Italian & US trio, Niagara Falls, Evening Fires

Pilia-Alexander-Belfi Trio
sponsored by the Friends of Schlow

STEFANO PILIA (Bologna, Italy)

b.1978, Genoa, Italy
guitar, electronics

• solo and member of 3/4 Had Been Eliminated, Medves, SPQ
• collaborated with Black Forest/Black Sea, Giuseppe Ielasi, Renato Rinaldi
• multiple releases on labels such as Die Schachtel, Sedimental, Last Visible Dog, Soleilmoon, Hapna, Time-Lag, more
• has performed at Imaginaria Festival/Bari, Emotion/Milano, Torino Film Festival/Torino, installations: Raum/Bologna, AS220/Providence, Viafarini/Milano
• "Pilia has become Italy’s finest music export this year. After his stunning release on Last Visible Dog, it was clear he had little competition. His subsonic drones are a thing of beauty; pulling in and pushing the listener away simultaneously, keeping him or her in a constant state of limboith all things Stefano Pilia does, there is an understated and simple beauty beneath them." (Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis)

JEFFREY ALEXANDER (Pittsburgh, PA)

b.1968, Baltimore, USA
guitar, electronics, tamboura

• solo and member of Black Forest/Black Sea, the Iditarod, SPQ
• collaborated with Fursaxa, Kemialliset Ystavat, Christina Carter, Gravenhurst, ES, Avarus
• multiple releases on labels such as Last Visible Dog, Music Fellowship, Time-Lag, Secret Eye, Fonal, more
• has performed at Terrastocks I, V, VI, VII, All Tomorrow's Parties/Minehead, Moonshake/Umea, Zu Fest/Roma, 8mm Festival/Castelfranco, VPRO National Dutch Radio, National Norwegian Radio, BBC Radio, more
• owner Secret Eye Records and Morning Glory Coffeehouse in Pittsburgh
• "Guitar, electronics and various small rackety sounds collect themselves into a haze of infinite possibilities. At certain points there's a sparseness to their approach recalling Charalambides' quiet explosions; at others there's a weird and wooly organic depth closer to some of the contemporary giants of the Finnish underground." (Byron Coley, Harp)

ANDREA BELFI

b.1979, Milano, Italy
drums, percussion, electronics

• solo and member of Medves
• has performed at Netmage Festival/Bologna, Klarafestival/Brussels, Ugglan Festival/Stockholm, Buziol/Venice, VPRO National Dutch Radio, more
• multiple releases on labels such as Die Schachtel, Hapna, Wallace, Last Visible Dog, more
• "The real victory of Belfi is the ease of cohabitation of melody and experiment. Few do it so well" (Jon Dale, The Wire)

Niagara Falls

"... flutes, eastern instruments, old-fashioned electronic sounds, modal electric guitar playing and an impressive array of all sorts of percussions. However, what truly strikes one is the density of the collective nature of the performances that unfold before our ears. [...] There is a real tension here between various, even conflicting conceptions of "melody" and "performance". [...] The music is always fresh and exciting, full of energy and bold ideas, and it succeeds in every way at sharing emotions that can only be expressed through sound." - Francois Hubert, Foxy Digitalis

"Niagara Falls' sound falls squarely into the more earthy arena of psychedelia, the kind conjuring shaman and mystics and plenty of haze." - Forest Gospel

Evening Fires

After several months closeted away in their sonic alchemists' laboratory, Evening Fires emerge back into the light ready to engage in a bit of sonic conjuring via the medium of Appalachian trance music. Oh, the places you'll go...