Walter Marchetti

Walter Marchetti (21 July 1931, Canosa di Puglia — 12 May 2015, Milan) was an Italian composer, avant-garde musician, installation artist, and co-founder of a performance art group zaj (1964—1993). He is often cited among the pioneers of musique concrète and interactive music. Marchetti released over ten LP/CD albums, primarily on Cramps Records (1974 to 1989) and Cramps Records (after 1998), ranging from solo works for piano and other acoustic instruments to field recordings and electro-acoustic soundscapes.

Marchetti first engaged in music by the mid-20s, after attending Bruno Maderna's 1956 composition masterclasses in Milan, where Walter befriended Spanish composer Juan Hidalgo, his life-long collaborator and creative partner. In 1957, Walter Marchetti visited [url=https://discogs.com/label/293404]Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music[/url], a hotbed of serial music at the time. However, he soon grew disillusioned and frustrated with the formalistic approach of dodecaphony and serialism.

At this turning point in his career, Walter Marchetti met John Cage; he was instantly captivated by Cage's aleatoric music endeavors with David Tudor and his reliance on silence as the core structural element. In January 1959, Marchetti participated in one of the country's first international concerts of "random music," [url=https://discogs.com/release/754329]Noises at Rotonda[/url], alongside John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Juan Hidalgo.

In 1960, Marchetti relocated to Spain and joined Música Abierta ("Open Music") society in Barcelona, recently established by Juan Hidalgo with fellow composers [a=Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny], Joaquim Homs, [a=Josep Cercós], and Luis de Pablo. By 1964, Walter moved to Madrid to start a more radical performance group, zaj, heavily inspired by [url=https://discogs.com/artist/1777058]Fluxus[/url]. Marchetti and Hidalgo worked with [a=Ramón Barce], [a=José Luis Castillejo], and other contemporary Spanish thinkers and artists to organize concerts, exhibitions, and installations. ZAJ members participated in several George Maciunas events and collaborated with other Fluxus associates and scholars over the years, including Demetrio Stratos and [a=Gianni-Emilio Simonetti].

By the mid-1970s, after his USA tour with zaj organized by [url=https://discogs.com/artist/453529]Mimi Johnson[/url], Marchetti returned to Italy and settled in Milan. In June 1978, he participated in the musical happening [url=https://discogs.com/release/2503683]Il treno di John Cage[/url] and discussed it with the composer and [a=Tito Gotti] on Cramps Records radio. Walter remained active until at least the mid-2000s — composing, recording, and performing at prominent venues across Italy, including Cramps Records, and abroad in France, Germany, the United States, and Japan. He died of a heart attack at 84.