Labor Neunzehn is delighted to invite you to an intimate solo live set by musician and composer Stefano Pilia. Join us for a unique concert experience at our space in Alt-Treptow, where Pilia will perform his distinctive sound in a close and personal setting.
Thursday, October 9th, 2025
20:00 DOORS 20:30 EVENT STARTS
Location: Labor Neunzehn
Kiefholzstr.19/20
12435 Alt-Treptow, Berlin
Important! TICKETS: Attendance is limited – entry only with confirmed registration and completed payment via our CONTACT FORM
Entrance
The Labor Neunzehn can be accessed through the courtyard. The main entrance of Labor Neunzehn is on the 4th floor of the building and is only accessible via stairs. There is no elevator.
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Solo live set
Stefano Pilia presents for the first time in solo the compositions of his acclaimed latest works Spiralis Aurea and Lacinia in an original adaptation for electric guitar and electronics.The performance through execution, improvisation and practices inherent to his instrumental and electroacoustic research developed over the years, recontextualizes the poetics of these two works in a broader and more visionary formal polarity: an acousmatic dramaturgy between logos and chaos.
‘Pilia’s music has the timeless air of ritualistic actions and abstracted forms. It traces the contours of aspirations and ideals, persisting beyond the devastating routine of conflict that characterises so much of human history. The Bologna based Pilia draws on a range of instrumentation, from string orchestra to organ, sax and percussion, but the nature of his music remains consistent in its elegance of form and clarity of line. Those qualities inevitably generate echoes, whether of Renaissance devotional works or more recent reflective minimalism.
Sonic meditations for our troubled time.’ – The Wire
Stunning, subtly disfigured drone, early music x sacred minimalism from Stefano Pilia, winding electroacoustic instrumentation around poetic sequences… a high-minded approximation of medieval church music that felt genuinely contemporary. He builds on those solid foundations here, considering the relationship between abstract mathematics and tangible physical structures using circular compositions to highlight the connection between ritual forms and more forward-facing mutations… Over the course of 90 minutes he effortlessly signals the evolution of church music as it was absorbed into secular canon, done in a way that’s just jaw-droppingly poetic, filled with hidden references and deliberate ritualistic cogitations in a way that makes for an album we’ll be unpacking for months. – Boomkat
BIO STEFANO PILIA
Stefano Pilia is a guitar player, producer and composer born in Genoa and based in Bologna. His work has become progressively concerned with researching the sculptural properties of sound as well as sound’s relationship with space, memory and the suspension of time. Pilia explores these points of focus through instrumental practice and investigations into the recording and production process. He is one of the founding members (alongside Valerio Tricoli and Claudio Rocchetti) of the seminal group 3/4HadBeenEliminated, a project that synthesises improvisational, electro-acoustical and avant-rock sensibilities.
Pilia predominantly plays as a soloist though collaborates extensively. though his
multifaceted practice has also led to an active involvement in a host of other wide-ranging projects. Since 2010 Pilia has been a member of psychedelic quartet In Zaire, a focal contributor to the BGP trio, alongside David Grubbs and Andrea Belfi. Additionally, since 2009, Pilia has been a founder member of il Sogno del Marinaio, a trio made up of legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen). He currently plays in Spiralis Aurea ensembles with guitarist Alessanda Novaga, Adrian Utley (Portishead) and the cellists Giuseppe Franchellucci and Mattia Cipolli, in Sulla Lingua a trio with Anthony Pateras and
Riccardo La Foresta and with the violinist Silvia Tarozzi quintet. As well as these myriad projects, Pilia is lead guitarist for celebrated Malian singer Rokia Traorè (since 2012), of the cult seminal band Massimo Volume (2008-2016) and for the longstanding cult Italian band Afterhours (since 2015)
In an impressive range of work and different contexts Pilia has collaborated with several artists and musicians such as Katia and Marielle Labeque, David Tibet, John Duncan, Zu, Oren Ambarchi, John Parish, Fire Orchestra!, Erik Kessel, Oliver Mann, Gianluigi Toccafondo, Scanner, WuMing, Phill Niblock, Z’ev, Starfuckers, Manuel Mota, David Maranha and many others. Since several years he has been involved in silent movies live soundtracking frequently comissioned by Home Movies, Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino and Cinema Ritrovato festival of Bologna. His discography, which currently stands at over forty recordings, has been released on a number of well established record labels
(Die-Schachtel, Maple Death, Improved, Blue Chopsticks, Black Truffle). He has played extensivly all over Europe, United States, Australia and Africa
https://stefanopilia.bandcamp.com/music
Cluster is a new-music series devoted to the investigation of sound and notation, which provides musicians and composers with an exchange area in Berlin, at the crossroad of compositional and performance practices.
This concert is part of Monat der zeitgenössischen Musik #9 (The Month of Contemporary Music).
The Month of Contemporary Music is a collaborative project: it is the artists, ensembles, and organizers who shape the festival program through their own events. The collectively developed program leaves no doubt about the vitality and diversity of a scene that is internationally influential. In light of the severe budget cuts that are increasingly depriving the city’s cultural life of air to breathe, the festival sends a clear message: Berlin’s independent scene is indispensable.
img. Stefano Pilia © Matilde Piazzi
