Daniel Gianfranceschi – Controsuono

“Controsuono” is a feedback-based piece for electric guitar. In it, a baritone-tuned electric guitar is caused to feedback it’s open-chord frequencies, only further manipulated by occasional movement of the guitar itself or of the incorporated tremolo. A lowpass filter is set to a specific frequency range as to eliminate most of the higher tones. Subsequently, the recording is inversed and added onto a second digital track as to make the transition seamless. This portion of the recording is subjected to a semantic conundrum: if feedback is, originally, that which is reamplified by a system, what happens when feedback itself precedes the actual attack of a signal?

The name “Controsuono” – an Italian neologism that, although somewhat ambiguous, would translate to “counter-sound” – thus functions both as a play on the word “feedback”, the two being at the very least synonymous in nature, as well as a conceptual prerogative for the piece itself. With the seamless and barely perceptible transition from the original and inversed recordings, a kind of sonic vanishing-point emerges, in which the auditor’s perception is seduced into illusion, creating the impression of a progressive composition or of a “loop” where there actually isn’t one. The quasi-indiscernible inversion of feedback furthermore brings about questions of a subverted temporality: how are we locate (sonic) consequence and origin when the two are not only inconspicuous but also reversed? What happens to the axioms of linearity when the preestablished norms of temporal zones are reevaluated?

In an interplay between alleged stasis and sustained intensities, the composition sees sound unfolding out, before and back into itself. The recording is best played either very loud or at an almost undetectable volume.

Daniel Gianfranceschi is a multidisciplinary artist and writer working within the realms of painting, text and sound. Gianfranceschi previously studied fashion management under Prof. Sabine Resch & Prof. Markus Mattes and is now continuing his studies in painting and sound at the Academy of Fine Arts under Prof. Florian Pumhösl & Prof. Florian Hecker. His work has been shown at Museum Brandhorst, Kunstbau (am Lenbachhaus), Kunstpavillon München, Goethe-Institut Athens, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, among others. Writing contributions have been featured in Erratum Press, Cutt Press, La Piccioletta Barca, Subtle Body Press, Dream Boy Book Club, God’s Cruel Joke Magazine, Sleeve Magazine, Positionen Magazin, Frameless Magazin and more. His musical output has been performed at various institutions and featured in compilations by the likes of Industrial Coast, Les Horribles Travailleurs and more.