Andrea Cera graduated with MA degree (diploma) in piano and music composition at the
Conservatorio Cesare Pollini [
it] in Padua (Italy). He studied computer music at the Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music at
IRCAM, in Paris.[1]
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,[2] 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 [
fr] 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.[3] 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,[4] 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.[5] Other examples are the collaborations with
Renault and IRCAM Sound Perception and Design Team (sounds for the electric vehicle),[6][7] Phonotonic,[8][9] the SkAT-VG project (Sketching Audio Technologies using Vocalizations and Gestures, 2014–2017),[10][11][12] and a series of works for the Co.Me.DiA European Project.[13] 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.[14]
Works
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.[15]
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.
Bibliography
Cera, Andrea (2007). "Entretien avec Andrea Cera" (interview by Emanuele Quinz). in Trance, Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts – Anomos, Mosign, 2007,
ISBN978 284056 245 0, pp. 108–113.
Rasamimanana, Nicolas – Fléty, Emmanuel – Bevilacqua, Frédéric – Cera, Andrea – Petrevski, Uros – Frechin, Jean-Louis (2012). "The urban musical game: using sport balls as musical interfaces", CHI EA '12 Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), pp. 1027–1030, ACM New York (
draft version)
Cera, Andrea (2013), "Loops, Games and Playful Things". Contemporary Music Review, vol. 32, issue 1, 2013,
doi:
10.1080/07494467.2013.774122, pp. 29–39.
Cera, A., Andrea Mauro, D., & Rocchesso, D. (2016).
"Sonic in(tro)spection by vocal sketching". In A. Terzaroli, & A. Valle (a cura di), Extending interactivity. Atti del XXI CIM – Colloquio di Informatica Musicale (pp. 198–202). Cagliari: DADI – Dip. Arti e Design Industriale. Università IUAV di Venezia.
^Rocchesso, D., Lemaitre, G., Susini, P., Ternström, S. & Boussard, P. (2015).
"Sketching sound with voice and gesture". Interactions, 22 (1), 38–41. (referenced 07/07/21),