ACT NOIR born from
the ashes of ALMA MATER. Sergio Calzoni
(electronics) started this project together with Stefano Nieri (guitars).
The music trajectories of Act Noir focus on dark-rock, electro, with psychedelic and ambient elements...
1998-1999
Following some line-up changes the band found in Michele Gozzi (bass) and
Claudio Pilati (drums) the right chemistry to drive the “rhythmic-groove-engine” of Act Noir.
In this period the band worked with the singer Elisabetta Bevilacqua, who left the project at the end
of 2001.
1999-2000
Lot of rehearsals, in order to find a proper music identity.
During the same
period Act Noir performed live in different
occasions, experience that helped a lot to
find more cohesion and refine the structure
of the songs.
2001
Sergio moved to Copenhagen. Through an ad on a local newspaper he met Nicholas Hill,
singer of the space-rock band The Universals,
and started working on the lyrics for the many songs
composed. His outstanding vocal contributions, tinge
the Act Noir sound with dramatic shades of living
pathos…
Thanks to his home-studio, set it up in a
weird "container-house", and to the internet connection,
Sergio managed to continue collaborating with his Italian friends/musicians.
2002
During the "Danish exile" Sergio started
a side-project called ARTRA, composing a sonorization for the performance/installation
“Nika Is Dead” based in Copenhagen. The music consisted of a 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:
Nika Is Dead
2003
The first Act Noir CD-demo “Cosmo Minimized
E.P.” was issued. Unexpectedly the five tracks
included received very positive reviews and feedbacks,
that gave confidence to the band to continue in the
composition process of new tunes.
In late autumn the Italian cult band MonumentuM commissioned to Act Noir the remix of the track “Distance”.
The remix is included in “Metastasi”, album
containing rarities and various unreleased material by MonumentuM.
2004
The track “Unheimlich” is included in the Italian
compilation “k:goth” produced by Kronic,
a very popular Italian web-magazine.
The band worked hard both in Italy and in
Denmark for finishing the production/mixing of the whole bunch of songs to include in the debut album.
2005
Following the bankruptcy of the German label
Resonancer,
in December 2005 Act Noir signed a new record deal
with the Italian label My Kingdom Music. The contract consisted in the release of the long awaited
debut-CD “Automatisme Psychique”. On March, the 3rd/2006 the album was issued worldwide.
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".
Together with Neronoia, Sergio did collaborate as sound engineer for the vocal recordings
of the acclaimed CD "Un Mondo in Me".
2007
In April the band was honoured to play 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 "Si Muove e Ride", Colloquio's new opus, was released by Eibon Records.
In the same year contemporary artist 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: Drag Me Away (extendmix)
At the present Act Noir are working on new material, for the still-untitled forthcoming album.
