# Andrea Centazzo

Andrea Centazzo (born 1948) is an Italian-born American composer, percussionist, multimedia artist and record label founder.

## Music career

Centazzo was born in Udine, Italy. In the 1970s he played percussion in avant-garde jazz with John Zorn, Steve Lacy, and Don Cherry, and became "a leading figure in the European avant-garde".
After 1986 he turned to video making and composed operas, film soundtracks and orchestral compositions. Since 1992, he has lived and worked in Los Angeles and has become a naturalized American citizen. He has also performed and recorded with Albert Mangelsdorff, Alvin Curran, Anthony Coleman, Evan Parker, Fred Frith, Gianluigi Trovesi, Henry Kaiser, Sylvano Bussotti, Theo Jörgensmann, Tom Cora, and Toshinori Kondo. He has conducted his own compositions with the American Youth Symphony, the L.A. Contemporary Orchestra, the Mitteleuropa Orchestra, and many ensembles. He has directed and staged his own opera compositions as well as theatrical plays by other U.S. authors.
Centazzo has also created multimedia projects that fuse acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, and video. His multimedia projects include Mandala, Eternal Traveler, Einstein's Cosmic Messengers, and R-Evolution. In more recent live performances he has given solo multimedia concerts, accompanying his own videos.
Centazzo has recorded over 60 LP's and CD's, and has composed 350 musical works of diverse types, in addition to writing eight musicology books. In 2012 the Library of the University of Bologna opened the "Fondo Andrea Centazzo" with a collection of his works and documents.

## Instrumental innovations

During his earlier career Centazzo developed a number of percussion instruments, including the icebell, a bowl-shaped instrument made from a bronze alloy. In his 1980 work Indian Tapes he introduced the ogororo, lokole, tampang, tubophone and square bell, based on Native American instruments.

## ICTUS

The ICTUS record label was founded in 1976 by Centazzo and his wife, Carla Lugli. Its first release was Clangs by Centazzo and Steve Lacy. Subsequent albums also featured Andrew Cyrille and Lol Coxhill, among others. The label was wound up after eight years owing to financial difficulties, but was revived in 1995 and again in 2006.

## Compositions

Major compositions by Centazzo include the multimedia opera Tina (1996), The Soul in the Mist (2006), Moon in Winter (2011), The Heart of Wax (2012), and the multimedia project Tides of Gravity (2016). This last was produced in association with LIGO, NASA and Caltech to mark the first detection of gravitational waves.

## Music albums

| Year | Title | Collaborators |
| 2016 | Duets 7 (1977) | Evan Parker |
| 2015 | October Wind Vol. 2 | Steve Lacy, Kent Carter |
| 2015 | October Wind Vol. 1 | Steve Lacy, Kent Carter |
| 2013 | The Complete Recording Vol. 3 - Rituals | LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams |
| 2013 | Latecomers | Anthony Coleman, Steve Swell, Giancarlo Schiaffini |
| 2013 | Stolen Moment | Marilyn Crispell |
| 2013 | Derek Bailey Tribute Band | Chris Cochran, Marco Cappelli, Anders Nilsson |
| 2012 | In A Rainy Day | Roberto Ottaviano |
| 2012 | Bridges | Akira Sakata, Kiyoto Fujiwara |
| 2012 | Lost In June | Steve Lacy, Kent Carter |
| 2012 | The Complete Recording Vol. 2 - Halcyon Days | LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams |
| 2012 | Seven Giant Waves | |
| 2012 | Ictus World Music Collection | |
| 2012 | Mandala | |
| 2011 | Einstein's Cosmic Messengers Live | |
| 2011 | September Impressions | Janel Leppin, Mike Sebastian, T.A. Zook |
| 2011 | Escape From 2012 | Don Preston |
| 2011 | Live In Concert At The Kennedy Center Washington DC | |
| 2011 | Deep Space Adventure | |
| 2011 | Snowplow | Elliott Sharp |
| 2011 | Moon In Winter | Dave Ballou, Daniel Barbiero, Nobu Stowe, Achille Succi |
| 2009 | Guitars | |
| 2008 | West Coast Trio | |
| 2007 | Double - The Complete Recording 1976 - 2007 | Guido Mazzon |
| 2007 | The Warriors | Toshinori Kondo, Eugene Chadbourne |
| 2007 | Los Angeles Tapes | |
| 2007 | The German Horse | Eugene Chadbourne |
| 2007 | After The Silence | Giancarlo Cardini |
| 2007 | Eternal Traveler | |
| 2007 | Voyagers | |
| 2007 | The Soul In The Mist | Perry Robinson, Nobu Stowe |
| 2007 | Eternal Traveler | |
| 2006 | Moot & Lid | Lol Coxhill, Giancarlo Schiaffini |
| 2006 | Double 1 | Guido Mazzon |
| 2006 | With Love's Light Wings | |
| 2006 | Henceforward | |
| 2006 | Double 2 | Guido Mazzon |
| 2006 | A New Shock!! | Gianluigi Trovesi |
| 2006 | Fragments 2 | |
| 2006 | Fragments 1 | |
| 2006 | Koans: Volume One | Pierre Favre |
| 2006 | Mandala | |
| 2006 | The Heart Of Wax | |
| 2006 | World Percussion Christmas | |
| 2006 | The Shadow And The Silence | |
| 2006 | Chamber Music | |
| 2006 | Koans: Volume Three | David Moss, Steve Hubback, Jeffrey Daniel Jensen, Pere Oliver Jørgens, Brake Drum Percussion |
| 2006 | Midnight All Day | |
| 2006 | Departed Angels | |
| 2006 | South | |
| 2006 | Koans: Volume Two | David Moss, Alex Cline |
| 2006 | Sacred Shadows | |
| 2006 | Darkly Again | Lol Coxhill, Franz Koglmann |
| 2006 | Speed The Plow | |
| 2006 | Infinity Squared | Henry Kaiser |
| 2006 | Thirty Years From Monday | |
| 2006 | In Real Time | |
| 2006 | Darkly | Lol Coxhill, Franz Koglmann |
| 2006 | The Recollection | |
| 2006 | Early Music 1972-1973 | |
| 2006 | Tao | Steve Lacy |
| 2006 | Spaces | |
| 2006 | Songs And Thoughts | |
| 2006 | Early Music 1970-1975 | |
| 2001 | Piano Music | |
| 2001 | Il Cuore Di Cera | |
| 2000 | Situations | Lol Coxhill, Franz Koglmann, Giancarlo Schiaffini |
| 1998 | Real Time Two | Alvin Curran, Evan Parker |
| 1997 | The Secret Of Joy | |
| 1996 | Highlights From Tina | |
| 1996 | USA Concerts West | John Carter, Vinny Golia, Greg Goodman |
| 1994 | A Bosnian Requiem | |
| 1994 | Film Soundtrack - N. 3 | |
| 1993 | Sea | |
| 1993 | Sea Land People Seasons | |
| 1993 | Seasons | |
| 1993 | Land | |
| 1993 | People | |
| 1992 | Living Pictures | |
| 1991 | Theatres | |
| 1990 | Cetacea - L'Odissea Dei Suoni Perduti | |
| 1989 | Il presente prossimo venturo | |
| 1989 | Visions | |
| 1989 | Omaggio A Pier Paolo Pasolini | |
| 1987 | Jacques E Il Suo Padrone | Milan Kundera |
| 1985 | Tiare | |
| 1985 | L'Altro Lato | Carlo Actis Dato, Furio Chirico, Luigi Venegoni |
| 1984 | Shock!! | Gianluigi Trovesi |
| 1983 | Cjant - Concerto Per Piccola Orchestra | |
| 1982 | Solo De La Passion Selon Sade | Sylvano Bussotti |
| 1981 | Percussion Interchanges | David Moss, Alex Cline, Creative Music Studio |
| 1980 | Indian Tapes | |
| 1979 | Environment For Sextet | John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Toshinori Kondo, Polly Bradfield |
| 1979 | Protocol | Henry Kaiser, Toshinori Kondo |
| 1979 | The Bay | Rova Saxophone Quartet |
| 1979 | Velocities | LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams |
| 1979 | Moot | Lol Coxhill, Giancarlo Schiaffini |
| 1978 | Dec 29 1978 Udine | Eugene Chadbourne |
| 1978 | U.S.A. Concerts | |
| 1978 | Real Time | Alvin Curran, Evan Parker |
| 1977 | Dialogues | Pierre Favre |
| 1977 | Trio Live | Steve Lacy, Kent Carter |
| 1977 | Drops | Derek Bailey |
| 1977 | Ratsorock | Paolo Bordini, Franco Feruglio |
| 1976 | Duetti | Guido Mazzon |
| 1976 | Clangs | Steve Lacy |
| 1976 | FM Frequenze Modulate (Le Nuove Tendenze Della Musica Italiana) | Mario Guarnera, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Guido Mazzon, Gaetano Liguori, Luigi Grechi |
| 1976 | Freedom Out ! | Gunter Hampel, Frederic Rabold, Bruno Tommaso, Martin Bues, Thomas Keyserling |
| 1976 | Solos 6/5/76 | |
| 1975 | Fragmentos | |
| 1974 | Ictus | |
Source:

## Filmography

* 1986 Romance
* 1992 Obiettivo indiscreto
* 1995 Shadow of a Kiss (TV movie)
* 1995 Star Struck
* 1999 I Karaoke (short)
* 2001 The Circle (short)
* 2009 La Corsa (short)
* 2009 Mei Mei (short)
* 2009 Toto Forever (short)
* 2010 Desire Street
* 2013 Ni Jing: Thou Shalt Not Steal
* 2015 Floating Melon
* 2016 Advent (film)

## Books

* Andrea Centazzo (1979). Guida agli strumenti a percussione: storia e uso. Il formichiere.
* Andrea Centazzo (1982). Strumenti per fare musica. Gammalibri.
* Andrea Centazzo (1982). La batteria: stili, protagonisti e tecniche. F. Muzzio. ISBN 978-88-7021-198-6.
* Andrea Centazzo (1995). Smart drumming: metodo per batteria. Nuovo Carisch. ISBN 978-88-7207-143-4.