. improvisational : studied : motific : ecstatic .
“…one of the world’s great guitarists…” –Anil Prasad; Innerviews.
“…Robby Aceto creates that rarest of birds; atmospheric music with an edge…” –Michael Ross; Guitar Player Magazine
Read Anil’s 2024 in-depth interview with RA here:
https://www.innerviews.org/inner/robby-aceto
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musician, composer, musical collaborator, composer for documentary and narrative film
known for his work as guitarist/multi instrumentalist with
David Sylvian, The Heads, Tom Tom Club, Jansen/Barbieri/Karn, Alice Visconti, Douglas September, Birds Through Fire, and many others. Prolific, eclectic, & multi-faceted, Robby writes genre-bending art song, chamber music, compositions for solo piano, small orchestra, ethnic instruments, and electronica.
He is most at home combining stark acoustic pianos with raspy, unbridled electric guitars; unique textures derived from improvisation are digitally edited or sampled and used as atmospheric backgrounds, compositional motifs, and featured solo voices.
Robby is also increasingly known for the lush, mesmerizing, atmospheric film scores he composes for a widening list of established and emerging indie filmmakers. He is a founding member of the improvisational trio Cloud Chamber Orchestra which exists to create live soundscapes for silent film since 2008.
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CLOUD CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
the possibilities of ambient improvisation
“… gorgeous, meditative… Cloud Chamber makes music of spectral beauty…” -Anil Prasad, Innerviews
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Cloud Chamber Orchestra in performance, 2012 (L-R) peter dodge, robby aceto, chris white .
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CODE
the debut solo album, 1996
Showcasing his early forays into the style of dense, atmospheric song construction for which he has become known, this guitar-driven solo debut code (produced by David Torn; Alchemy Records, 1996) met with unanimous praise upon its release, and is considered a classic of incendiary experimental guitar and ambient song craft. He is currently working on completing his long-awaited second solo outing, with the working title; The End of Violence
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BIRDS THROUGH FIRE
the sting of everything, and long-distance collaborations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGN4sQcYjBY
Robby, alongside musicians Paul Cartwright and Paul Smyth, is an active member of australian electronica, chamber music & art collective known as Birds Through Fire. Their second full length album project The Sting of Everything for their Sydney-Melbourne based label, Trench Editions was released in June of 2023. Written, recorded and mixed across 2 continents on opposite sides of the globe during the Covid pandemic, The Sting of Everything was much influenced by the scope of that unimaginable human calamity and the immeasurable loss of community it caused. It is a wide-ranging meditation on existence, love, peril, and metaphysics, presented within a constantly shifting musical perspective. Beautifully mastered by sonic genius David Torn, The Sting of Everything is now available on BandCamp, as is their first album Letters to Thurza, which was released on Trench Editions in 2015. Ongoing collaborations by BTF have also yielded several one-off spoken-word collaborations, among them the provocative anti-war track Bullet Wind , which places lush orchestral textures and bluesy resophonic guitars alongside the mesmerizing voice of Australian music legend Brian Cadd who contributes a riveting spoken word performance of an original text by Paul Cartwright . All BTF releases plus solo works of Paul Cartwright may be found on BANDCAMP at BirdsThroughFire.Bandcamp.com.
https://birdsthroughfire.bandcamp.com/album/letters-to-thurza
https://birdsthroughfire.bandcamp.com/album/the-sting-of-everything
https://birdsthroughfire.bandcamp.com/track/bullet-wind
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FILM PROJECTS AS COMPOSER & OTHER COLLABORATIVE WORK
recent projects include:
A Son’s Journey_ (documentary film, dir: Sam Hampton, 2024)
Birds Through Fire ; The Sting of Everything_ (album; Trench Editions, Australia, 2023)
Nicola Lori ; Urban Vision_ (album project, Nicola Lori Music, Italy; 2023)
Stefano Panunzi ; Pages from the Sea_ (album project, SP Music, Italy; 2023)
Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing_ (documentary film, dir: John Scott, 2020)
Hidden Books II_ (multimedia performance; as music director/instrumentalist, written & directed by Kumi Korf, 2021)
12 Ingredients over the Generations_ (documentary film, dir: Sam Hampton, 2019)
Change in the Family_ (documentary film, dir: Sam Hampton, 2017)
Passfire_(feature documentary, dir: Jesse Veverka, 2016)
Birds Through Fire ; Letters to Thurza_ (album project. Trench Editions, Australia, 2015)
Freak the Language_ (documentary film, dir: Sam Hampton, 2015)
Patient 001_ (indie drama, dir: Jason Deitz, 2014)
Transcending Surgeon_ (feature documentary, dir: Sam Hampton, 2014)
Jungle Warfare College_ (documentary short, dir: Jesse Veverka, 2013)
Food for 9 Billion_ (NPR, 2012)
Mr. Stokes’ Mission_ (feature documentary, dir: Sam Hampton, 2012)
Inside_ (dramatic short: dir Erika Street, 2010)
Jolly Black Slaves_ (documentary short: dir Jeremy Levine, 2009)
Hidden Books_ (feature documentary, dir: Sam Hampton, 2011)
Walking the Line_ (feature documentary, dir: Jeremy Levine & Landon VanSoest, 2008)
The Closure Myth (feature documentary, dir: Erika Street, 2006)
Saved By Deportation_ (feature documentary, dir: Slawomir Grunberg & Robert Podgursky, 2006)
Cloud Chamber Orchestra_ (improvising trio for silent film: 2008 – present day)
