming concerts,” which had only deepened the sense of isolation during lockdowns. These events often reduced the concert experience to passive listening—something to play in the background while cooking or doing yoga. To counteract this, we set out to create a piece that would require active engagement from the audience.

We established the following rules:

1. The listener must follow the piece from start to finish without skipping forward or backward.
2. The listener must interact with the piece.
3. The listener must experience spatialization in their own home through the use of three devices.
4. The work should reflect on the concept of music in the metaverse.

The result was a piece for the talented double bassist Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka of the Schallfeld Ensemble. Through multitrack recording, she performed all three parts, capturing both audio and video for each. During post-production, we added a final “pedal” section, featuring eight gestures introduced earlier in the piece. These gestures can be triggered by the listener-performer, who integrates them into the performance using audio and video cues.

By visiting this website, users can connect three devices (laptops, smartphones, or tablets) via the same Wi-Fi network and input a shared username to take part in this interactive concert. This piece represents the culmination of a year of intensive work and aims to contribute, in its own way, to addressing the challenges brought to light during these unprecedented times.

I was very struck by and attracted to my musical reflection the way our very recent era has chosen to misrepresent Samuel Bekett by appropriating this phrase of his which in its original context was meant to represent the inescapable absurdity of existence, to turn it into a kind of “mantra” of the hyperdynamic creative\destructive optimism of IT start-ups with the physiological need to die as soon as possible in order to turn into something else at the speed of light in an endless loop process whose tragic absurdity, ironically, only reveals at a distance of more than half a century, the very strength of the Bekettian idea.

In the dramaturgy of the piece, everything that happens is rapidly transformed into the circular vectoriality of a loop that engulfs everything and becomes a sonic object in itself, the mass of which consists of the sum of the conflicts between the heterogeneous materials within it, which lap after lap lose their meaning, leaving room for that existentialist Nothingness (perhaps “orientally” cathartic, perhaps “occidentally” neither) that reveals itself anew as a vision far more farsighted and powerful than the one that the beginning of this new epoch has clumsily tried to misappropriate.

This piece is the first in a series of short didactic studies exploring the fusion of two key elements: 1) the extended techniques of the trumpet, and 2) algorithmic and generative composition.

In my work as an acoustic composer, I have often been drawn to the idea of creating acoustic sounds that mimic the qualities of synthetic, computer-generated tones. With this series, however, I aim to reverse that process: instead of using computers to generate electronic music, I shape these small acoustic compositions by leveraging the trumpet’s extended techniques.

This particular study focuses on the air sounds of the trumpet, entirely structured using the SuperCollider programming environment. The pitches were determined through a generative process based on the ‘Thue-Morse L-system.’ Additionally, I developed an algorithm that progressively introduces longer and longer rests each time the melodic sequence completes, gradually replacing the notes.

If you listen closely, you will notice how the rests—through their deliberate expansion—eventually “consume” the melodic material, leaving an evolving interplay between sound and silence as the piece unfolds.

is a dynamic homage to the groundbreaking Ballet Mécanique of 1924, a visionary work that redefined the relationship between music and visual art. Drawing inspiration from its bold innovation, this piece revisits the spirit of the original through the use of automated instruments, offering a fresh exploration of the interplay between human creativity and mechanical precision.

Performed at the historic Theater of Bad Ischl as part of the European Capital of Culture 2024 Festival, the work invites audiences on an exhilarating journey through the history of experimental music. By reflecting on the timeless modernity of Ballet Mécanique, it reimagines its daring aesthetic for a contemporary context, continuing to challenge and inspire nearly a century after its debut.

is a quintet for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello that explores the hybridization of acoustic instruments with the synthetic soundscapes characteristic of electronic music, achieved solely through amplification.

This composition emphasizes timbral suspension and an intentional engagement with certain contemporary techniques. Strings are stretched to evoke the imagery of opening iron gates or metallic structures, while the percussions and clarinet are deliberately muted to induce a sense of tension and the anxiety of prolonged breathlessness. The piece is a vivid auditory exploration of physical and psychological restraint, drawing the listener into a realm where sound and silence coexist in a state of constant anticipation.