David Monacchi

David Monacchi is an Italian sound artist, researcher and eco-acoustic composer, best known for his multidisciplinary project Fragments of Extinction, patented periphonic device, the Eco-Acoustic Theatre, and award-winning music and sound-art installations.

Monacchi is internationally recognized for his pioneering work with nonprofit organizations, such as Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), and Ear to the Earth, to capture and preserve the unique sonic heritage of the world’s rapidly vanishing, last remaining areas of undisturbed primary equatorial rainforest; his many thousands of hours of field work dedicated to the creation and development of a growing sound bank of these remote ecosystems, which provides raw data for the scientific analysis and study of the world’s most critically endangered biodiversity hotspots;

Now, nearly 15 years later, Monacchi’s Fragments of Extinction is its own independent nonprofit organization, dedicated to conducting field research in the world’s last remaining areas of undisturbed primary equatorial rainforest, and a member of ECSITE (the European Network of Science Museums).

Capturing 3D soundscape recordings of these ecosystems with high-technology, "space-inclusive” and “space-preservative” methods and experimental mic techniques, Monacchi is able to faithfully reproduce these sonic ecosystems over periphonic loud-speaker arrays and to produce evocative eco-acoustic compositions, which bring audiences into intimate contact with the acoustic biodiversity of remote ecosystems.

Fragments of Extinction is currently being developed with the multiple aims of: collecting three-dimensional 24-hour cycles of acoustic biodiversity from the most important rainforest hotspots at the equator; analyzing and studying the field data from an ecological and aesthetic point of view; he has taught at the University of Macerata since 2000 and is now professor of Electroacoustics at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini" in Pesaro.

Prior to joining its faculty, Monacchi attended the Conservatorio Statale di Musica "G. Rossini" alongside his contemporary, peer and frequent collaborator, composer Eugenio Giordani, studying electronic music with Walter Branchi, Salvatore Sciarrino, Barry Truax (Simon Fraser University-Vancouver), and David Wessel (University of California, Berkeley). and international prizes at the Russolo-Pratella Competition (Italy, 1996), the Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland, 1996), and the Multiple Sound Festival (Netherlands, 1993). His music was also twice recognized at the Bourges International Grand Prix of Electroacoustic Music (France, 2007 and 2008), and at the Premio Giovannini for Innovation (Italy, 2013).

Monacchi is based in Italy, travels for field research, and gives concerts and lectures mostly in Europe and North America.

Selected discography Eco-Acoustic Compositions (2008). EMF Media (New York, NY) Prima Amazonia (2007). Wild Sanctuary (San Francisco, CA) After the Untuned Sky (2007), with Corrado Fantoni. Coclearia (Milan, Italy) Paesaggi di Libero Ascolto: Retrospettiva di composizioni Elettroacustiche 1990 – 1995 (2005). Ants Records (Rome, Italy) Canto Sospeso (2005), with Ilaria Severo. Domani Musica (Rome, Italy) Paesaggi Sonori / Soundscapes (2005). Università degli studi di Macerata (Macerata, Italy)