Patch Notes: Caterina Barbieri

For this episode of Patch Notes, we travelled with Caterina Barbieri to Sicily and recorded a session near the summit of Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Amidst bubbling lava flows, Barbieri performed live versions of ‘At Your Gamut’ and ‘Terminal Clock’, taken from her 2022 album, Spirit Exit.

The session was filmed in as part of our recent documentary on Barbieri, which followed the Italian musician as she returned to live performance following the pandemic and debuted the light-years concept around Europe. “I like to think of sound as a spiral that connects the physical world with the metaphysical world,” she explains in the film.

Barbieri’s music, which combines modular synthesis, vocals and other instrumentation, has evolved across several albums including Patterns of Consciousness and Ecstatic Computation. On 16 June, Barbieri will release a sister album to Spirit Exit titled Myuthafoo, which was largely written while touring with a process that responded to the “nomadic, interactive energy” of life on the road.

Credits:

Directed and produced by Pedro S. Küster
Extra footage by Sofia Küster
Sound by Caterina Barbieri

Special thanks to Parco dell’Etna, Regione Siciliana, Ministero dell’Ambiente, Federparchi, UNESCO, Daniela Pavone, Luciano Di Marco, Paride, Pippo and Ruben Spini

[ThisIsDownstate]

She really is a master. Somewhere between beautiful simplicity and organized chaos of lots of layers, it just sits in the perfect place sonically every time i watch her. Never too minimal, never too complex, just always slowly evolving so musically. Walking around the city at night with her music on is such a vibe.

[loopinnerthe]

Her fluidity and oneness with the eurorack is absolutely masterful. She also seems to possesses a long and complex musical memory that allows her progress and return and layer many themes effortlessly. This video is very special as she appears to be not only politely addressing but lovingly serenading and drawing power from something as close to infinity as a volcano. For me she is metaphorically placed at the very entry to the core of the earth at the intangible edge of understanding...

[angelofasciani]

By listening to the way she manipulate the waves in order to guide the listener to a spiritual path, I can say she's more than a musician, she is an Alchemist

[rgrant]

CB simultaneously being the first and last human playing music for the planet, makes perfect sense.

[Neonate_Aeon]

every one of her compositions are like meditations, wordless stories, what a place to play as well

[murat-rvkj]

im turkish and im proud of her on behalf of my italian friends because they have no idea

[rockstar-technology]

Incredible performance as expected from her.

[jhnny]

This feels like the melancholy beauty of watching conscious life transition from man to machine

[patrickmagne]

Caterina, I discovered your music yesterday evening in Hamburg, when attending to the new performance of Gisèle VIENNE; EXTRA LIFE, I did'nt know you before, and I immediatly enjoyed your music!

[octavioduarte]

Outstanding. Makes me want to get my case into a bag and take a bus to anywhere and play.

[nederlanditism]

When you only need the first six or ten notes to have her identified, no matter that you know from the title who'd be playing. Quite an achievement in the crowded field of electronic music!

[babylon-braindive-project]

Music is the only real form of magic!
... sorry for my bad english ;)
Thank you all musicians!!!

[AndyLeMay]

Audio is great as you'd expect, but something about the 60fps video creates a tension that imo kinda detracts from the analog nature of it.

[YY-lvfg]

I had no idea Caterina was in Death Stranding. Awesome.

[neuzethmusic]

Great! But seeing her perform live is even better.

[alexandrosvassilakis]

She performes 3 tracks from her latest album, not 2. At Your Gamut, The Landscape Listens and Terminal Clock

[shalomormsby]

Love this. And that moment at 6:30 when you start singing... Cosmic!

[apathtooblivion]

I am somewhere in the cosmos with this piece!!

[ryanjonze]

Caterina Barbieri is insanely cool and talented. What a great setting and performance. Too bad this came out after the documentary Fire of Love. Would have been a perfect score for it.

[lucielecat]

Merci beaucoup, j’ai adoré…. L’ambiance, le son, et surtout ton inspiration…..vive l’électro !!!!