Stefano Musso studied art and electronics in his home town of Milan, Italy, and began performing ambient, electro-acoustic music under the name Alio Die in 1989. Characterized by evocative acoustic sounds manipulated and tendered electronically, Alio Die's work builds intimate soundscapes tied to the mystery and majesty of life and nature. His first CD Under an Holy Ritual, released on his label Hic Sunt Leones in 1992 and re-released on Projekt in 1993, was received with international acclaim. He subsequently released more than 25 CDs, and collaborated with many well-known artists such as Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, Mathias Grassow, Nick Parkin, Yannick Dauby, Amelia Cuni, Raffaele Serra, Ora, Antonio Testa.
"Natural and acoustic sounds and selected noises, electronically treated and reworked, are integrated in a meditative and spiritual context that often, in the feeling, becomes close to a prayer. Visible static, this music is rich of hidden sounds, layers of elements to discover at each listening. Alio Die's music, in the consciousness space that creates, it's a melting of technology and mysticism, like a new ritual with echoes of a medioeval time, deep and grounded in introspection."
"Since the late '80s, Stefano Musso has recorded deep, evocative experimental ambient and electro-acoustic soundscapes under the name Alio Die.Combining sweeping electronics with found sound and acoustical treatments, he has assembled a rich and varied collection of recordings for such labels as Projekt, Timebase, Heart of Space / Fathom, and his own Hic Sunt Leones label. Based in Milan, Musso studied art and electronic there, founding Alio Die in 1989 self-releasing a debut, Under an Holy Ritual, in 1992. Enthusiastically received in his home country, Holy Ritual expanded Musso's international presence significantly in 1993 when it was licensed by the popular U.S. darkwave label Projekt. His music is a shadowy, cavernous, intensely detailed fusion of acoustical elements, step-and-repeat sample treatments, sparse, echoing percussion, and deep, atmospheric sound design, playing ambient's static tendencies off of shifting melodic and textural passages that suggest movement without sacrificing the music's vague, entropic formlessness." - Sean Cooper, All-Music Guide
Stefano, How would you describe your music?
Music, by its very nature,is the language which is most difficult to imprison into concretes. That's why it is the most abstract and most mysterious one. I understand that it can sometimes be very difficult for a journalist to describe sounds and the moods they evoke -- words like meditative/introspective music, psycho-acoustic, mystic dark ambient, spooky, are often used in reviews of the music I do.