Name: Laura Masotto
Nationality: Italian
Occupation: Composer, violinist
Current release: Laura Masotto's The Spirit of Things is out via 7K!
Recommendations on the topic of sound: Ryan Teague, a very talented musician I work with and with whom I am working on an EP, gave me Greta Thunberg's book The Climate Book. I recommend everyone to read it, now, as to save the human species there is a need to act as fast as possible.
To learn more about shamanism I recommend reading something by Sandra Ingerman, Shamanic Journeying might be good to start with. You can also follow her website, which she always updates with great insights for daily life.
And one last suggestion would be a book by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj I am that: it’s a book I always keep on my nightstand for years and to which I always get back.

If these thoughts by Laura Masotto piqued your interest, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, or twitter. Laura also runs Lady Blunt records.

We also conducted an even more expansive Laura Masotto interview a while ago, where she speaks in more depth about her approach to art. Or read her thoughts on the Mediterranean refugee crisis.



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?

When I listen to music I like to concentrate deeply. Often I'll listen to it while traveling so it turns into a journey within the journey. I like to look out of the window at the world going by, sometimes instead I close my eyes and let my imagination flow.

My new album The Spirit of Things was born with the track "Dark Horse," after a shamanic journey that we can define as a dream journey where I met my guide animal. This process happens with the accompaniment of the sound of the shamanic drum at about 180 bpm, it accelerates the heartbeat and brings in another state of consciousness that allows us to imagine and create with our mind. It can bring to light many sensations that we do not feel in normal life. Rhythm guides us through life, and music is alive around and within us.

When I play the violin I generally close my eyes, even when I do my concerts, it helps me to concentrate in the music and find my state of peace in it.

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

For me they are two completely different types of listening. Generally when I use headphones I listen with more concentration and get more into the details of the music. When I listen with a stereo system I experience it more environmentally, with the sounds around me.

The beauty of listening to music from a stereo system for me is more an experience of sharing music with other people.

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

One of my favorite albums is undoubtedly Cenizas by Nicolas Jaar, it is an immersion of organic sounds and electronics, it is one of the albums that calms me down the most and immerses me in a free world.



Homogenic by Bjork was an album that in my opinion changed musical history, it revolutionized the use of vocals with very melodic electronics that still sounds current, a record from 1997 that sounds like it was produced in 2024.



Damien Rice's 0 is such an enveloping album, it was recorded with so much emotion that I can always feel. It is a calm record that relaxes the mind.



OK Computer by Radiohead definitely changed my perception of music while I was growing up. For me Thom Yorke is still a great experimenter of sounds and emotions.



Nirvana's Unplugged in New York also definitely gave a profound change to my musical world when I was studying classical music and heard these sounds so scratchy and fascinating coming out of Kurt Cobain's mouth.



Two compositions by Arvo Pärt for me were composed with magic, they are "Spiegel im Spiegel" and "Fratres" particularly in Gidon Kremer's performance.



When I listen to them I feel the same emotion I feel when listening to Vivaldi and Bach.

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?

The sound of string instruments always creates a warm feeling inside of me. Probably the fact that they are composed of wood and organic materials such as horsehair create a sound that resonates in my body.

The song "Dark Horse" begins with a string quartet. Every time I play it I feel like I can feel the sound going inside of me, as if I could bite into it, a feeling that is hard to explain.

When playing an instrument like the violin what happens is that the instrument becomes a part of you and the frequencies go through your body like electric shocks. It is a feeling I would like everyone to experience. With the cello for example, the lower frequencies vibrate throughout the body, that's why I love playing the cello, I do it without a technical basis but to have fun and create sounds that I then use in songs like "The body is a tree."



Also, the sound of the sea is a great healer for me, as if it always reclaims my soul and regains orientation in my life.

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?

One sound that really irritates me is the sound of traffic; I could never live in a place with this kind of noise pollution. When I happen to sleep in places disturbed by road noise, I have a hard time sleeping.

In general the sound of flowing water has a beneficial effect on me. I often use these sounds in the background in my songs like the sound of a mountain river I used in "Sheherazade Rework."



When I walk in the mountains and find those little water passages coming down from the peaks, I always stop and listen to them, often recording them as well.

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

In my city, Verona, the Adige River passes through, it is big and has a very intense sound. I like to listen to it from different points in the city. It always creates different sensations but generally listening to it, it sounds like it washes something away, that you can take away what is no longer needed.

Another sound that really fascinates me is the sound of snow. When the snow falls and creates that magical silence that stops everything, when the snow melts with the sun and the droplets fall from the trees.

The sound of footsteps in the snow are in fact the beginning of one track of my new album: it is called "North" and it begins with this sound that invites you to walk north.

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

I have never been to anechoic chambers but I have been to the caves on the island of Lanzarote where they dug a real theater and created another space for playing music inside a very deep part of the cave.

Unfortunately, I have not heard any music played live inside the caves but I would love to be able to witness a concert there and be able to play there. Now it is becoming a dream for me.

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

I enjoy playing in theaters, especially wooden theaters that have perfect acoustics for string instruments.

Lately I have rediscovered the pleasure of playing outdoors; it seems like the sound expands and never ends. I was on a trip to Guatemala last month and was staying in a place with a lovely garden, full of plants like eucalyptus, pineapple, and lime, and with a view on Lake Atitlan, surrounded by mountains and volcanoes.

I was playing the violin in the garden to rehearse for my show at ESNS in Groningen and it seemed like magic, the sound bouncing through the trees, expanding toward the sky, I felt like it almost reached the lake.

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

Yes for me music has a form. When you play an instrument you create something that exists in that moment. The sound is real, we can hear it, but we can also feel it through the vibrations in our bones and fluids. Everything we produce changes our world.

Sound propagates in the air through waves, and if the air also exists, tastes, makes us breathe, the music that lives inside this space is also alive.

"Human" is a piece dedicated to the human being and movement in our space, this music was born with the need to fill a space.

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?

I think the sound around us is essential to our well-being. I live outside the city, I prefer the tranquility and sounds I can hear in the countryside.

Indian cities come to mind, with all the noise and dust, I really like to visit these kinds of places and feel part of them but I could never live in a chaotic place. But I think Indians kind of like noise.

It has been scientifically proven that noise in workplaces is distracting, I think even in our homes it would be healthy not to be exposed to too much noise.

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?

Certainly as I said before the sound of water is fundamental to my life.

But there is another sound that fascinates and engages me and that is the sound of fire. In my experience in Guatemala I participated in several sacred ceremonies such as cigar and cacao ceremonies. All ceremonies require fire, you have to observe it, listen to it and try to communicate with it. The intensity of this element is really strong for me.

A "curandera," which for the Mayan culture we can define as a healer, told me that fire is the only unpolluted element in the world at this moment in history.

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?  

I think for animals in addition to the need to communicate there is also the need to express themselves as it happens in different species of birds that sing. The more interesting the song, the more interest they can attract in their courtship ritual.

Sometimes they communicate with questions and answers, often in the summer I listen to them from my balcony. I often record them and have included them in my live set to tie in two of my songs "Amygdala" and "Floating”, which is one of the most cinematic tracks of my upcoming album.



The communicating birds remind me of Arabic music. My Arabic violin teacher had explained to me that traditionally there are musical themes that create musical dialogues that are often played between violinists. When you meet to play you create these dialogues like real birds with a question and an answer. I find it really poetic and fascinating.

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?

Unfortunately for the first time in my life I am suffering from tinnitus in one ear, it seems to have been caused by a pressure surge in an airplane flight. Now for the past week I have had this continuous ringing in my ear.

These days I have been having manipulations with Chinese techniques that I hope will give me relief often. I also looked up the note of my tinnitus, it is a B.

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?

Listening to music is vital to me, however, for me music is also the sounds around us that we sometimes don't even consider as music.

I certainly could not listen to music all the time because for me it is essential to find silence as well. But I could not live in a world without sound.

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?

If we used our senses more in general I think humans would feel better. Unfortunately there are senses such as our instincts that we no longer trust and instead should give more importance to.

Animals trust their instincts a lot and also their hearing, which surely is one of their strong points. That is why the relation between animals and humans is the center theme of my new album.

The sense of sight has become more and more important for human beings because we live in a very visual-focused world, screens attract us but our other senses suffer from their lack of use and development.