born in Genova, Italy in 1977, established in Milan from 1982 until 2005. lives and works in Lisbon.
multi-instrumentalist and composer. he started to study in 1986 classical piano, attended harmony and composition courses. He started playing saxophone (tenor and alto) in 1994, he improved study on avant and free-jazz improvisation. He starded playing guitar in 2001 and he has been working in the experimental music field since 2000 (long term collaboration with Giuseppe Ielasi, Francesco Dillon, Renato Rinaldi, Stefano Pilia, Andrea Belfi).
Member of Medves group.
His work with guitars, piano and sax has started from pure radical improvisation and has drawn to the investigation of drones sounds, static and looped music related to the minimalism. The central point of his recent investigation are the binaural beats in musical compositions. The latter are the result of a work between classical composition, minimalistic improvisation and avantfolk sensitivity.
[discography]
medves, s/t; Fringes Recordings [Lp], (2004)
riccardo dillon wanke, caves; Sedimental [Cd]
music in 24 weeks 3 days a film by Luca Dipierro; Black Arrow press [dvd], (2007)
[...] his album is less scattered over the place and makes a much more homogenous impression on the listener. Wanke layers sound upon sound, starting with a few simple disparate sounds and then goes on and on to layers them until a somewhat (not to) dense mass of sound arrives. [...] Very nice record, this one, with solid improvised drone music. (FdW) (http://www.vitalweekly.net/629.html) (05/2008)
Caves hovers between discord and beauty, between drone and improvised to build a collection of pieces that swings between hypnotic, poignant, emotional pulling and strange [...] He also often adds in cut-up improvised instrumental elements, or textural sound settles fuzzed over the top of the drones which really heightens the music's strange, tragic and often beautiful charm [...] The simplistic yet wonderful cover artwork of a pedestrian area taken through a heavy cracked mirrored surface that really mirrors the music's feeling of finding wonder in monotony, discord and ultimately the normality and drudgery of every day life. Caves is an exceptional work of honesty, pain and beauty which will have you seeing wonder and magic in every crack, chip and dis-colourment that surrounds your existence- simply spellbinding stuff (Roger Batty) (http://www.musiquemachine.com/reviews/reviews_template.php?
id=1790) (06/2008)
[web]
http://riccardowanke.googlepages.com/
live at Barreiro (Lisbon), december 8th 2007, with Stefano Pilia:
