Chris Ianuzzi makes himself at home on the edge of creativity and chaos on his expansive and experimental new album Maze — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
“Maze set to be one of those albums that pushes the electronic music universe to expand just a bit more,” the New York visionary explains. “On Maze, the ambient sound design and general woo feel are still there, but they take a backseat to more organized noise elements and post punk-style vocals.”
Ianuzzi is an artist who shuns the mainstream by releasing bold, decidedly non-mainstream music intended for the serious listener. And he has a devilishly good time doing it. His work plants one foot in the world early synthesizer music, IDM, industrial, ambient, glitch and techno, with the other in something strange and fresh. From the the visceral, industrial-tinged club-ready Hunger to the foreboding Infinite Prize and the manic, brilliant Lonesome Highway Superstar (a raucous track where one could picture Ianuzzi roaring through a post-apocalyptic desert in Mad Max fashion), Maze does more than just push the boundaries of music and sound; it laughs in the face of those limits.
Ianuzzi’s journey to the outer realms of sonic creativity has been a lifelong quest that began one unforgettable day, he explains. “My interest in electronic music never waned after the sound of a Moog synthesizer at a music store triggered an earlier childhood hallucinogenic memory I first experienced during a dental procedure. Though I have become a bit more grounded since my childhood psychedelic musical awakening, my creativity remains a driving force. Using classic analog synthesizers in conjunction with the most current digital technologies, my goal is to create immersive performances.”
Highlights from Ianuzzi’s formal music training include a performance for the American Society for University Composers, in which he played a piano using a chisel, rubber wedge and processed the sound through an ARP 2600. For a number of years he served as an electronic creative associate with the legendary Suzanne Ciani and her production house Ciani Musica. His early years also included work with Vangelis and ex-Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann, as well as work on chart-topping projects such as AEIOU by Freeze and Way of Life by The Puppets. During this time he developed his songwriting skills and recorded two albums while touring Japan and Europe.
Ianuzzi returned to New York and scored visual works in various media, doing orchestral and electronic sound design for HBO’s From The Earth To The Moon series co-produced by Ron Howard and Tom Hanks, creating sound design and musical composition for a large interactive environment for a credit-card firm and crafting themes for various programs and channels.
Ianuzzi also created the electronic songwriting and multimedia performance project called I, Synthesist. The first album Avalanche was released in 2004; it climbed the German and French alternative charts. I, Synthesist were invited to the 2005 Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Germany and did a mini tour of Europe. Since then, Ianuzzi has released three I, Synthesist albums and two EPs.
For Maze, he has continued to move boldly forward, embracing AI technology for the mind-bending video March Of Madness. In the clip, reality shape-shifts constantly as we’re escorted further into the depths of Ianuzzi’s creative consciousness. The album will be accompanied by the release of March Of Madness in Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio.
Listen to Maze and watch the video for March Of Madness above, sample some sounds from I, Synthesist below, and follow Chris Ianuzzi on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
