If you love the Futurist avant-garde and music, let yourself get swept up by the sonic vibrations of pianist, composer and visual artist Daniele Lombardi [2]. The Florentine pianist garnered international fame for pioneering a personal and unique musical vision that combines sounds, lights and action. Over the course of his artistic career, he has devoted a lot of energy to the musical side of the most important avant-garde movement of the 20th century.

And like the Futurists, Lombardi practices various forms of expression, including 
painting, music and video art. No listener can walk away untouched from a show driven by such overwhelming creative energy. The lighting effects and interactive systems always fascinate audiences. Lombardi’s interest in music has also led him to write several books, including Il suono veloce: Futurismo e futurismi in musica (Fast Sound: Futurism and Futurisms in Music).

Last summer the music label Mudima Edizioni Musicali [3] produced Musica Futurista, a box set of 8 CDs. The music is a mix of spoken word, sounds and noise—elements dear to Futurism [4].  It embodies the personal and artistic research that Daniele Lombardi has conducted over the years, a cohesion of action and sound produced by the energy of thought. And that energy is visualized as a metaphor for space.

The CDs were advertised by the Guggenheim Museum [5] in New York, site of maestro Lombardi’s recent concert, FuturisMusic  Wearing a futurist waistcoat and a charming white moustache, the maestro once again enchanted audiences. The concert was just one of many events surrounding the exhibit Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe [6], which ended recently and was sponsored in part by Lavazza.