Review Fix chats with Kety Fusco, who discusses her signature sound and why the harp matters.
One year after the release of her debut album DAZED, the young Italian-Swiss harpist and composer Kety Fusco gives us a very personal version of the famous song “Gnossienne N.1” by Erik Satie. In this modern reinterpretation, which Kety has entitled “Ma Gnossienne”, the harp is used in an unconventional way to generate sounds that have nothing to do with its classical timbre. The entire sound system is set up with sounds of vinyl scratched on metal strings, objects struck on the soundboard of the pre-sampled classical harp, and analogue effects manipulated live.
Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?
Kety Fusco: I got into music when I was 6 years old. I was a very hyperactive child and couldn’t calm
down. At school, even the teachers couldn’t get me to sit still in my chair and listen to the
lessons. So my family had decided to make me do a sport to try to vent them my
hyperactivity, but instead had worsened. One day we were on vacation in the mountains
and I saw a woman playing the harp: there I had a stroke of lightning, I took the harp, the
music and I never left them again … and I also calmed down a bit!
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Fusco: My creative process always starts with days when I have so many things to do. My mind
starts sending me signals and it’s time for me to grab the computer and write down what’s
playing in my head. Then, with my harp and my live electronics I bring the composition to
life.
Review Fix: What inspires you?
Fusco: I’m inspired by everything I can’t see or hear, I’m inspired to search for a sound in an
apparently insignificant object, for example, or to take the most unthinkable part of my
harp that can produce an interesting sound and then produce it, search for it, play it and
make it mine.
Review Fix: What does music mean to you?
Fusco: Music is about communication, I don’t like people and I struggle to communicate anything,
I often come across as apathetic and arrogant. With music, however, I can express myself
and channel my emotions that are difficult to manage in everyday life. I can live in the
days without feeling fatigue.
Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?
Fusco: I can tell you that my sound can’ scratch your sensibility, wrap you up like a warm blanket
in winter, make you fly through the sky, crush your chest and not let you breathe, it makes
you dance and move your ass even if you are not coordinated.
Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?
Fusco: My live shows are an experience. From the moment I mount the stage I start a
conversation and every show changes. It depends on the place, on the people, on how I
woke up in the morning and depending on this I bring in my world. In the studio I am very
technical and precise and I demand a lot from myself, I don’t let myself go.
Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?
Fusco: My latest single was born after a beautiful piece of news I received, and I was so nervous, I
couldn’t calm down, so I went to my studio and put a song on youtube, La Gnossienne by
Erik Satie. I started playing on it with my harp, occasionally adding sounds sampled from
my harp library. And Ma Gnossienne was born. I’ve always wanted to be daring and go
outside the box, even trying to work with a classical piece, but maybe I never had the
courage.
Review Fix: What are your goals for 2021?
Fusco: This 2021 I’ll be mostly touring and I want to focus on my concerts and in the meantime I’m
preparing the release of my harp sound library, the world’s first library of non-traditional
sounds.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Fusco: After that there will be a collaboration with the pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, we are writing a
record together and I am really excited!
Fusco: Anything else you’d like to add?
Review Fix: If you would like to listen to my music, follow me on youtube and Spotify!
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