Caterina Barbieri

Berlin-based Italian composer Caterina Barbieri writes polyphonic, polyrhythmic music for a variety of analog synthesizers. Minimalist in arrangement, her compositions are highly vibrant and luminous, twisting patterns of radiant tones into complex yet accessible soundscapes reflecting on time and space. She has performed at several experimental music festivals and received major acclaim for recordings such as 2017′s Patterns of Consciousness and 2019′s Ecstatic Computation. On 2022′s Spirit Exit, she expanded her sound to incorporate strings, guitar, and vocals. Barbieri studied classical guitar and electro-acoustic music at the conservatory in Bologna before she began composing music for the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer at the Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm, Sweden in 2013. She recorded her debut album, Vertical, at this studio as well as the Royal University of Music (also located in Stockholm). Drawing lines between minimal techno and drone, Vertical was issued on cassette by Important Records’ Cassauna imprint in 2014. Barbieri has since performed at numerous experimental music festivals and venues throughout the world, including Berlin’s Atonal festival, where she premiered Upper Glossa, a collaboration with Kali Malone, in 2016. Barbieri’s second full-length, Patterns of Consciousness, was released by Important in 2017 and was acclaimed by publications such as FACT, Resident Advisor, and The Wire. During the same year, Barbieri and Carlo Maria released Remote Sensing, an EP of stripped-down compositions created using the Roland TB303 and TR606, under the name Punctum. Two Barbieri LPs were simultaneously released in 2018: solo album Born Again in the Voltage and a split with drone artist Eleh. Ecstatic Computation was released by Editions Mego in 2019. Fantas Variations, a full-length consisting of reworks and interpretations of Ecstatic Computation centerpiece “Fantas,” appeared in 2021. Barbieri launched her own Light-Years imprint with her 2022 full-length Spirit Exit. Myuthafoo, a companion album to Ecstatic Computation, appeared in 2023. ~ Paul Simpson