The project for “A Theatre of Stone in Nature”, basically a ‘rethink’ of the long abandoned Roncino quarry, was conceived to be modifiable over a period of time and therefore open to further transformation in the future if so needed.
The architectural strategy is based on three fundamental principles: modularity, transparency and flexibility. These three aspects determine an approach which allows for a constant dialogue not only with the quarry’s natural surroundings but also with future theatrical producers who will be able to shape and model the space according to their specific needs. In practical terms, the construction process involves the superimposition of three main components: a steel modular structure, modular cladding panels of local stone and ‘modular constructions’ or ‘prefabricated volumes’, into which will be incorporated the so called ‘gabions’ (welded wire cages) filled with local stone.
The area of the quarry chosen for the events displays all the typical architectural features of a theatre which effectively conveys the idea of a symmetrical structure notwithstanding the irregularities of the quarry walls. The project is developed around a central space enclosed by the two walls of the quarry which house the supplementary activities.
The project for “A Theatre of Stone in Nature” stands out as an example of architectural and landscape design which draws on the natural context and the industrial archeology of the location, thus ensuring the continuation of a narrative and enabling future generations to actively experience these spaces and also to contribute to their transformation.
Tones on the Stones has converted an old and abandoned quarry into a permanent theatre enveloped in nature. The Roncino quarry is located in Oira, a hamlet in the Ossola Valley surrounded by woods, terraced vineyards and ancient villages of stone built houses. The surrounding landscape shows just how deeply tied the history of this area is to quarrying and to the cutting and carving of stone, as witnessed by the extensive use of stone in local architecture. This is the historical, economic and cultural heritage that Tones on the Stones has always tried to highlight and expand upon.
The conversion of an industrial workplace into a cultural site is also seen as an opportunity to develop an area which already has a strong tourist vocation. Transforming a ‘critical issue’ into an opportunity, promoting the combination of Culture and Nature in a historical moment that has effectively exposed the fragile nature of urban fabric, strikes us as an interesting and highly motivating challenge.
The new Theatre will become the home base for Tones on the Stones, creating a space for so called ‘site-specific’ productions and international co-production projects, as well as spaces to host workshops for training artists and for courses open to everyone on environmental sustainability issues.
The Theatre will stimulate Tones on the Stones in its mission to further pursue research into digital technologies applicable to the production of outdoor live performances which will give rise to productions of large ‘immersive’ theatrical performances and to audio-visual experimental projects and installations with artists in residence. Above all, we now have a space, a real ‘shot in the arm’ for us, where we can meet, compare and create, and in which ‘digital’ is totally at the service of ‘analogue’ and where ‘digital’, as never before, manifestly appears to be the most important aspect of the whole creative process.
In the surroundings of Villa Caselli, Ariella Vidach will premiere a new performance project, Corpomemory_site specific, which investigates the body as a system of relationships. In the era of new citizenships and globalisation, Corpomemory_site specific uses the body and the smartphone as an original technological organism, exploring the frontiers of communication, traditions and the contamination of languages.
Armin Linke is a photographer and filmmaker who combines a range of contemporary image processing technologies to blur the line between fiction and reality. Linke investigates the formation – the so-called Gestaltung – of the natural, technological and urban environment in which we live. Armin Linke’s works – photographs and films – function as tools for becoming aware of different design strategies. At the opening event of Nextones 2022, Armin Linke will present a lecture dedicated to his photographic technique and a screening of his film ‘Alpi’.
Babau is an Italian music duo formed by artists Luigi Monteanni and Matteo Pennesi, also known as the founders of Artetetra Records. Started in 2014 with the Ep “Papalagi”, the duo develops a research that explores the boundaries between exotica, computer music and post-internet transglobal audio subcultures. For their Nextones residency, Babau will work on new original material providing the occasion to attend and participate in their open rehearsals and long propaedeutic jam sessions. Along with their personal practice, the duo will also showcase two impromptu sets on separate days, offering a peek into their mixed, hybrid sound as well as demo sets of the material produced during the stay.
Deep Listening® is the practice devised by American composer Pauline Oliveros that provides a unique approach to music and sound, art, meditation, technology and healing. During Nextones 2022, composer, musician and teacher Michael Reiley will lead two workshops focusing on the practice of Deep Listening, presenting special sonic meditations and Listening Scores.
Aerocene is an interdisciplinary artistic community led by German artist Tomas Saràceno’s studio that seeks to conceive new ways of raising environmental awareness by activating a common imagination towards an ethical collaboration with the environment and the atmosphere, free of carbon emissions. On the occasion of Nextones 2022, a special two-day workshop will be presented.
Rrose’s hypnotic tracks incorporate ambient and minimalist ideas, in a fruitful cross between Techno and experimental music. As part of Nextones’ residency midweek concert, Rrose will perform James Tenney’s “Having Never Written A Note For Percussion” in Washington DC in September 2012 for the first time in Italy.
During the 2022 edition of Nextones, Rayon Vert will present The Hydro Doorways.
The mountains can be understood as an environment where it is possible to house and develop a population, but also as guardians of the energy needed to fuel and sustain those populations, as well as society at large. In 1938, following the construction of the Agaro dam, the resulting artificial water basin submerged an ancient Walser village. Taking this location as a case study, The Hydro Doorways is both a hike/exploration and a moment of informal reflection on the stratification of mountain societies and the development of past and future energy sources led by climate change researcher Samuel Stevenson.
The harp is considered one of the oldest musical instruments in the world, while hemp is probably one of the first plants to be cultivated in the world. Artist Verynicensleazy takes a new look at this long-standing relationship by building the Arpabong. The instrument will be presented in an exclusive sound installation on the Devero.
Mimmo Sparacio is a Sicilian guitarist, composer and essayist, founder of the EMAN ensemble music workshop, teacher of acoustic, classical and Weissenborn Lap steel guitar, who works in Musicology and Cataloguing of Cultural Heritage at the National Artillery Museum in Turin.
Babau is an Italian music duo formed by artists Luigi Monteanni and Matteo Pennesi, also known as the founders of Artetetra Records. For their residency at Nextones 2022, Babau will work on new compositions, giving participants the opportunity to attend rehearsals and long preparatory jam sessions.
foodculture days is an artistic and transdisciplinary platform sharing knowledge and know-how on food and ecology. For Nextones 2022, foodculture days invites artist and designer Daniel Parnitzke to create a convivial space of encounters that will evolve throughout the residency. Thought as an open-source and site specific research-action, Tastestones will bring to light local traditions and connect with regional experts to reflect on re/sources, energetical & thermodynamic processes, as well as abundance and scarcity in a global context of biodiversity loss and geological alterations. This project is part of a broader investigation aiming to map how knowledge circulates and is metabolized in alpine and rural territories, acknowledging various forms of intelligence: bacterial, vegetal and mineral, among many others. The five-day process includes the conception and collective construction of an oven using bio-materials found on site. The findings and observations will be shared during a final activation on the Friday afternoon in collaboration with Fortuna Forest, where the constructed structure will facilitate a collective cooking using local ingredients from the surrounding foodscapes of the region of Oira.
Deep Listening® is the practice devised by American composer Pauline Oliveros that provides a unique approach to music and sound, art, meditation, technology and healing. During Nextones 2022, composer, musician and teacher Michael Reiley will lead two workshops focusing on the practice of Deep Listening, presenting special sonic meditations and Listening Scores.
The origins of Front de Cadeaux date back 10 years to the meeting between DJ Anthome and Hugo Sanchez. At Nextones 2022, they will perform their groovy set at the opening of Marina Herlop.
Catalan composer, singer and pianist Marina Herlop trained at a conservatoire and has been publishing music since 2016; in ‘Miu’, her latest single and first release on the Berlin label PAN.
Founder and resident DJ of OOM -Out Of Memory, a project based in Turin, Brad Alloc will open the music weekend in the cave bringing minimal, techno, trance, acid, breaks, electro and psychedelic sounds to the dancefloor through a magic set that will mix the present with the past.
Nextones presents the live premiere of Settima Estinzione, a new musical project in collaboration with Jazz:ReFound, Compagnia San Paolo and Italian Music Festivals, realised thanks to Art Waves.
The project originates from the interdisciplinary research of musicians Carlotta Sillano, Giovanni Corgiat, Marta Del Grandi, Daniele Patton, Michele Marchetti and video artist Gabriele Bertotti, united under the name Ant Mill. Born out of an artistic residency aimed at exploring universal themes such as evolution and extinction, the project is expressed through an audiovisual performance that evokes the cyclical nature of terrestrial life.
Mika Oki and SKY H1 combine forces to present a new audiovisual show to celebrate the release of the debut album ‘Azure’ of SKY H1. In their respective forms, each artist circles the intricate emotive surfaces of contemporary life in all of its mediated intensity. Just before Squarepusher’s show, Mika Oki and SKY H1 will present their new audiovisual show, a work that takes the content of the album and deciphers its poetics into an alluring live performance. Mika Oki’s visual installation, Parhélion, inspired by the optical phenomenon also called « soleil double » will be taken onto stage and become a subtle scenography of light, projections, smoke and shadows where it will meet the visual inspiration behind the new album.
Legendary composer and musician Electric Indigo will close Saturday night show with one of her iconic sets, characterized by a wide variety with a clarity of vision and a depth that comes from a deep understanding of the music and the art of DJing.
Squarepusher, alias of English electronic musician, bass virtuoso and composer Tom Jenkinson, is considered one of the leading exponents of ‘drill’n’bass’. In the spectacular setting of the Tones Teatro Natura quarry, Squarepusher will present his new live a/v for the first time in Italy.
DJ Khalab, moniker of Roman producer Raffaele Costantino, will present a new live show that will touch on the most traditional sound of Africa, the Afro-American music evolutions, and his research in the electronic field merged with dark, shamanic, and groovy sounds.
On Sunday afternoon, Verynice’n’Sleazy – monthly resident at Radio Alhara – will perform a djset for “those young people, including you, who live this modern agonizing adolescence and who are wanting the true radical music , I sincerely wish the dialogue accompanied by piercing pain will be born and fill this radical hall” (Takashi Mizutan ‘Les Rallizes Denudes’) at Villa Caselli.
Single ticket to access the live performances at Tones Teatro Natura on Friday 29th of July 2022.
Single ticket to access the live performances at Tones Teatro Natura on Saturday 30th of July 2022.
6-day&night pass including room and board at Nextones’ Train Spot (Treno dei Bimbi Hostel) + full access to music events, workshops and hiking trips from the 26th to the 31st of July. Double and triple rooms available.
Camping pass including the access to the camping spot on the nights of the 29th and 30th of July + full access to the music events from the 29th to the 31st of July.
Domodossola Station
Novara – Domodossola line
Milano – Domodossola line
The public bus service schedule is limited, you may not be able to reach the festival by bus at all times. It is recommended to check in advance the itinerary to plan your trip. You can use the festival’s social channels to organise group cars and rides.
Domodossola – Oira comazzibus.com
BUS FOR FUN: Info&Bookings at busforfun.com
Friday July 29 from Milano Centrale
Departing at 18:30 from Milano Centrale to Tones Teatro Natura / Camping Spot
Return at 3.15 from Tones Teatro Natura to Milano Centrale
Saturday July 30 from Milano Centrale
Departing at 18:30 from Milano Centrale to Tones Teatro Natura / Camping Spot
Return at 4.15 from Tones Teatro Natura to Milano Centrale
Sunday July 31 from Milano Centrale
Departing at 9:30 from Milano Centrale to Villa Caselli
Return at Milano Centrale 18.30 from Villa Caselli
Piazza Matteotti, 23 – Domodossola
Tel. 0324.243700
Satellite coordinates: 46.177417, 8.321972
Superstrada del Sempione, follow signs for Crodo, SS 659, exit marked Oira.
The car park is located very close to the quarry, in front of the Caseificio Ossolano plant at Oira.
Superstrada > exit for Oira > take the road running parallel to the Caseificio Ossolano