Paolo Gaiba Riva

Paolo Gaiba Riva (aka PGR), clarinets and electronics, studied jazz bass at the Civica in Milan. After approaching different sound paths, since 2011, he found it necessary to dig deep into “the most raw, sincere, transparent, annoying and uncompromising meanderings of what is defined as “(non) music”, searching for clashes, dynamics and static sounds. In this path he uses sounds from both electronic and acoustic sources, moving from the noisy PGR project to acousmatic presentations of field recordings.

At the moment he collaborates with clarinetist Giancarlo nino Locatelli in a duo of alto clarinets in Eb and with guitarist Matias Guerra Herreros. Over the years he has had the pleasure of playing and collaborating with numerous interesting instrumentalists in a wide variety of contexts.

He lived five years in Norway and one in Holland and explored the different European, East and Southeast Asian and Canadian scenes, traveling and, for the most part, coming into contact with realities that support borderline musical scenes “aware of the unsustainability that all this brings with it”.

Almost completely self-taught talking about himself he says: “I don’t have a particular talent or quality to show.

I don’t want to promote or transmit any concept. From what is played everyone can come to their own conclusion, if any. I think that’s a very interesting part of this practice. Pleasing an audience is not important. The relevant aspects for me are to awaken the listeners’ awareness, encouraging inner questions to arise, and to live in the moment through a deep sonic experience. Also, this is personally a way to cope with this sick reality and to be honest with myself.”

In addition to his concert activity he has co-organized and co-curated festivals and live shows in Oslo, Amsterdam and around Europe with the Multiversal collective.

In the summer of 2020 he moved to Valtellina where he leads a simple and quiet life, observing where the world is going.