Caterina Barbieri

Italian composer Caterina Barbieri, based in Berlin, constructs polyphonic and polyrhythmic works across an array of analog synthesizers. Her pared-down arrangements generate luminous, energetic results as radiant tone patterns interlock into elaborate yet approachable sonic worlds that meditate on temporality and spatiality. Festival appearances at experimental music events have multiplied, while recordings including the 2017 release Patterns of Consciousness and 2019’s Ecstatic Computation have drawn widespread critical attention. The 2022 album Spirit Exit marked an expansion that folded in strings, guitar, and vocals.

Before turning to the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer at Stockholm’s Elektronmusikstudion in 2013, Barbieri trained in classical guitar and electro-acoustic music at the conservatory in Bologna. She tracked her debut album Vertical at both that Swedish facility and the Royal University of Music, also in Stockholm. Issued on cassette by Important Records’ Cassauna imprint in 2014, the record linked minimal techno to drone. Subsequent global performances have taken her to numerous experimental festivals and spaces, among them Berlin’s Atonal, where Upper Glossa—a joint piece with Kali Malone—received its premiere in 2016.

Important issued her second album, Patterns of Consciousness, in 2017, earning notice from FACT, Resident Advisor, and The Wire. That year also saw Barbieri and Carlo Maria, recording as Punctum, deliver the EP Remote Sensing, whose stripped-down pieces were realized on the Roland TB303 and TR606. Two further LPs appeared simultaneously in 2018: the solo set Born Again in the Voltage and a split with drone artist Eleh. Editions Mego released Ecstatic Computation in 2019. Fantas Variations, comprising reworkings of the Ecstatic Computation track “Fantas,” followed in 2021. Barbieri inaugurated her own Light-Years imprint with the 2022 full-length Spirit Exit, and the companion album Myuthafoo arrived the next year. ~ Paul Simpson