The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

As I perused the miseries of the world (those reported in the news) this morning, I stumbled across an article on Luigi Rossolo and modern efforts to reconstruct his instruments and re-record and perform his music.
Russolo was a Futurist painter, musical/noise instrument maker, composer and performer. Like many zealous visionary artists, he seems to have been attracted to extremes.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/ ... -orchestra

There are examples of his paintings at the bottom of his Wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Russolo

There seems to have been a CD compiled of his known and still existing recordings, some taken from wax cylinders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbAnwZpwOTs

an interesting dude - thanks for posting this!

Interesting! The music however is too noisy for my ears ...

I had my first, electrifying contact with the Futurists as a kid, in 1986, when my family and I visited the still resounding exhibition "Futurismo & Futurismi" in Palazzo Grassi, Venice. It has been a life-changing experience, and I did my best to deepen my knowledge of all sides of Futurism and futurists since then.

Their forays into music are limited, if compared to those into other arts, but interesting and striking nonetheless. Unfortunately it seems that no period recording of music by Russolo survives, nor any of his original instruments is known to survive; so whatever can be heard today is based on speculation and reconstruction. In this regard, Daniele Lombardi is "The Name" when it comes to futurist music. His 1980 double album "Musica Futurista" immediately stood out as a benchmark in the reconstruction of futurist music. In later years, he expanded this work up to an 8 CD box released in 2010. I was lucky enough to put my hands on the boxset, which, after Lombardi's sudden death in 2018, will most likely remain an unsurpassed reference.

Marco Gilardetti wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 2:48 am Unfortunately it seems that no period recording of music by Russolo survives, nor any of his original instruments is known to survive; so whatever can be heard today is based on speculation and reconstruction.

Interesting. I am probably mistaken then in my misguided assertion above that original recordings exist. I do recall (perhaps mistakenly), however, someone talking (perhaps mistakenly) about Russolo wax cylinders.

There seems to be some confusion about Russolo's recordings, what existed and what still exists (or what is known to exist).

https://musikderzeit.de/buch/die-kunst-der-geraeusche/

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/luigi-russ ... tal-music/

Russolo did go on to make several different recordings from 1913 to 1921 which explored this idea, most notably “Risveglio Di Una Città” from 1913 and many more original recordings as well as new Intonarumori compositions).

https://www.italyonthisday.com/2017/04/ ... poser.html

Antonio Russolo, Luigi’s brother and another Futurist composer, produced a recording of two works featuring the original intonarumori. The phonograph recording made in 1921 included works entitled Corale and Serenata, which combined conventional orchestral music set against the sound produced by the noise machines. It is the only surviving contemporaneous recording of Luigi Russolo’s noise music.

https://archive.org/details/russolo-lui ... e-1921.mp3

Not exactly dance music, is it...

Lovely bunch of fellows, the Futurists.

Hoodoo wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 1:41 pm Lovely bunch of fellows, the Futurists.

Yes, they seem like a fun group.

Lah Ca wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 9:58 am There seems to be some confusion about Russolo's recordings, what existed and what still exists (or what is known to exist).

The confusion unravels if it is taken into account that Antonio Russolo is not the same chap as Luigi Russolo.

Again according to Daniele Lombardi, not only there is no recording and no instrument left by Luigi Russolo, but to our highest astonishment there is also no score left, excepting the front page of Il Risveglio Di Una Città with 7 bars in all, not in its original sheet but as an ilustration on a page of the literary newspaper Lacerba. By expanding these 7 bars, and by using reconstructed Intonarumori, Lombardi wrote and recorded a short development of the piece, that lasts 28 seconds in all and can be listened in his above mentioned records, that is what is possibly closer to what Luigi Russolo's piece might have sounded like.