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BioGRAPHY

Drawing from a carefully selected palette of electro-acoustic textures and shapeshifting rhythms, Passepartout Duo’s work investigates the way in which we listen to and connect with sound. Reassessing the tools they use to create their music, the group is continually developing a specialized and evolving ecosystem of handmade musical instruments that have ranged from analog electronic circuits and conventional percussion, to room-size textile installations and found objects.

Looking for ways of sustaining an independent musical career and shaping an international network of artists and musicians, the group has been on a nearly continuous world tour ever since they began collaborating in 2015, and their experiences traveling have heavily influenced their unconventional creative process.

This from-scratch approach has materialized itself in a series of discographic releases: their most recent Circo Pobre (2022) and Daylighting (2021) are both LPs exploring different ways of approaching sound synthesis and electronic musical interfaces, respectively realized through electromagnetism and textile fibers. Their 2020 LP, Vis-à-Vis, features compositions written for a portable wood and metal instrumentation that accompanied the duo during a month-long train journey across Central Asia. A residency at AIR Niederösterreich (AT) also provided the duo with time to combine writing for acoustic piano and synthesizer through their EP titled Epigrams, exploring the Ernst Krenek Institut’s Buchla 100 Series.

Seeking to make their instrument creations available for use by a wider audience, their invention called the Chromaplane was also launched as a product in collaboration with Berlin-based synthesizer manufacturer KOMA Elektronik in 2024.

Passepartout Duo has been the recipient of dozens of artist residency opportunities around the world including The Watermill Center (US), the Swatch Art Peace Hotel (CN), the Rogers Art Loft (US), and the Embassy of Foreign Artists (CH). Their multidisciplinary approach has also led them to exhibit both their own creations and their collaborations with fellow artists at venues such as Casino Luxembourg (LU), the Nakanojo Biennale (JP), Aarhus Artspace (DK), and Fanrong Museum (CN).

The duo was selected for SHAPE+ Platform’s roster of artists 2022-2023.

Passepartout Duo is formed by pianist Nicoletta Favari (IT) and percussionist Christopher Salvito (US/IT).

PRESS INFORMATION

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"Experimental music is too often dismissed by many as cold and calculated. Passepartout Duo are here to tear down that myth."

Chris Ingalls
PopMatters (US)

"Some of the most gorgeously sophisticated and refreshing exercises in minimalism you could hope to hear."

Joe Muggs
Bandcamp Daily (US)

"Masters of this daily art that is substantiating their own dreams"

Miryam Scandola
Pantheon Verona (IT)

"Daylighting is an album that unfolds in space, not time, and I imagine the album as a whole, frozen in time, suspended across a museum wall. The soundscapes stand there, shining, as synthesizers, percussion, and other samples build up sculptures in your ears, to consider at your leisure."

The Reykjavík Grapevine (IS)

“The music impresses on its own terms, but the duo’s inventiveness makes it all the more dazzling."

Peter Margasak
Bandcamp Daily (US)

"The music is solemn, hypnotic, ethereal, immersive, elegant, free but at the same time structured, it seems to flow with grace and authority."

Giovanni Savini
Just Baked (IT)

"This beautiful and concise recording makes us want to stay outside all year long, looking at - or for - the sun and other stars."

Richard Allen
A Closer Listen (UK)

"A simply enjoyable, streamlined listen."

Laura Studarus
NYLON (US)