Title: Apocalypse here. Solitudini
Instrument: 24-channel soundscape composition created using sounds collected from the internet.
Duration: 6'04 - 8'20"
Year of composition: 2026. Created during a residency at Novars Studios in Manchester, april 2026.
Property, publisher: Author
First performance: Not performed.
Apocalypse here
Solitudini *
Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della terra
trafitto da un raggio di sole:
ed è subito sera.
Each one stands alone at the heart of the earth,
pierced by a ray of sun:
and suddenly it is evening.**
Salvatore Quasimodo, 1930
I remember a lecture by Helmut Lachenmann at the Circolo degli Artisti in Turin in the spring of 1988 as part of the Pomeriggi di Musica Nuova (New Music Afternoons) series. One detail of what he said has stayed with me ever since, and I will attempt to paraphrase it here:
"The dynamics of a sound are not only in the physical-acoustic reality: a sound can be loud in physical terms but weak to our ears, and vice versa. If I step on a snail while walking, the sound of the shell crushing is very faint, but it becomes very loud to my conscious hearing.'
Sound Lifeline is a documentary by Leila Odobasic and Adnan Novalić. Thirty years after, survivors recount their memories of the sounds and silences they experienced during the siege of Sarajevo. Silence is a prominent feature of these memories. I particularly remember a man who imitated, using his voice and gestures, the sound of mortar fire, followed by silence, and then the sound of the explosion as the shell landed. He could only hear the latter if the shell had landed elsewhere.
One explosion created silence, separating life from death, while another indicated that death had been postponed. Even in the narration, the silence was heavy and charged with tension.
From a perceptual standpoint, each one stands alone at the heart of a sensory universe; to hear the true sounds of war is to know fear.
For those fortunate enough to live in peaceful areas, the real sounds of war are inaudible and distant.
Instead, we are used to the deafening, hyper-realistic sounds of imaginary wars, conveyed by films, documentaries, and live or online news broadcasts.
For Apocalypse Here. Solitudini, I used only fragments of real war sounds that I found online. In terms of volume and dynamics, these sounds are often faint and barely audible. The only ones that gradually become louder are those—finally annoying and distressing—that lie close to the very limits of human hearing (quasi‑infrasound and ultrasound).
I would like people to leave feeling unsettled or dazed by sounds that are not deafening. Unlike at some electronic music concerts, I am not inviting people to wear earplugs: instead, I invite them to remove the plugs from their consciousness.
My aim is to reactivate an empathetic awareness of listening, leading to reflection on the twilight time we are experiencing.
G.G. Manchester, April 8th, 2026
* Here: https://paralleltexts.blog/2017/09/30/ed-e-subito-sera-and-then-it-is-night-by-salvatore-quasimodo/ we can read: “Originally this was the last verse of a poem by Salvatore Quasimodo called “Solitudini”. It was later cut down to these three, hermetic verses.” Quasimodo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959.
** A widely accepted translation, according to personal Internet search.