Lorenzo Burgio
Notturni

This research project explores light pollution and the lack of a clear dark night sky, focusing on how it relates to the composition of music inspired by these contemporary nighttime landscapes.

‘Notturni’ is a collection of tracks mainly composed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, taking inspiration from long solo walks at night and stargazing through the pinkish haze that wraps the night sky over our heads. 


These immersive compositions (binaural and octophonic) channel the disturbance felt while watching the absence of darkness and try to paint a landscape of what a brightly lit night sky might sound like. 


This project is contextualized within several historical examples of nocturnes, ranging from Romantic Classical compositions (John Field, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt) to a more modern electronic approach (Brian Eno, William Basinski, Jon Hopkins), while also focusing on social and health issues related to light pollution and the absence of a dark night.

The project, through this historical and analytical lens, aims to answer these key questions: 

- Is our night so much different from the one that Chopin and all the other romantic composers were witnessing?

- How does a brightly lit night sound like?

- What would the main difference between those nocturnes and contemporary ones be?

“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.” 
 - Wendell Berry, ‘To Know the Dark’

Heavily inspired by minimalism and contemporary electronic ambient compositions, this project calls attention to the activity of listening by focusing on the internal process of the music defined by key concepts such as silence and repetition and the large use of audio manipulation through effects and tape recorders.

Through the reading of Reich’s manifesto ‘Music as a Gradual Process’ I’ve begun putting myself away from the exclusive position of the composer, trying to unveil my process to the listener and share the same experience — since everything here is happening gradually.