The Tightrope Walker: Raffaele Genovese between piano, electronics and strings
Syracuse-born pianist (b. 1982), graduate in classical and jazz piano and a Berklee scholarship recipient, Raffaele Genovese signs an album that walks a tightrope between minimalism, romanticism and sound design. Ten original compositions with the voice of Elisa Nocita and the cello of Giuseppe Tortora.
Raffaele Genovese's The Tightrope Walker was released on Anaglyphos on 28 March 2024. Ten compositions by the Syracuse pianist, self-produced and mixed by Genovese himself, in which piano and electronics rest on the strings of Giuseppe Tortora and the voice of Elisa Nocita.
About Raffaele Genovese
Genovese (Syracuse, 4 June 1982) began studying piano at the age of seven with Rosario Cicero. He graduated in classical piano at the Cilea Conservatory in Reggio Calabria in 2007, and in 2012 obtained the Diploma Accademico II at the Corelli Conservatory in Messina with full marks. In 2009 he won the Umbria Jazz Clinics scholarship for the Berklee College of Music in Boston. This is his fourth album, after Freeway (2011), Anamnesi (2013) and Musaico (2016).
His collaborations span Italian and international scenes: Fabrizio Bosso, Maurizio Giammarco, Giovanni Tommaso, Stefano D'Anna, Ben van Gelder, Marco Panascia, Marcello Pillitteri, Enzo Zirilli.
Minimalism, romanticism, sound design
Genovese himself describes the record as crossover, and his stated references are explicit: Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch, John Taylor. The aesthetic sits in a borderland between minimalism, romantic pianism and articulate arrangements with controlled electronics. Improvisation is kept to a minimum, generally restricted to track codas.
A record built for listening, made at home, self-produced, with a coherent sound. It lends itself to images.
The ten tracks
- Terrarossa (3:29) — written during a sand storm over Syracuse, slow and surreal
- Lebeg feat. Giuseppe Tortora (4:08) — a summer piece, light and breezy, inspired by the libeccio wind
- Nazir (3:45) — intimate and abstract, a counterpoint to a possible Azimut
- Refraction (3:22) — improvisation in the codas
- Profluvium (3:47)
- La Scatola (3:50) — accompanied by a video clip
- Transparency feat. Elisa Nocita (4:03)
- Overcoming feat. Giuseppe Tortora (3:02)
- Terrarossa (Reprise) (1:44)
- Closure (2:54)
The title The Tightrope Walker sums up the album's axis: walking a taut rope between art-music writing, jazz pianism and sound design. A balance never guaranteed, declared as method by the title itself.
Available on all digital platforms.
Want stories like this in your inbox.
No spam, only stories worth telling. Choose which brands to follow.
Subscribe →More news
AnaglyphosAnaglyphos: thirty years of music in search of emotions
Founded in 1996 by double bassist Nello Toscano, Anaglyphos Records has spent three decades of Italian music working outside the trends. From Mediterranean jazz to instrumental research, the story of a niche catalog that has always put listening before market.
AnaglyphosShades of Red: Antonella Leotta reads six jazz standards
A Massimo Urbani Jazz Contest winner and lead vocalist of the Orchestra Jazz del Mediterraneo, Antonella Leotta signs for Anaglyphos a six-standard EP in quartet with Nello Toscano, Seby Burgio and Peppe Tringali.
AnaglyphosAtlas (Remastered): the meeting of Markus Stockhausen and Martux_M
Released digitally on 21 April 2026, the remastered version of the 2015 EP signed by German trumpeter Markus Stockhausen (son of Karlheinz Stockhausen) and Naples-born electronic pioneer Maurizio Martusciello, aka Martux_M. Four tracks between art electronics and contemporary jazz.