Discography
Eternally Frozen
Label: Maple Death, Bow
Year: 2023
Eternally Frozen consists of a series of canon based compositions for brass ensemble, percussion and synthesizer by Andrea Belfi. The canon is an ancient compositional technique in which an initial melody is imitated at a specified time interval by one or more parts, creating illusionary never-ending musical journeys.
The work is inspired by the evocative image of the Deprong Mori, a mythological bat with the alleged ability to fly through solid matter by bending atoms by it’s natural skill of audio echolocation. The myth suggests that one of these bats had been “eternally frozen” in a wall of solid lead in 1952 by the researcher of the Rockefeller University, Donald R. Griffith. This story is exhibited in a display at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, an institution renowned for both speculative, fantastical reinforcement of mythology and playful and beguiling distortions of mysterious could-be truths.
Both the canon and the “frozen” Deprong Mori are man-made illusory simulations of eternity. Their attempt is to create mirages, where the insinuation of facts is more meaningful than the reality.
After many years of sonic explorations with percussion, drums, and electronics, Belfi is here projecting himself as a composer through the direction of an astonishing brass ensemble in the realization of these canonic works. There are evident echoes of the works of Arthur Russell, Miles Davis, Moondog, William Basinski, and the Italian soundtrack tradition of Ennio Morricone and Egisto Macchi.
Strata
Label: FLOAT
Year: 2019
Strata is an organic evolution of the unique synthesis of hypnotizing drumming and ensnaring electronic patterns Belfi has become renowned for.
Recorded by Simon Goff at Vox-Ton, Berlin
Mixed by Rocco Marchi at Obst und Gemüse, Bologna
Master and Vinyl Cut by Andreas [Lupo] Lubich at Calyx Mastering
Cover Image shot on Mamiya RZ67 , with Ilford 120 film by Glashier
Design and layout by Adam Heron
Care guide illustrations by Leena Park, Text by Sofia Ilyas
Ore
Label: FLOAT
Year: 2017
Titled Ore, the album places the drums as its centrepiece, while textures are embellished and mutated through electronic manipulations and dark, eerie sonic details. On Ore, Andrea attains a masterful synthesis of these two sonic realms.
"When I started the record I really wanted to find something very direct. I was looking for something very raw, something sonically and acoustically complex. I had to look up the meaning and loved the concept – something raw that you can extract, and the refinement into a precious material. It’s a very simple metaphor but there’s a lot there, you can just put that word out and you don’t have to explain too much. You give an input to the listener, and just leave it to the imagination."
Belfi has gained a reputation for his energetic and charismatic performances, both as a solo musician and within numerous collaborations. 2016 saw him tour with Nonkeen, the German three-piece band headed by Nils Frahm. Belfi became an instant highlight following a sold-out gig at London’s Barbican Centre, lighting the stage with an impressive and explosive drum solo that became one of the most memorable moments from the evening.
Drums recordings by Matthias H. Franz Hahn at Studio Saal 3, Funkhaus, Berlin, except drums on “Anticline” recorded by Simon Berckelman at Golden Retriever Studio
Mixed by Francesco Donadello at Vox-Ton Studio
Mastered by Nils Frahm at Durton Studio Vinyl Cut by Andreas [Lupo] Lubich at Calyx Mastering
Cover photo by Vincent Erhart
Recorded by Simon Goff at Vox-Ton, Berlin
Mixed by Rocco Marchi at Obst und Gemüse, Bologna
Master and Vinyl Cut by Andreas [Lupo] Lubich at Calyx Mastering
Cover Image shot on Mamiya RZ67 , with Ilford 120 film by Glashier
Design and layout by Adam Heron
Care guide illustrations by Leena Park, Text by Sofia Ilyas
Alveare
Label: IIKKI
Year: 2017
Alveare is a journey across and around man-made cement beehives - the legacy of a group of visionary architects. Their playground: post-war Italy. Their vision: affordable dwelling designed to meet as many human needs as possible. A superficial look at these architectural reveries decades later might bring to mind terms such as "excessiveness" and "megalomania". But these massive edifices are prototypes of a city of the future – an urbanized future that was yet to be shaped by bold ideas and dreams. Meandering across the endless corridors of Nuovo Corviale or Rozzol Melara is like a surrealist hike through the realities of thousands of inhabitants of a beehive. And although the walls are made from rigid concrete, they have an organic feel to them. Facades move, shapes shift. Human demands are stronger than concrete and nature will always find a way. Alveare is a look at drawing board visions cast into concrete and their human adjustments.
"Matthias Heiderich"
all tracks played and composed by Andrea Belfi on drums, percussion and synthesizer between 2007 and 2016.
Audrey Chen: cello on "grigio"
Attila Faravelli: rotating speakers on "abito"
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi in September 2016
Artwork by Matthias Heiderich
Design : Sprflxgrfzm
Cera Persa
Label: Latency
Year: 2016
Seething, thrilling, hypnotic dance music, in the mighty tradition of Carl Craig’s Bug In The Bass Bin. Two constantly shifting blends of Belfi’s multi-rhythmic snare-work with stately drones and shimmering electronica. Themes and traces continually loom and recede, rocking to a deep, pulsating bass drum, and tautened by a widescreen sense of drama (with Morricone in mind).
Natura Morta
Artist: Andrea Belfi
Label: Miasmah
Year: 2014
Natura Morta, "dead nature" or "still life". This album can be understood as a powerful study of the minute details of the art of electro-acoustic composition, as much as the Renaissance "nature morte" were a masterful display of the artist’s skill in portraying the glow of a ripe fruit, or capturing the light beaming on a vacant chair.
Six tracks, to be listened to as two long explorations in the art of variation and repetition. Layers of drums and percussions intertwine with synth waves making the portrait come to life, detail after detail, until a complex figure emerges from the white canvas. The constant, unsteady sounds, wavering noise, swirling cymbals, and distant feedback gently pull the listener into the picture, letting them enjoy every detail of this beautifully staged compositions.
Recorded at EMS studio, Stockholm, ZKM in Karlsruhe and at the legendary Funkhaus in Berlin, this album mixes influences from both Italian minimalism and the electro-acoustic contemporary scene. Somewhere in between the electronics of Keith Fullerton Whitman, the percussive repetitions of Jon Mueller, and the atmospheric sensibility of Pan-American.
Dubbing & Doubling
Label: Room 40
Year: 2012
"I’ve been translating the sound of video from the language of Skateboarding into the language of Music. Then I created a musical structure looping these two minutes of music, with which I composed an eleven minutes long piece. This track has a strong narrative character, it is Cinéma pour l’Oreille. It is a one long movement, composed by many skateboard tricks. The ramp had been turned into sort of a speaking totems. The sound story coming through them, talks about the soul of the sound of skateboarding. The ramp changes its meaning throught the action of cutting. The skateboarding sound changes its meaning throught the action of dubbing. This revealed the deep value of repetition within the ritual of skateboarding."
Wege
Label: Room 40
Year: 2012
Wege translates as ‘path’ and it’s a fitting title for the latest rendering from master percussionist and experimental composer Andrea Belfi. The albums’ four pieces act as orientation points through some imaginary sonic landscape.
Wege is Belfi’s forth LP (the first with Room40), and stems entirely from compositions completed at two artist-in-residence projects in Austria (Hotel Pupik) and in Brussels (Q-O2 Werkplatz). The album is built around a cyclic electro-acoustic system, through which Belfi has developed a complex musical network of possibilities.
With this electro-acoustic system, influenced in part by Steve Reich’s ‘Pendulum Music’, Wege’s four pieces revolve around spiraling interconnections of synthesizer, feedback and drums. Belfi explains further:
“This device creates feedbacks on two drums on my drum kit, and I can modify it by stopping and stretching the drum skins with hands and various kinds of sticks, mallets and brushes, and/or by filtering the feedback with an a modular synthesizer.”
Edited in a quiet apartment in Greifswald (Germany) a small town on the Baltic Sea, the record bears marks of the stillness of the surroundings in which it was finalised. There is a sense of hushed awe and a subtle reference to the wind swept coldness of the landscape in these pieces.
Personnel:
Andrea Belfi: drums, percussion, electronics
Valerio Tricoli: revox
Stefano Roveda: violin
Greg Haines: cello
Attila Faravelli: rotating speaker
Stefano Tedesco: vibraphone
Andrea Faccioli: slide guitar, acoustic guitar
Stefano Pilia: double bass
Stefano Roveda: violin
Machinefabriek: guitar
Josef Novotny, Jong Won Choi, Auriel Martin Reich, Johanna Lettmayer, Martin Zrost, Echo Ho, Manuel Giannini: words
Recorded by Ludo Engels at Q-O2 Werkplatz, Brussels, October 2009
Additional recordings by Andrea Belfi, Greg Haines, Valerio Tricoli, Stefano Tedesco, Rutger Zuydervelt, Massimo Carozzi, Attila Faravelli
Edited by Andrea Belfi
Mixed by Andrea Belfi and Giuseppe Ielasi
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi March 2011
Design by Hartebeest
Knots
Label: Die Schachtel
Year: 2008
Italian drummer Andrea Belfi truly drives into a poly-rhythmic drum circle from another dimension. The whole work not only sounds wonderful but, more importantly, Andrea Belfi has developed a strong spatial sense characterized by a crystal clear cymbal tone, deep, warm bass drum, drone-like electronica and a never ending groove.
”Belfi manages to combine all the pieces of his puzzle into something with a consistent, downcast mood” (The Wire)
Music by Andrea Belfi
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Between Neck and Stomach
Label: Häpna
Year: 2006
Between Neck & Stomach is grounded on two core elements: the first is the material collected during the unique experiment of turning a house into "a living creature with its own voice" (just one example: a synth emitting one continuous note shaking a cupboard filled with pots, pans and plates). The second core element is the choice of just one thematic note per song, around which each track is built and balanced.
In this challenging album the acoustic elements and the electronic ones mingle, intertwine and sometimes switch places: the acoustic sounds are treated as they were electronic, and the actual electronic ones are played at the very moment. Rhythmic patterns go beyond the mere beat as AB shapes them in cycles, ever-circling but ever-changing, both reassuring and surprising. This album sketches imaginary landscapes where drums, guitars and voices blend into a bunch of eclectic tracks, which, in spite of their radical minimalist roots, are definitively worthy of the name 'songs'.
Composed and edited by Andrea Belfi between 2002 and 2005
Recorded and mixed by Valerio Tricoli and Andrea Belfi
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Personnel: Andrea Belfi, Stefano Pilia, Valerio Tricoli, Claudio Rocchetti, Andrea Faccioli, Stefano Roveda, Big Band Ritmo Sinfonica Città di Verona
Artwork & photos by Marco di Vincenzo
CD design by Klas Augustsson
Ned n°2
Label: Chocolateguns
Year: 2001
All songs performed and recorded by A.B. between December 2000 and June 2001, dedicated to Claudio Fasoli.
Artwork By [Cover Design] – Nicola Smanio
Artwork By [Cover Printed By] – Nicola Fasoli
Artwork By [Velvet Case] – Luciana Meneghini
Performer, Recorded By – Andrea Belfi
Photography [Cover] – Chiara Zorzi
Collaborations / Co-Releases (selection)
Andrea Belfi, Jules Reidy “Dessus Oben Alto Up” (Marionette, 2024)
Andrea Belfi & KODO 'In The Horse Stable Of The Sphinx / The Origin of the Pendulum”' (Pitch and Sync 2021)
Joep Beving “A Heartfelt Silence” (Andrea Belfi Rework) (Deutsche Grammophon, 2018)
Andrea Belfi, Lori Goldston and Aidan Baker “The Passion Of Joan Of Arc” (Substrata, 2018)
Il Sogno del Marinaio “Canto Secondo” (Clenchedwrench, 2014)
Il Sogno del Marinaio “Mud Puddle/We come to Learn” (ORG Music, 2014)
Andrea Belfi, David Grubbs, Stefano Pilia “Dust & Mirrors” (Blue Chopsticks, 2014)
Hobocombo “Moondog Mask” (Trovarobato/Lineria, 2013)
Il Sogno del Marinaio “La Busta Gialla” (Clenchedwrench, 2013)
Andrea Belfi, David Grubbs, David Maranha, Pete Simonelli “United States of America Triptych (II), Ten Intrusions” (Bôłt, 2013)
B/B/S “Brick Mask” (Miasmah, 2013)
The Swifter “The Swifter” (Wormhole, 2012)
Andrea Belfi, Ignaz Schick “The Myth of Persistence of Vision Revisited” (Zarek, 2011)
Hobocombo “Now That It's The Opposite, It's Twice Upon A Time” (Trovarobato, 2011)
Andrea Belfi, David Grubbs, Stefano Pilia “Onrushing Cloud” (Blue Chopsticks, 2010)
Tumble “for tumbling” (Die Schachtel, 2010)
Andrea Belfi, Machinefabriek “Pulses and Places” (Korm Plastic, 2009)
Christa Pfangen “Watch me getting back the end” (Die Schachtel, 2007)
Rosolina Mar “Before and After Dinner” (Wallace, 2004)
Gilda “self-titled" (Halley Records, 1997)
Guest Appearances (selection)
Annika “Abyss” (Sacred Bones, 2025)
David Grubbs “Whistle from Above” (Drag City, 2025)
Faraj Suleiman “Maryam” (2025)
Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson “Glory Fades” (XKathedral, 2025)
Simon Goff “The Gold” Original Television Soundtrack (BBC 2024)
Nonkeen “All Good?” (Leiter, 2024)
Albertine Sarges “Family of Things” (Moshi Moshi, 2022)
Dean Roberts “Not Fire” (Erstwhile, 2020)
Nonkeen “Oddments of the Gamble” (R&S, 2016)
Nonkeen “The Gamble” (R&S, 2016)
Jóhann Jóhannsson “Sicario” (Varèse Sarabande, 2015)
Jon Hopkins “I Remember (Nils Frahm Remix)” (LateNightTales, 2015)
Carla Bozulich “Boy” (Constellation, 2014)
David Grubbs “The Plain Where the Palace Stood” (Drag City, 2013)
Damo Suzuki's Network “Tutti I Colori Del Silenzio” (Wallace, 2009)
Find Andrea Belfi’s complete discography on Discogs.