Aria: A Multimedia Composition in Tribute to Art Music
by Filippo Lo Presti. Ionone

Aria is a contemporary composition rooted in the legacy of art music and inspired by the visionary work of Franco Battiato. It explores the tension between structure and transcendence, blending acoustic instrumentation with analog synthesis, spectral textures, and spatialized sound.
Built around the concept of breath as musical architecture, Aria unfolds in modular movements that evoke ritual, memory, and transformation.

ARIA
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short videos

We played together
even though our ages didn’t quite align. Franco Battiato was already a boy prodigy, expressing himself in original and avant-garde ways. Together, we awaited the arrival of packages from America, lovingly sent by Aunt Clementina. She would assemble the most intriguing toys, already brimming with early technology, and send them equally for Franco and me. Tucked carefully inside were 45 rpm records we would later play on the turntable at Franco’s house. The rock and roll of Elvis, and everything that America represented, filled us with joy.

Then came Franco’s first recordings, also on 45s, which went unnoticed, barely selling. His early appearances on RAI gave only a hint of the great era of Italian music to come. I remember the first time I heard his debut LP Fetus on 33 rpm, its layered sound and utterly unique lyrics were almost unsettling at first. Yet from that moment, he began his ascent into worlds that had once seemed unreachable, made tangible through his art.

Though I had briefly stepped away from music to study architecture, I never abandoned my musical instinct. During one of our meetings at Franco’s home, he convinced me to return to composition. I did.
Following his advice, I began to compose Revelation. And from there, our great love found its path.
This is only a fragment of my story with Franco, but it’s enough to remember him, in all his poetry of living.

Music