Giacomo “Mino” Di Martino
The career of Giacomo “Mino” Di Martino spans more than six decades of Italian music history, serving as a bridge between the beat era, progressive and electronic experimentation, and the later evolution of contemporary singer-songwriter music.
His artistic activity is distinguished by continuity, versatility and cultural relevance, having contributed both to the popular dimension of Italian song and to the languages of research and avant-garde music.
I Giganti
In 1964, in Milan, Mino Di Martino took part in the founding of the group I Giganti, one of the most representative bands of the Italian beat scene. As guitarist and founding member, he contributed to defining the sound and artistic identity of the group during a period of profound transformation in Italian popular music.
Disco per l’estate.
Festival di Sanremo.
Festival di Sanremo.
Album centrale nella storia del gruppo, considerato uno dei primi lavori italiani di denuncia contro la mafia.
Terra in bocca
Published in 1971, Terra in bocca represents one of the most radical moments in the trajectory of I Giganti. The album moves beyond the boundaries of beat music and popular song, taking on a more narrative, civic and experimental form.
The work would later be critically rediscovered, also through the book Terra in bocca. Quando I Giganti sfidarono la mafia y Brunetto Salvarani and Odoardo Semellini, published in 2009.
In 2011 Terra in bocca also received recognition within the Premio Borsellino, confirming the civic and cultural value of the work.
Telaio Magnetico
In 1975, Mino Di Martino took part in the experience of Telaio Magnetico, an experimental project that brought together central figures in Italian sound research, including Franco Battiato, Lino Capra Vaccina, Juri Camisasca, Roberto Mazza, Terra Di Benedetto and other musicians.
Telaio Magnetico represented a laboratory of improvisation and research, in which music, gesture, electronic sound, vocality and the performative dimension converged in a free and radical practice.
The reissue Live ’75 / Expanded Version, published by Black Sweat Records, contributed to the critical rediscovery of this experience, now considered one of the most significant moments in Italian musical experimentation of the 1970s.
Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale
Together with Terra Di Benedetto, Mino Di Martino initiated the experience of Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale, both a place and a musical project connected to the Roman underground scene and to the cosmic, electronic and experimental research of the 1970s.
The experience of Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale is situated at the intersection of music, visual art, performance, spirituality, alternative culture and sound research.
Collaborazioni con Franco Battiato e Alice
Mino Di Martino collaborated with Franco Battiato, Alice, Giuni Russo and other leading figures in Italian music, participating in a period in which the song form opened itself to greater textual, sonic and cultural complexity.
Among the materials included in the dossier is also the television special L’Orecchiocchio, connected to Battiato’s universe and to his collaboration with Mino Di Martino.
Alla periferia dell’impero
In 1983, Mino Di Martino released Alla periferia dell’impero, a solo album produced within the musical environment close to Franco Battiato and his circle of collaborators.
The record brings together song form, electronic arrangements, a critical attention to Italian society and a mode of writing strongly marked by political observation, irony, disenchantment and moral vision.
Today, the album is reread as an important testimony to Italian music of the 1980s, capable of engaging with the Battiato period while also asserting an autonomous voice.
Poetry, theatre, song
Mino Di Martino’s trajectory also includes experiences connected to poetic language and musical theatre, such as Le campane del gloria. Poesie in forma di canzone, a performance based on texts by Pier Paolo Pasolini, some of which were interpreted by Alice.
This dimension confirms the centrality of the relationship between music, text, stage and expressive research in the author’s work.