Name: Gigi Masin
Nationality: Italian
Occupation: Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist
Current Release: Gigi Masin's new album Movement is out via Sacred Bones.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: I have always thought that in bookstores there are hundreds of volumes about cooking and love, while too many do not know how to cook and others are sad and disconsolate. Everyone must seek the truth to which they aspire, even in banal, instinctive ways and attempts, which give way to intuition to set in motion, discover, understand. A love song is worth a thousand tips, a voice that sings, a child who learns to play the cello, sing in the car with the music you love.

If you enjoyed this Gigi Masin interview and would like to know more about his music and upcoming live dates, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

You know, it's not an easy question ... I think I listen with my eyes open, I would say. But my eyes are open as if I were admiring a panorama, like trying to see beyond.

It's a sort of seeing not seeing, I think …

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

I got used to listening and playing music with headphones because sounds from outside sometimes disturb the neighbourhood or because of the kids who sleep at night ... Only in the car do I let off steam listening to things that make the car vibrate or vibrate my heart.

I would like to have a very powerful stereo system,. But then I'd end up listening to music that speaks to my heart and there is no need to make the speakers explode.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

I would say that all the music I love is an intertwining of soul and sound. I don't have much interest in sound as such ... You end up admiring a sort of aesthetics of sound and not its intrinsic nature.

Take Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett. Between them, you have two completely different ways of playing the piano, yet both with a masterful sound and an unquestionable passion ... Then there are too many 'mannered' musicians.

However, for the sound I say that vinyl wins, and definitely Weather Report, Airto Moreira, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler's Azimuth.



Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

When an acoustic guitar is played properly, perhaps accompanied by a great voice, I would say that we are almost at the top of the possibilities.

Or take Bill Evans' piano, or Danny Thompson's double bass.

The emotional combination is created by the equation of sound and passion. Sometimes you don't need a multitude of chords. The heart prefers the wind to the storm.

There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

The sound of cell phones on the train, people talking loudly, are unbearable ... but in reality the wrong or arrogant use of any sounds can be annoying. It depends on where you come from, what habits you have ...

As a Venetian, I love the sound of bells, or of turtle doves, the waves that fall on the beach. Yet I know people who can't stand these sounds at all, which for me are true poetry.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

I told you about the church bells in Venice. Especially on Sundays, they tell you that it is a holiday. Your relationship with religion does not even matter, those bells have a familiar and festive sound ... The motor boats, the people walking at night in Venice, someone passing by and whistling early in the morning ...

Or the ringtones of the trains in Tokyo. I love them.



Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

Anechoic chambers are terrible, although they are places where you can listen to your heart, the flow of blood in your veins ... We have millions of examples of churches and theatres built with the utmost care to make sound that magically reaches everyone's ears, be it music or words or singing.

When there was no possibility of amplifying sound or voices with electricity, the ancient architects had all the necessary answers. Often, they remain unsurpassed to this day.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

Recording music, especially electronic music, now does not need a studio or an equipped space ... You can do it at home, comfortably.

With regards to sound in public: it must be respected and honoured with an excellent sound system or in fantastic places like theatres, whose magic has always fascinated me.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

I admire music, the sound that creates its substance.

I believe that anyone who deals with playing or composing has to do with something mysterious, an impalpable matter that is generated by a thought, an idea ... Immaterial magic, like a cloud, wind passing through the leaves.

I just can't conceive of a material form to sound. Its substance is vague, not vibration, frequency, the physics of dream and fantasy.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

Sometimes I think that most people are deaf or have very little need to hear something. So they only perceive mediocre sounds, unable to convey emotions.

Of course, a walk in a spring forest gives you exactly the idea of peace and well-being, while the morning traffic is pure pain and annoyance.

I believe that the concept of environmental health related to sound is a foreign language in today's world …

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

It is all too easy to say that the sounds of nature are among the most fascinating and salvific things we have around us.

But the human voice? Isn't it wonderful sometimes? Obviously, sometimes not, but it is also beautiful. The voice of a child, your cat meowing at you when you come home, even the sound of coffee in the morning, changes your life.

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?

Instead of discovering the bottom of the oceans, man is often more interested in the edges of his navel rather than opening himself to know and discover the imponderable. It requires curiosity and an open-mindedness that feeds on reading and knowledge.

Given that coexistence between species is already possible, understanding still creaks …

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

Playing and listening with headphones is a problem if it becomes the only way you deal with music, an unreasonable volume of sounds is very dangerous ...

A few health checks and the utmost care and cleaning of the headphones can help, but above all what kind of music you are dedicating yourself to - it matters a lot.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

For those lucky like me, born and raised in Venice, silence has a particular tone, a sort of essence that does not seem to be present elsewhere ...

In reality, silence as such does not exist, there are variations and physical and scientific explanations about it, but silence is like the moon and the sun, light and dark.

You don't appreciate it enough until you take the car and go to the office, in a queue, among hundreds of people every single day.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

I'm afraid it's a matter of personal culture and not feelings, where the quick habits of every day clash with the poetry and lightness of a song by Satie or with the trumpet of Miles Davis.

Seeing is considered because appearance wins, easy deception, seeming and not being. It is ridiculous how these platitudes overwhelm the cruelest truth.