Diego Stocco is a Italian composer, music sound designer and performer who combines the electronic with the natural. In other words, he is right up our alley here at Synkroniciti. You may have heard his work in the films Chernobyl Diaries, Takers, Sherlock Holmes, Crank and Into The Blue; the television shows The Tudors, Moonlight and Sleeper Cell; or the video games Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry Instincts and The Conduit.
His many projects have included an orchestra of custom instruments, a duet for leaves and turntable, works for dismantled piano, explorations of rain and wind, and improvisations on a trash bin, a plate, and, in the playful video below entitled Music from a Bonsai, on a very small tree. You may be surprised that none of the sounds in this video are produced on a synthesizer. Instead, Stocco uses high end microphones to record and amplify the sounds he makes on the tree. His tools include bows from stringed instruments, a piano hammer and a paintbrush. This particular tree is a bonsai, which means that it has been miniaturized by potting and pruning. The art of bonsai was first invented in ancient China and reached its height in Japan where it has been practiced for the past 1000 years.
It looks as if the bonsai tree was a very good sport about all of this!
Wind Light Trees and Piano features a more impressionist side of Stocco’s work. It was inspired by heavy winds in the trees near his home and includes the sounds of nature combined with those of his dismantled piano and a wind chime. Mesmerizing.
Videos via Diego Stocco on Vimeo. For more from this fascinating and intrepid artist, please check out his website.
stunningly precise, brilliant. thank you for drawing my attention to this lovely work. tony
Thanks, Tony! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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