Andrea Cera

Andrea Cera (born 1969 in Vicenza) is an Italian electroacoustic composer, sound designer and sound installation artist.

Biography
Andrea Cera graduated with MA degree (diploma) in piano and music composition at the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini in Padua (Italy). He studied computer music at the Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music at IRCAM, in Paris.

From 2000 to 2010, Cera has mainly worked with several choreographers including Hervé Robbe at the Centre Chorégraphique National du Havre, Edmond Russo and Shlomi Tuizer, Pascal Montrouge, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. In the same period he has explored sound art: installation sites have included the Centre Pompidou, Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains in Lille-Tourcoing, institutions and art centres in Italy and France. One example of his work is Reactive Ambient Music (2005). This installation is a sort of a waiting room where external sounds of other installations control a generative background music system. In 2004 he realized NightRun, an interactive installation based on the screaming of the visitors. They are here (2008) is an interactive video and sound installation created for the Centquatre-Paris, in collaboration with IRCAM.

After 2010, Andrea Cera focused in research and sound design projects with IRCAM (Paris), NOTAM (Oslo), Integra Project, Infomus – Casa Paganini (Genova). In 2011 he presented Urban Musical Game, in collaboration with researchers from the Real-Time Musical Interactions team at IRCAM – Centre Pompidou, the design agency NoDesign and Phonotonic. For this installation, they used augmented sports balls to manipulate and transform an interactive music environment. Other examples are the collaborations with Renault and IRCAM Sound Perception and Design Team (sounds for the electric vehicle), Phonotonic,  the SkAT-VG project (Sketching Audio Technologies using Vocalizations and Gestures, 2014–2017),   and a series of works for the Co.Me.DiA European Project. In 2018 he has been nominated for Better Sound (Category: Research & Development) at the ISA International Sound Awards for Renault Symbioz Sound Design. In these same years Cera still kept a few collaborations with dance, theatre and video artist (in particular with ricci/forte, Yan Duyvendak, Francesca Foscarini, Marie-Laure Cazin).

Andrea Cera's music is concerned with hybridization and intrusiveness as tools to explore new uses of sound.

Music for choreographies (selection)

 * Hervé Robbe, Permis de construire (2000), music : Andrea Cera
 * Hervé Robbe, Mutating Score (2005), music : Andrea Cera
 * Edmond Russo, Shlomi Tuizer, Airports (Tenses 1) (2005), music : Andrea Cera
 * Hervé Robbe, Wave 03 (2007), music : Andrea Cera
 * Edmond Russo, Shlomi Tuizer, Les Avenants (Tenses 2–3) (2007), music : Andrea Cera
 * Hervé Robbe, REW (2008), music : Andrea Cera
 * Hervé Robbe, Next days (2010), music: Andrea Cera – The Kevi and Deni Project
 * Edmond Russo, Shlomi Tuizer, Tempéraments (2014), music : Andrea Cera
 * Yan Duyvendak, Sound of Music (2015), music : Andrea Cera
 * Francesca Foscarini, Vocazione all'Asimmetria (2016), music: Andrea Cera
 * Francesca Foscarini, Animale (2018), music: Andrea Cera

Sound installations (selection)

 * Innig (2002)
 * NightRun (2004)
 * Nature (2005)
 * Undertones (2005)
 * Reactive ambient music (2005)
 * They are here (2008)
 * Urban Musical Game (2011)

Instrumental, mixed and electroacoustic music (selection)

 * Deliverance (1998) soprano saxophone and real time electronics
 * MIDIfreaks corridor Catapults (2004) for big-band
 * Dueling zombies (2007), for ensemble and real time electronics
 * Zoom-Up (2010), networked music for two keyboards and real time electronics
 * War Games (2014), for 50 percussion players (festival "Le Printemps des Arts" in Monaco Monte-Carlo)
 * "Mademoiselle Paradis", soundtrack by Andrea Cera for an interactive movie by Marie-Laure Cazin (2014), controlled by EEG
 * Cinema Emotif, a movie by Marie-Laure Cazin (2014), music by Andrea Cera
 * A Christmas Eve (2015), by ricci/forte, music by Andrea Cera
 * Sound of Music (2015), conception and artistic direction: Yan Duyvendak, music: Andrea Cera, texts: Christophe Fiat.
 * PPP ultimo inventario prima di liquidazione (hommage à Pier Paolo Pasolini) (2016), by ricci/forte, music by Andrea Cera
 * TroiloVsCressida (2017), by ricci/forte, sound files by Andrea Cera
 * GrandessoCera live concert for Tenor Sakphone and Electronics (2019/2021)

Other projects (selection)

 * Pink Squirrels (2015), text/sound: Andrea Cera; video: Dimitrije Roggero.

Discography

 * Trickster Museum, released: 1996, Label: TAUKAY 103, Contemporanea, Format: CD.
 * Kevi and Deni, released: 2009, Label: TAUKAY 132, Format: CD.
 * Selected Works, vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, released on BandCamp (2019)
 * Five Notifications, Five (Pre)Wake-Up Sound, Five Ringtones, released on Bandcamp (2021)

Music videos

 * Night Run, 2004, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing.
 * Next Days, 2010, choreography: Hervé Robbe, music: Andrea Cera.
 * War Games, 2014, Place du Casino, Monte-Carlo.
 * Pink Squirrels, 2015, text/sound: Andrea Cera; video: Dimitrije Roggero.
 * Sound of Music, 2015, conception and artistic direction: Yan Duyvendak, music: Andrea Cera, texts: Christophe Fiat.
 * A Christmas Eve, 2015, by ricci/forte, music by Andrea Cera.
 * PPP ultimo inventario prima di liquidazione (hommage à Pier Paolo Pasolini), 2016, by ricci/forte, music by Andrea Cera.
 * TroiloVsCressida, 2017, by ricci/forte, music by Andrea Cera.