Curiosity
you can hear.
Multi-instrumentalist, composer. Between jazz, Mediterranean roots and sounds waiting to be discovered.
Rocco Papia (Rome, 1978) is an artist, composer, musician and researcher based in Barcelona. His highly versatile and multidisciplinary practice spans world music, jazz, singer-songwriter music, sound experimentation, performance, visual arts, creative reuse and participatory practices .
As a composer, singer and 7-string guitarist , he has collaborated and performed with Italian and international artists such as Jarabe de Palo, Chico César, Cristina Zavalloni, Gabriele Mirabassi, Marco Zanotti, Sergio Krakowski, Alessio Arena, Alberto Capelli, Carlo Maver and Kaw Sissoko . With Jarabe de Palo, he recorded three tracks for the album Tragas o Escupes , including “Es que tú me das” , whose song and music video remained at number 1 in Spain for several months and have now surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify and views on YouTube . He has also composed music for the documentaries Lost Kids of Kalahari by Niccolò Bruna and La Mia Isola è il Mondo Intero by TodoModo .
In 2020, he founded and currently directs ISRAW - International Sound Reuse ArtWorkShop , an international collective through which he creates interactive sound installations combining sound, visual arts, technology, creative reuse and participation , exhibited in cultural contexts across Italy and Spain .
He is the founder and director of Orquesta ReuSónica (ORT) , with which he has developed performances for adult audiences combining world music, jazz and musical traditions with instruments built and reinvented from discarded materials. Together with Xavi Lozano and Antonio Sánchez Barranco , he created Música de l’Insòlit , presented by festivals, theatres and cultural events across Europe and beyond , as well as Bandas Sonoras Insólitas , produced in collaboration with Meu Primer Festival in Barcelona and Madrid: five animated short films scored live using Reusonic instruments.
Alongside his performance work, he developed New Sounds for a New World , a workshop methodology based on the collective construction of musical instruments from reused materials, implemented in schools, festivals, museums and public spaces and involving more than 2,500 participants .
Among his most recent research projects is Nôd , created with Mila Trani in collaboration with the University of Barcelona, exploring multilingualism and the musical traditions of so-called minority languages of the Mediterranean and beyond . With 5-string violinist Núria Balcells , he develops Una Corda Més , which led to Recançonem , a concert reinterpreting the repertoire of the Cançoner Popular Català . With Danio Catanuto aka NeOanderthal , he has also created Ek-Ton , an electronic and electroacoustic music project based on experimentation with self-built instruments and reused materials .
He is the founder and president of Associació Cultural Ayamola in Barcelona, through which he develops artistic, educational and international projects. Among them is Trash to Treasure , an Erasmus+ project introducing young people to green jobs through practical experiences in electronic repair, 3D technologies, artistic transformation, reuse and recycling. Ayamola is also part of the MEED - Music Europe Education Network , a European cooperation network in the field of music education and of CASES (Citizen Art-Science Engagement Strategies) , an interdisciplinary university laboratory fostering collaboration between research, artistic practices, science communication and local communities.
www.roccopapia.com | www.ayamola.org | www.orquestareusonica.com @roccopapia | roccopapiamusic