40 Years of Demetrio Stratos 1979-2019

A few months ago, an unusual exhibition held at the Palaexpo in Rome, Il Corpo della Voce, closed. It was dedicated to three iconic voices of the 900th-century Italian music scene: Carmelo Bene, Cathy Berberian, and Demetrio Stratos. Among the many merits of this project is that it has finally placed Demetrio Stratos at the center, lifting him from the marginalization to which he has always been relegated by official Italian culture.

It took forty years for Italian institutions to celebrate the life and research of an artist who left a profound mark on musical culture from the 70s onwards.

The depth of his work remains relevant today and will remain so in the field of vocal expression, and therefore of human expression.

2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of Demetrio Stratos, which occurred in New York on June 13, 1979.

Demetrio Stratos was 34 years old in June 1979.

Of Greek family, he arrived in Italy at the age of 17 from Cyprus, where he studied for a few years, while the family remained in Alexandria, Egypt, from which they were forced to leave in the late 50s due to nationalist riots and confiscations of foreign property.

These continuous migrations are important because Stratos's great work is expressed through his voice, and his voice embodies all these linguistic and human experiences.

He enrolled at the University of Milan, and became the organist of a beat group that formed at the university.

Demetrio has a warm, bass-rich, powerful voice, capable of soaring into spectacular high notes. He was soon recruited by I Ribelli, the band that accompanied Adriano Celentano, who had left them.

He becomes a well-known figure, goes to Cantagiro with the Ribelli, releases several singles, including the unforgettable Pugni chiusi.

1968 arrives and music changes, all over the world.

The birth of her daughter Anastassya opens her imagination and captures her attention on the infinite potential of the human voice. Her babbling, the sounds an infant makes to test her own organs, devastate the hearing of those present.

This enchants Demetrio. From here begins a never-ending quest for his voice.

Demetrio leaves Ribelli and, with some instrumentalists, founds Area, an experimental ethno jazz rock group.

In 1972 they met Gianni Sassi, who founded Cramps to publish their records and took care of the graphics, lyrics and promotion.

They produced their first album, Arbeit macht frei. Work makes you free, a quote from Auschwitz.

From then on, the group performed throughout Italy and during a series of grueling tours in a Volkswagen van or on a train, Stratos became aware of the voice as an instrument.

She's constantly searching for lyrics and recordings that put the voice at the center. She practices Pygmy singing, studies Siberian double-voice singing, and experiments with her voice in every direction, from Artaud's theater to John Cage's musique concrète to tongue twisters.

Stratos decides to consult with the phoniatrists at the CNR (National Research Council) in Padua. It's 1978, and in addition to four albums with Area, which weighed heavily in the turbulent '70s, he has released two vocal-only LPs, two works of pure research that focus on the voice before and after language: not singing, but the voice as the primary physiological factor from which communication arises.

CNR physicist Dr. Ferrero records vocalization amplitudes that can reach 7000Hz and up to three voices simultaneously, as well as very pure sine waveforms.

His voice, to paraphrase John Cage, has no boundaries.

Demetrio Stratos met John Cage, getting to know him personally after performing and recording his pieces. He traveled to New York where he performed as a soloist and performed Cage pieces at Event, a show by the famous choreographer Merce Cunningham.

But in 1979, the serious illness struck. At first, it wasn't clear what it was.

Aplastic anemia, there's no cure in Italy, only in Paris or New York. He chooses New York; he'd been there the year before to perform for John Cage.

He seems to be responding to treatment, meanwhile in Milan Gianni Sassi is organizing a fundraising concert to cover the costs of the burdensome American healthcare system.

The concert at the Arena Civica in Milan is scheduled for June 14th, and dozens of artists have booked to help the friend in need.

On June 13th Stratos dies.

The news spread throughout Italy, everyone wanted to play in Milan the next day, and trains filled with people from all over the country wanting to go to this concert. The concert became a great generational tribute to an artist who probably, as Gianni Emilio Simonetti says in the documentary La voce Stratos, "wouldn't have wanted it."

The concert for Demetrio Stratos—with its emotions, its music, the recently deceased musician, the massive event—became a watershed moment between the generation Stratos had lived in and the one he had, unwillingly, helped create. From then on, the great events of the 80s would follow, with private television channels, mega-stages, barriers, bodyguards, electronic effects... and increasingly expensive tickets.

The world of Stratos and the Areas was over forever.