Lorenzo Setti, aka ATŌMI, is an Italian composer and musician with many experiences as drummer, both in studio and live. He played in Europe and USA as opening act of Richie Ramone, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Man Lifting Banner and Ricky Rat. Online He reaches millions of people with his videos and becomes viral all over the world, featured on the world’s leading magazines and TV news.
The first of three concept EPs ‘ARMØNIA’, beautifully illustrated by Serjan Burlak, mixed and mastered by Davide Cristiani at Bombanella Soundscapes and published through the Japanese label Jikken Records dropped on September 17th, 2020, embodies the research, the unceasing curiosity and emotions of the musician and producer.
FACTS:
1: Is It the whole what we perceive with our senses or is it just a part of it?
2: Assuming that our brain is a universe itself
3: What would it mean if “our galaxy is set to collide with the Andromeda galaxy”?
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Trying to live the present, second by second, I get inspired by everything. Life is an experiential path. Currently I’m exploring the world of vibrations. How fast or slow something vibrates, determines which of our senses will perceive it and consequentially which emotional reaction will be related.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
The first time that I remember, was me beatboxing non-stop at four years old. At six I was smashing a drum-set.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Impossible answer.
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Brian Blade – Mama Rosa
Steven Wilson – Insurgentes
Vangelis – Blade Runner OST
Tool – Lateralus
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
A beautiful contradiction like “pink is the new minimal”.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
The place where I feel like being somewhere else.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I would set up a secret organisation with the aim of doing research and experiments about what then will be called “music”. But an easier answer could be: the inorganic researcher or the ecstatic designer.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
’Ecstatic Computation’ LP, the latest beautiful album by Caterina Barbieri at Hard Wax Record Store in Berlin.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Well it actually happened that I dreamed to compose or playing live with two artists and waking up like.. whut?! So I have to make a tribute to that subconscious experience telling their names: Thom Yorke and Alessandro Cortini.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Hard question to answer. I’ve watched and performed so many and I think that as musician or artist in general one of most important things is to go to as many events as possibile to experience and assimilate the different new ways to traduce and express emotions.
One of the most emotional has been Ben Frost live at Labirinto Della Masone (IT) for the LOST Festival, with him positioned in the middle of the crowd presenting for the first time his ‘Widening Gyre 360° Surround Sound Show’. Above us a night sky full of stars. I felt connected with the universe.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Super important even if I think that the approach is the real important thing instead of the medium in itself. I discovered myself having a manual and “analog” approach on technology, using it as a kind of “translator” that puts two languages in dialogue.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
Yes, I have one sister and it has been fun to call her asking her point of view about my work and career.
She said “You’re going through a very introspective path, a deep dig inside yourself that leads you to express deep and powerful emotions. Something that would sounds like a ’rehab’. But you should take more advantage of your rhythmic potential and skills. This is a great opportunity!”. Thank you sis.
The first of three concept EPs ‘ARMØNIA’, beautifully illustrated by Serjan Burlak, mixed and mastered by Davide Cristiani at Bombanella Soundscapes and published through the Japanese label Jikken Records dropped on September 17th, 2020, embodies the research, the unceasing curiosity and emotions of the musician and producer Lorenzo Setti aka ATŌMI.
The concept behind ARMØNIA has been broadened by five videos, directed by five different visual artists.
“IAM”, the fourth track of the Ep, directed by Chiara De Maria retraces the four levels of consciousness described by Willigis Jäger in “Search for the Meaning of Life”. A metaphorical awakening, through symbolic intuitions and visions.
“Five tracks for five different types of approach to electronic sound art. This expressive multiplicity clearly reveals the musician’s manyfold potentialities and his extreme compositional flexibility.” – Europa e Cultura Elettronica
“The music of ATŌMI contributes to the creation of rarefied atmospheres and suspended emotional states.” – Nicchia Elettronica
Lorenzo Setti, aka ATŌMI, is an Italian composer and musician with many experiences as drummer, both in studio and live. He played in Europe and USA as opening act of Richie Ramone, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Man Lifting Banner and Ricky Rat. Online He reaches millions of people with his videos and becomes viral all over the world, featured on the world’s leading magazines and TV news.
He approaches the world of electronic music production in 2016, under the pseudonym 7he Alien, publishing the soundtrack “The Dionysus’ Hill”. Then he begins collaborating with the artists Adolfo Lugli and Lola Darling which will lead him to create the atmosphere for various events including the installation “CambiaMenti” for FestivalFilosofia and the art exhibition “Digital + Art” at the H2Otto showroom for the Fuorisalone Milan Design Week.
In 2019 he took part in “Soundtracks 2019”, a project for silent movies’ live soundtrack, supervised by Corrado Nuccini and featuring Stefano Pilia, Cabeki, and many other well known musicians. He produced two remixes for the band “Piuma Makes Noise” and composed the soundtrack for two short-films: “PIANETA” selected as finalist of 3E Filmfestival and Cineconcerto Festival, and “Col Nero”, both directed by the visual artist Chiara De Maria. As ATŌMI he is working on installations, soundtracks and A/V live shows, in collaboration with teams of engineers, visual artists, architects and programmers.
His collaborative works have been screened in festival such as: Creative Code Festival at Lightbox NYC, Graphic Days Torino, SeeYouSound, Algoritmi and La Capsula Milano. In 2020 he released ARMØNIA through the Japanese label Jikken Records, the first of the three concept EPs based on the search of the resonant frequencies taken from the orbits of the solar system’s planets, to deepen and rediscover themes that have always fascinated the human beings; the interconnection between the vibrations, the cosmos and life itself.
Photo © Chiara De Maria
