Edison Studio
Edison Studio was founded in 1993. Its members are Mauro Cardi, Luigi Ceccarelli, Fabio Cifariello Ciardi and Alessandro Cipriani.
Edison Studio is member of CEMAT (Centri Musicali Attrezzati). CEMAT and Edison work in continual collaboration in different projects (“Quarant’anni nel Duemila” award, Sound Project). Edison Studio is internationally recognized in the electroacoustic music scene, thanks to the numerous prizes and awards it has received for its works (Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges 1996, 1997, 1998, 2003 Prix Ars Electronica 1997, 1998, International Computer Music Conference 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, Main Prize Musica Nova 1996, Prague, etc.). Edison Studio has produced electroacoustic music for the Venice Biennale (2000 & 2001) and for the Ravenna Festival (1999 & 2000).The composers of Edison Studio have worked with IRCAM, EMS (Stockholm), Roma and Catania Universities, Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), Institut fuer Neue Medien (Frankfurt), ICMC, IMEB (Bourges) etc.
The studio’s activity is based around various interconnecting areas: production of electroacoustic works; studio projects on the relationship between oral, written and electroacoustic traditions; research projects in collaboration with the Department of Psychology of the University “La Sapienza” in Rome. Edison Studio has also carried out the first on-line courses in Italy for sound synthesis and processing, “CsoundOnLine”, based on Csound software and on the book “Virtual Sound”, written by Riccardo Bianchini and Alessandro Cipriani, which is now in its third edition (Contempo 2003).
The unifying and founding principle of Edison Studio is its particular openness towards technology. This openness takes the form of interest, curiosity but above all willingness to let technology itself provide the environment in which to bring together, stimulate and create spaces in which individual poetic forms can interact. This constant activity of mutual co-operation between the composers of Edison Studio has, over time, allowed common ideas and idiosyncrasies to appear, which cross over the various respective approaches without producing a single, unified style.
Over the last two years the composers at Edison Studio have worked together on soundtrack projects for two silent films: the expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Robert Wiene (1919) and The Last Days of Pompeii by Eleuterio Rodolfi (1913). These “Live Computer Soundtracks” have been performed by the Edison Studio group at two International Computer Music Conferences in Sweden (2002) and Singapore (2003), and in other concerts in the United States, Sweden, and Italy. A collective article by Edison Studio composers on those soundtracks has been published in the review Organised Sound (Cambridge University Press) Edison is now publishing its first official CD, on CNI / Rai Trade label, with 4 electroacoustic pieces written by Cardi, Ceccarelli, Cifariello Ciardi and Cipriani for Mahamad Ghavi-Helm, an outstanding persian percussionist living in Paris.
