GRÜN

[IT/DE]

Daniele De Santis is a Berlin-based percussionist, drummer, and electronic music producer from Bari, Italy. Grounded in a wide range of studies concerning jazz drums, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern percussion, electronic music, and sound engineering, his work takes shape as a varied series of musical experiences driven by spontaneous multi-instrumentalism and an eclectic attitude.

Since relocating to Berlin he's been developing his most recent brainchild, GRÜN, a peculiar cycle of productions, machines, and solo performances.

Driven by an enlightening first encounter with electromagnetism and its enormous potential as an engine for sound generation and physical automation, as GRÜN De Santis composes electronic music through electrical circuit design and creation of modular sound objects. The GRÜN machines have taken shape through studies and experiments focusing on electromagnetism as natural source and expression of life.

De Santis dedicated the project to the colour green, an archetypal symbol of what we usually call nature. Merging electricity as a direct source of sound, field recordings of natural, tactile noises, and tonal components (often live or recorded string instruments), GRÜN gives life to a chaotic magma that attempts to imagine sound as a living organism seen from the inside. The arrangement is based on a fully improvised, performative approach following the organic rules of spontaneous gestural interaction with the machines. A natural and unstable musicality is thus gradually revealed, for instance as momentary regular geometries emerging through the freeform of the living matter. At the project’s core is constant research into the creation of sound synthesis modules, recycling old electronic components, and looking toward a possible sustainability of electronic music production.

GRÜN's performances are usually merged with real-time generative visuals specially made and controlled by visual artist Davide Luciani. They have been hosted by international festivals such as Berlin Atonal 2013 and STRØM Festival in Copenhagen.

The project’s debut album will soon be out via De Santis’ own Dromoscope label, the first chapter in a series of cassette releases. Founded as a reaction to the lack of space for experimental A/V electronic and electro-acoustic languages in Rome, Dromoscope first took shape five years ago as a series of namesake Sessions dedicated to electronic arts. The project was actively supported by a number of local artists such as Fabio Perletta (head of the Farmacia 901 label), Plaster, and Davide Luciani and gradually came to represent a likeminded collective and most recently the label.

2015 has seen De Santis begin a brand new collaboration with Morphine label head and electronic music producer Rabih Beaini, in which he returns to his roots as a percussionist for the first time in years.

GRÜN + Orgon [ a + v ] @ SUPERVEGETALE Night - DalVerme 010412 (Rome) from Dromoscope on Vimeo.

OVB #1 – Kick Off

Novosibirsk State Scientific Library, Mon 14.09.2015, 18:30

Dyad & The Sleepers Club, GRÜN, VJ Haust

Homegrown

Novosibirsk State Scientific Library, Wed 16.09.2015, 11:00

Workshop with GRÜN / Daniele De Santis