ABOUT

"Francesca Guccione's Muqataea is out now on Whales Records. On it, the Sicilian-born violinist and composer presents a deeply personal vision of chamber music. When she blends electronics with the familiar sounds of acoustic instruments, it's not so much to create contrasts as to complement their emotional resonance. And when she builds her pieces on gentle ostinatos  and circling violin patterns, the aim is not to create rhythmical propulsion, but to suspend movement: The point of the loop is to make itself disappear. We recognise these techniques as contemporary, but what makes them sound so fresh and engaging is precisely that they rekindle a seemingly lost spark: When, in the 19th century, the romantic movement emerged, audiences became smaller, withdrawing into the privacy of the salon, where performances took on an unprecedented sense of intimacy. But the inward journeys they took the listener on became ever more expansive and vivid, tending towards the state of lucid dreaming. This is the era that Guccione's approach is reviving, these are the emotional landscapes that Muqataea is transporting you to." - 15 Questions



"From the very opening lines of slowly building recurring string progressions, complemented by deeper atmospheric treatments and triumphant piano notes, it is impossible not to compare this music to that of the dearly missed Jóhann Jóhannsson." - Headphone Commute





Francesca Guccione is an Italian composer and violinist.

Fascinated from the very beginning by the relation between sound and image, she combined her violin studies with those in composition and film scoring, earning a Master's Degree in this discipline with the highest grades.

Her love for travelling and her need to always discover and learn about new realities lead her to perform in many cities around the world, including New York, Toronto, Dublin and Alexandria of Egypt.

In 2021 she released for the French label Whales Records her first album of neoclassical music, “Muqataea”, featuring cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima as the project's artistic director; afterwards, several international artists, including Robot Koch, Julien Marchal, Hélène Vogelsinger, and Throwing Snow will make and release reworks of some of the tracks on this album. Also for Whales Records in 2022 she released the single “Shodō” and the EP “Utopia Aerial View” produced in collaboration with Moog Music. In addition to Whales Records, she also collaborates with other record labels, including the Canadian label Little Symphony Records, the French label InFiné Music, and the German label 7K! Records with which she released the single "Mare Tranquillitatis" included in the collection "String Layers Vol. II".

On invitation from Moog Music she performed at Superbooth 22 in Berlin where she presented an original composition for violin and synths.

Her creativity is poetic and suspended between reality and imagination; a gateway to hidden worlds.