Gian Battaglia has been involved with music and audio in some way or another from a very young age, starting out as an avid collector of obscure electronic music, spending countless hours trawling through the record shops of Leamington Spa, Coventry and Birmingham. By the age of 18 Gian had secured a DJ residency, then guest spots in venues up and down the country. In becoming a DJ Gian was afforded precious time to study the structures, rhythms, timing, texture and raw emotion within electronic music, as well as how people engage and react to it.
Now based in East London Gian Battaglia remains dedicated to electronic music and having spent nearly a decade seriously producing music, as well as working as a Sound Engineer, he made the decision in 2015 to pursue an MA in Audio Production from the University of Westminster. During this time Gian explored his passion for analogue modes of music production, deep diving and developing workflows within this area. Using such techniques today in his production, Gian creates truly emotive, and mood inducing ‘Music for Listening’ as he refers to it, in the sense that Battaglia’s music although aimed at the the body, is also aimed squarely at the mind.
Feeling the need to free himself from the constraints of a computer workflow during the incubation and ideas stage of his composition, 2020 saw Gian incorporate a new way of working, where each track is first fully composed on the piano. The piano parts are then recorded as MIDI before being taken into the studio where the composition is up-scaled and brought to life with the use of equipment such as Moog synths, Analogue Delays, Reel to Reel, Cassette tapes and vintage FX pedals, all running in tandem with a more modern DAW based approach. Battaglia feels that this mode of production results in a brand of electronic music that is musically rich, harmonically pleasing, emotive, engaging and above all has allowed him to carve out his signature sound.
Gian’s music can be described as a mix of electronica with a film soundtrack ethos, drawing inspiration from ambient and neoclassical music. The music of Battaglia has enjoyed support from radio stations such as BBC6 Music and acclaimed DJ’s like Steve Lamacq.
Battaglia’s forthcoming album ‘Insert Silence’ consists of twelve tracks, all of which were conceived on the piano. The new album is predominantly electronic in personality and fully captures Gian’s production DNA and signature sound through his use of resplendent synth textures, yearning chord progressions, delicate harmonies and nostalgic beats.
The album evokes a dark yet uplifting three dimensional sound stage, along with an analogue yet ultramodern aesthetic, which along its fifty minute journey conjures feelings of: Euphoria, Lust, Frustration, Urgency, Angst, Wonder and Attitude. It is safe to say that Battaglia’s latest album encapsulates a certain musical authenticity in that it feels human, considered, faithful to his DNA and in parts brave.
A project that sits comfortably in the pigeon holes of Electronica, Ambient, Film Soundtrack and Gian’s very own genre Music for Listening.
Insert Silence will be available in the summer of 2021
Connect
Instagram / YouTube / SoundCloud
