About

Alessandro Massobrio (b. 1974, Turin) is a composer and guitarist based in Berlin. His work investigates the relationship between listening and thinking, the conditions under which sound becomes a form of thought, and the compositional means through which this can be sustained and structured.

His compositional practice spans chamber music, live electronics, and intermedial performance, with a focus on the behaviour of sound in time: how gestures decay, how densities shift, how the ear navigates fields that resist linear organisation. Works include Emergences for chamber orchestra (2011), Non v'è cosa for baritone saxophone, accordion, cello, and percussion (2012), Linee radiali for violin and tam-tam (2018), Senza, three miniatures for piano and percussion (2020), Lichtbrechungen for clarinet, flute, alto saxophone, and accordion (2021), Calanchi for piano and electric guitar (2022), the Guitar Studies cycle for guitar and electronics (2004-2014).

Alessandro has received masterclasses in composition with Mark Andre, Frank Bedrossian, Uroš Rojko, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Chaya Czernowin, Detlef Heusinger, Pierluigi Billone, Alberto Posadas, Annesley Black, Dimitri Papageorgiou, and Orestis Toufektsis. As a composer he has worked with ensembles and soloists including Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Mise-en, Zwerm, LUX:NM, Andrew Zhou, Julia Den-Boer, and Matthias Koole. His music has been performed at Ostrava Days, Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht), Music Current Festival (Dublin), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Mise-en Festival (New York), outHEAR New Music Week (Larissa), Musica Estrahna (São Paulo), Issue Project Room (Brooklyn), and Café Oto (London). He has received commissions from Dublin Sound Lab (Music Current Commission 2022/23), Ensemble Mise-en, and Unerhörte Musik Berlin, and has held residencies at the Mise-en Festival (New York) and scholarships at the SWR Experimentalstudio (Freiburg).

Under the moniker Flushing Device, Alessandro developed a parallel practice in electroacoustic music and live audiovisual performance, often in collaboration with visual artists including Valentina Besegher. Releases include Event Horizon (Betulla Records, 2007), Collezione del silenzio with Fabio Orsi (Silentes Records, 2010), Power/field 2 (Anarchymoon Recordings, 2010), and Collezione Del Silenzio (2016). Performances include Netmage Live Media Festival, Flora Live Media, Cango Cantieri Gondoletta, Live iXem, P.E.A.M, Spazio 'O, OFFF Barcelona, and many more. Massobrio and Besegher's collaborative engagement in time-based art has continued through lecture performances, presentations, and workshops at Transmediale (Berlin, 2018) in collaboration with Rhizome and New Museum (New York), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2023), ArtEZ University of the Arts (Arnhem, 2019), La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2017), NeMe (Cyprus), and SODAS 2123 (Vilnius), among others.