Act Noir

Infobox musical artist
Name = Act Noir

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Img_capt = From left to right: Sergio Calzoni, Michele Gozzi, Mark Benoit, Stefano Nieri, Claudio Pilati.
Background = group_or_band
Origin = flagicon|Italy Ferrara/Bologna Italy
Genre = Electro-Dark-Rock
Years_active = 2003 – Present
Label = My Kingdom Music
URL = http://www.actnoir.com
Current_members = Sergio Calzoni
Stefano Nieri
Michele Gozzi
Claudio Pilati
Mark Benoit
Past_members = Nicholas Hill

Act Noir is an Italian "electro-dark-rock" band, widely influenced by other music styles, such as: post-rock, ambient, psychedelic rock, gothic rock.

History

1998-2000
Sergio Calzoni (electronics) formed Act Noir together with Stefano Nieri (guitars) to explore music soundscapes far from the "symphonic-bombastic" moods of Alma Mater, Sergio's former group. Soon afterwards the newborn band found in Michele Gozzi (bass) and Claudio Pilati (drums) the right complement.
The music trajectories of Act Noir focus on dark-rock, electro, with psychedelic and ambient elements.

2001-2002
In June 2001, Sergio moved to Copenhagen/Denmark. Thanks to his home-studio and to the broadband connection, he managed to continue collaborating with his Italian friends/musicians. Through an ad on a local newspaper, Sergio met Nicholas Hill, the singer of the space-rock band The Universals. His vocal contributions are featured in Act Noir's debut CD "Automatisme Psychique".
During the "Danish-exile", Sergio started a side-project called arTra, by means of which he composed a soundtrack for the performance/installation "Nika Is Dead" based in Copenhagen. The proposed music was an almost two hours assemblage of brand new experimental-ambient pieces, and several unfinished tracks taken from the Act Noir archive. A seven minutes movie with excerpts of the music score has been edited of this installation, it can be legally downloaded from this link: [http://www.actnoir.com/downloads/video/TwinLife-NikaIsDead.mpg "Nika Is Dead"] .

2003-2004
The first Act Noir CD-demo "Cosmo Minimized E.P." is issued in April, 2003.
In autumn 2003 Act Noir remixed "Distance", a track composed by the Italian band MonumentuM. The remix is featured both in the Italian compilation "k:goth", and in "Metastasi" album containing rarities and remixes of MonumentuM.

2005-2006
In December 2005, Act Noir signed a record deal with [http://www.mykingdommusic.net "My Kingdom Music"] , for the release of Act Noir's debut CD [http://www.discogs.com/release/994204 "Automatisme Psychique"] . On March the 3rd, 2006 the album was issued worldwide.
At the beginning of 2006, the new singer Mark Benoit joined Act Noir, showing the right attitude both as frontman during live shows and as creative mind to lyric the new unreleased material.
In the same year, Sergio started working with Colloquio's master-mind Gianni Pedretti, for the production of the new album "Si Muove e Ride".

2007
In April, the band played as open-act for the Italian tour of John Foxx, while in June, they were invited to play in London at club Slimelight with Clan Of Xymox and Violet Stigmata.
In July, [http://www.discogs.com/release/1005009 "Si Muove e Ride"] , Colloquio's new CD, was released by Eibon Records.
In the same year, contemporary artist [http://www.francescoarena.it "Francesco Arena"] commissioned to Act Noir a fifteen minutes soundtrack for a video-installation included in his project "Respiri/Breath". The audio-track can be legally downloaded from this link: [http://www.actnoir.com/downloads/audio/DragMeAway(extendmix).mp3 "Drag Me Away (extendmix)"]
At the present, Act Noir are working on new material, for the still-untitled forthcoming album.

Band members

*Sergio Calzoni - electronics
*Stefano Nieri - guitar
*Michele Gozzi - bass
*Claudio Pilati - drums
*Mark Benoit - vocals

"Former members:"
*Nicholas Hill - vocals

Discography

Albums
* "Automatisme Psychique" (2006)

CD-Demo
* "Cosmo Minimized E.P." (2003)

Compilations
* "k:goth" (2003)
* "Metastasi" (2003)

Other works
* Signa Sørensen performance/installation "Nika Is Dead" (2002)
* Production/sound-design of Colloquio album "Si Muove e Ride" (2007)
* Francesco Arena's installation "Respiri/Breath" (2007)

External links

*it [http://www.rockline.it/modules.php?name=Interviste&rop=view_int&id=146 Interview with Sergio Calzoni]
* [http://www.gothic-online.de/topMusic-op-bio-idartist-165-idalbum-170-idsong-.html gothic online] - band history.
* [http://www.gryphonmetal.ch/InterviewActNoir.html Interview on Gryphon Metal] - exhaustive interview on the Swiss magazine "Gryphon Metal".
* [http://www.actnoir.com www.actnoir.com] - official site, including music and informative resources.
* [http://www.colloquio.tk www.colloquio.tk] - official site of the Italian project Colloquio.
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* [http://www.mykingdommusic.net My Kingdom Music] - record label website.