Since the very beginning, Alos – aka Stefania Pedretti, co-founder of the noise duo OvO with Bruno Dorella, of the Allun collective with Natalia Saurin, and involved in collaborations with artists such as Kawabata Makoto, Alan Dubin, Colin H. van Eeckhout, Xabier Iriondo, Bugo, and Baby Dee – has been active in the interstitial space between underground culture and contemporary arts.
Over the years, her performances have enriched the most avantgarde sides of the cultural scene of Milan, Berlin, Bruxelles, Paris, Shenzhen, New York and many other cities. During 2021, Stefania Alos Pedretti went through the darkness, first struggling with serious illness, then going through a hard physical rehabilitation involving also the recovery of her lost voice.
Only six months after a long hospitalization, the idea of elaborating the experience with a performance was born. The volcano emerged as the chosen symbolic system to create a synthesis and a narration before and beyond the human, tracing a path that could lead from darkness to light. In June 2022, the invitation by the dance festival Marosi in Stromboli promptly enabled the incubation of the new vision on the slopes of the most active Italian volcano, and the development of a practice-based artistic research that was also a healing journey: Ritual II – Embrace The Darkness.
Embrace the Darkness is a new land emerging from the collision of matter, a fertile and overwhelming experience for all its participants, audience included. One year after the residency in Stromboli, and having already presented the ritual on several occasions (Marosi Festival in Stromboli, Lenz Foundation in Parma, Teatro Rasi in Ravenna), Alos has further expanded the research into an edition that combines sound, visuals, and texts, and consists of a 12-inch vinyl record and of an artist’s book. Printed in 300 copies, it’s co-produced by three independent realities that got together for the very first time: the labels Archaeological Records and Dio Drone, and the german publisher Occulto. While the primary experience is the performance itself, where Alos acts in an immersive space created by the video shot on location during the recordings, the narration of the experience lives and grows further in the edition.
All sounds in the record, both acoustic or electronic, were registered live by Marcello Batelli in various, mainly natural locations on the Stromboli island, like Sciara del Fuoco and the cave of Aeolus. Batelli’s work with sound donates outstanding depth and life to the first claustrophobic, then liberatory atmospheres created by Alos’ on-site performance using vocals, modular synthesizers, artistic glass objects, bells and volcanic stones.
The artist’s book is the visual counterpart of the record, featuring photos and videostills shot by Giulio di Mauro (also director of the title track’s videoclip filmed always in Stromboli), and expands the narration in a polyphonic direction thanks to text contributes by Marcello Batelli, Francesca R.Y.F. Morello, Alice Cannavà, Giulio Di Mauro, and Naresh Ran among others. The release date of the Embrace The Darkness edition is November 25th, 2023, the 680th anniversary of a tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption in Stromboli in 1343.
Alos lived in Milan, Berlin and Ravenna where she still lives today. Musician, performer and artist active since 1998. With her bands (OvO, Allun), she has played more than one thousand concerts (Europe, United States, Canada, Russia, China, Vietnam). In 2015 and 2016 she collaborated with the theatrical director Markus Öhrn in the Azdora project. From 2017 to 2019 collaborated with Santarcangelo Festival as a music curator together with Francesca R.Y.F. Morello. Alos project began in 2003: its central element is live performance reread every time through a different performative key imagined ad hoc for the specific object of research. Her queer-pagan-doom-avant-metal work transcends the borders between performance art by integrating experimental music, performance, improvisation, figurative art, installations and video art with the objective of actively involving the audience in a performance capable of creating a strong sensorial experience.
