It all started somewhere in the whereabouts of Rome...

Back in the early seventies in the surroundings of Rome in the bucolic atmosphere of the area called “Castelli Romani” where he comes from, a very young Gianni together with his elder brother Vittorio formed the group “Banco del Mutuo Soccorso”.

The band made an instant outbreak first in the Italian music scene and soon after also internationally. Their great musical ability both in composing and performing propelled them to be the milestone of a new musical genre that was later labelled as “progressive rock”.

Soon the group signed a worldwide deal with the British record label “Manticore” founded by “Emerson, Lake and Palmer”, icons of “symphonic rock”. Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, internationally known as “Banco”, toured extensively in Europe and in the United States. These live activities did not prevent Gianni from continuing his classical studies in piano and composition at the prestigious Roman music school of Santa Cecilia. He also developed a very personal approach in “contaminating” the progressive rock attitude with classical acoustic piano thus creating an innovative matrix of musical styles.

The success story of the band continued, but in 1985 after 12 records and hundreds of concerts Gianni Nocenzi decided to leave Banco. “I realized that a cycle was completed. At that point I found it imperative to focus on myself and on my own musical history and also I wanted to devote more time to study and research.” So in the following years Gianni became more and more involved in the latest developments of electronic music. His research and work resulted in a fruitful and long time partnership with the Japanese company Akai Professional, leader on that sector.

All these varied experiences instilled in Gianni the will and the need to make available to the public the synthesis of his work. So in 1988 he signed his first solo recording deal with Virgin Records, which in the same year led to the release of “Empusa”, a new and versatile project inspired by Gianni’s thorough sound research. This record is regarded as a “melting pot of electronic music, instrumental sampling and experiments in the holophonic new world”. “Empusa” was highly acclaimed by music critics and described by the magazine “Sound on Sound” as the best stereo recording since Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”.

In the following year Gianni was rewarded for the best soundtrack at the Venice film festival for the movie: “Un senor muy viejo con unas alas enormes”, directed by the Argentinean Fernando Birri based on a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

In the early ‘90s Nocenzi worked actively on new sound technologies and became the sound master designer for the project of the new digital PG piano by Akai which turned out to be a great success all over the world. In spite of his multiple commitments and interests Gianni continued writing and composing music. In 1993 Virgin Records released his second solo album “Soft Songs”, a very different opus from the previous one.