XYQuartet

XY Quartet is a musical ensemble formed by Nicola Fazzini on alto saxophone, Alessandro Fedrigo on electric bass, Saverio Tasca on vibraphone, and Luca Colussi on drums. The quartet was born out of the shared desire of Nicola Fazzini and Alessandro Fedrigo to create a sonic world, a scenario for new improvisational possibilities and innovative forms of musical writing. Interlaced sequences, pitch class sets, non-retrogradable rhythms, and polymeters are among the elements that constitute the grammar of the XY language, a fluid and original compositional tool, complex in structure but generous in its modes of communication.

Established in 2011, the ensemble has released six albums through nusica.org (Idea F, XY, Orbite, QuartettoQuartetto, StraborDante and Lexycon) and is considered a significant presence in the new Italian jazz scene. It received awards as the second-best Italian group in 2014 and 2017 from the magazine Musica Jazz. In its active concert career, XY Quartet has participated in major national and European jazz festivals.

In live performances, XY Quartet is characterized by the strength and expressive effectiveness with which it processes musical materials in a constant balance between composition and improvisation. The quartet’s repertoire is influenced by various sources, including musical explorations of the 20th century, from serialism to minimalism, as well as inspiration from non-sonic realms such as science fiction, architecture, literature, and linguistics. The transdisciplinary and unique approach makes XY Quartet a truly original ensemble on the international scene. The members of the quartet like to imagine that their music has been inspired and composed by Jon Futuru, an imaginary character living in a distant space-time: elements of the musical language are taken out of their historical, geographical, and social context and projected into another dimension that becomes a hypothetical extraterrestrial future.

Over the years, XY Quartet has undertaken various original live projects, including “5 Astronauts,” a multimedia concert in collaboration with video artist Claudio Sichel, and “StraborDante,” a performance with the voice of John De Leo and multivisions by Francesco Lo Pergolo inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. The ensemble has performed at numerous jazz festivals and venues across Italy and has toured in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg, and Hungary.

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