Francesco Zago (I)

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Francesco Zago (Milan, 1972) is a guitarist, composer, arranger and producer. He has released fifteen cds as main composer, guitarist or producer, plus other occasional contributes. From 1993 to 1999 he took part to the progressive rock group The Night Watch, releasing a cd (Twilight, 1997). In 2005 Zago and Marcello Marinone established Altrock Label, promoting non conventional music. In the same year he established the ensemble Yugen, which has released five albums since then. Other projects are Kurai (2009) and Empty Days, with the American singer Elaine di Falco (2013). With the Swiss sax player Markus Stauss founded a duo called Zauss and focused on free improvisation, releasing five cds for Fazzul Music label. In 2012 Zago joined Stormy Six, historical band from Rock in Opposition movement; in 2013 they released a cd/dvd with the Italian actor Moni Ovadia, Benvenuti nel ghetto. From 2013 to 2015 he played guitar and released two albums with the rock band Not a Good Sign.

Zago has been collaborating with electric ensemble RepertorioZero since 2008. In 2013, with his former teacher and conductor Renato Rivolta, he founded the electro-acoustic ensemble Off-Topic. In 2016 he founded Kubin, a duo with the pianist Elena Talarico, playing XXth century music and new contemporary music. In the same year he produced I Dream Awake, a cd with compositions by the American composer Bill Whitley and released by Ravello Records.

Zago teaches electric guitar, improvisation and contemporary chamber music at Civica Scuola di Musica “Claudio Abbado” in Milan.

Since 2009 Zago works for the Italian web magazine Quaderni d’altri tempi, writing musical and literary articles. He wrote about David Bowie, Ferdinand Céline, Alien, King Crimson, Michele Mari, Dino Buzzati, PJ Harvey.
Being interested in the relationship between sounds and vision, Zago approached visual and video art long ago. He has worked for commercial clips, museum and video installations (Barbican Theatre, Studio Azzurro). In recent years he started a collaboration with Carla Della Beffa, producing sounds and music for her videos. Blister is their first collaborative project; the music has been produced by Tommaso Fiori.