This beautifully realized set includes eight audio CD's and two visual music DVD with all material conceived, produced, composed and performed by Andrea Centazzo. All items are housed together in elegant cardboard box, measuring 6 x 8.5 x 6. Each volume of the set comes with its own DVD-type packaging, with extensive artwork, release information, and line notes . Each volume of the set has a specific and separate character reflecting the wide spectrum of Centazzo's artistic endeavors: from improvised jazz - to symphonic pieces - to compositions for percussion solo - to chamber music - to multimedia opera - to world music - to art movie making. ICTUS catalog and additional bonus CD complement the whole set.

This box-set consists of 10 volumes:

Volume 1
THE HEART OF WAX

"The heart of Wax" is a ballet music scored for strings quartet, clarinets, flutes, saxophones, piano, double bass, keyboards and percussion. Based on the surrealist painter Alberto Martini libretto and sketches, has been composed by Centazzo for the first staging of the un-issued ballet. A new dimension in ballet music.

Volume 2
THE SHADOW AND THE SILENCE

Featuring the second orchestral composition of Centazzo, dated 1985: Homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini. This concert sets a new standard in contemporary music blending Eastern and Western concepts using Balinese-like ostinatos, romantic melodies and contemporary harmonies.

Volume 3
INDIAN TAPES

This award winning CD contains the masterpieces of the percussive art of Andrea Centazzo. Realized in 1980, has been re-mastered and augmented with new pieces in 1993. This album took Andrea Centazzo at the peak of his percussionist career.

Volume 4
THE RECOLLECTION

This CD contains exciting music from different 1970-80s recording sessions featuring Tom Cora, Carlo Actis Dato, Gunther Hampel, Frederik Rambold, Andrea Centazzo and others. The music on the album covers wide range of free improvisation, spoken in many artistic languages.

Volume 5
CJANT

Bologna’s Mitteleuropa Orchestra brought energy to Centazzo’s favorite stylist sensibilities with fluid timbres and chromatic nuances. Unlike the more anarchistic Globe Unity or ICP Orchestras though, Centazzo’s composedly hand makes sure each piece has a definite beginning, end and middle. (jazzword.com)

Volume 6
AFTER THE SILENCE

Pianist Giancarlo Cardini is well known as one of the best interpreters of the new music, including music of Andrea Centazzo. Cardini rarely performed improvised music and the tracks here presented are a rare and exciting document.

Volume 7
SACRED SHADOWS

Sacred Shadows continues the method of integrating different artistic languages, which have already been implemented by Andrea Centazzo in many or his works. The pulsating heart of the show is the Gamelan orchestra. Keyboards and percussion provides a link with Western tradition, resulting in a unique acoustic experience, like small tributaries flowing into a grand musical river. The inspiration came suddenly in a small remote village on the magic island of Bali, evoked by images of candlelit dancers, accompanied by the hypnotic sweet sounds of the Gamelan.

Volume 8
Andrea Centazzo West Coast Trio

Centazzo's music breathes and reverberates from the input of his band. He calls for an intuitive response to develop the theme and both Kai Kurosawa (guitar) and Motoka Honda (piano) help realize the depth and tangibility of his compositions. The trio is fired by the spirit of adventure, yet each musician knows that the take-off point is integral to the success of the journey. Their empathy is apparent throughout the recording. Centazzo is a vivid painter of notes who brings in several colors to his compositions, and then lets his band daub the canvas with their own hue. The result is a shimmering, translucent, three-dimensional portrait. (Jerry D'Souza, All About Jazz)

Volume 9
MANDALA (DVD)

In 1984 Andrea Centazzo, always fascinated with visuals, decided to start to mix his music with a new artistic media: the just born video. MANDALA is a blend of inspired music, amazing South Asia images and discrete but imposing technology.

Volume 10
ETERNAL TRAVELER (DVD)

After being inspired by contemporary artists and later by Far East culture, composer/percussionist/video artist Andrea Centazzo founded in Leonardo Da Vinci a new lymph for his multimedia concept. The music while retaining his contemporary flavor is widely open to all influences, namely sacral music. Watch Video The DVD material is divided in 6 parts each inspired by a different subject of Leonardo Da Vinci genius. This multimedia show is meant to be a tribute to one of the greatest geniuses of mankind through a blend of music and images created upon his drawing and painting mixed with shots from Tuscany, Renaissance artifacts and fictional scenes.

In an artistic career that spans over thirty years, Andrea Centazzo has given more than 1000 concerts and live performances in Europe and the United States, as well as having appeared and performed on numerous radio and television broadcasts. He has recorded over 60 LP's and CD's, and has authored 350 compositions and eight musicology books. His musical endeavors and creative expression range from the sublime to the passionate, from lyric opera to orchestral symphony and solo percussion. He has performed in momentous festivals as soloist of his own compositions or as conductor of symphonic orchestras. Centazzo is a pioneer of contemporary percussion. In the early years, he performed with some of the greatest avant-garde soloists and composers, including J. Zorn, S. Bussotti, S. Lacy, D. Cherry, A. Mangellsdorf, E. Parker, etc. Deservedly, Centazzo has received a number of prestigious music and video Awards (Premio Speciale della Critica Discografica Italiana, USA Downbeat Poll, International Video Festival Tokyo, Prix Arcanal of French Culture, etc.) A doctoral graduate in musicology, he has taught seminars and workshops in Europe and the USA. Since 1983, Centazzo has been dedicated to creating multi-media experiences. This expansion began with an exhibition of his scores rendered as painted ideograms, and evolved into video performances combining both live performance with video images. These efforts culminated in his directing award-winning videos and films. As a soundtrack composer, he unites traditional instrumentation with current technological advances in musical expression through sampling machines and computers. These efforts give a new perspective to the fusion of sound and image through his theatre, television, video, CD rom, and feature film scores. The music of A.C. captures and expresses the rhythm and pulse of life by synthesizing the mystery of Oriental percussive vibrations with the timbral harmonic understanding of contemporary music and the soul of jazz and rock post-culture. A.C. continues to contribute his unique artistic vision to the evolution of contemporary culture.