True artistry is never afraid to get a little bit experimental, an ideal which inspired the Italian-Swiss harpist Kety Fusco to create her haunting new track, “Music to Make a Dream Come True”. Despite what the title may imply, the soundtrack is anything but dreamlike — with the usual twinkle of harp strings being turned into scratching sounds of terror. Accompanied by a chilling visual, Kety Fusco creates a soundscape that is both evocative and frightening, triggering brand new emotions that have never been explored before with harp music.
On the motivations behind her music video, Kety explains, “My dream? To make the soundtrack for a horror film!” Featuring images of floating dead bodies, faceless bodies screaming into the abyss and a masked harpist completing a ritual — we are here to confirm she achieved just that. Presenting her beloved harp as a weapon, Fusco depicts how anything can descend into evil when put into the dark, including her usual uptempo dance-worthy beats.
To commemorate the release of the soundtrack, we took some time to speak with Fusco about her new style, and how this will translate to her upcoming album. To stream the soundtrack and to read the full interview, scroll below…
Hi Kety! How are you doing?
Hi! I’m very busy these days preparing my tour, but I’m also so excited to finally give the world my soundtrack!
Congratulations on the release of “Music to Make a Dream Come True”! What was your inspiration behind the song’s title?
Thank you! “Music to Make a Dream Come True” is a title that represents the opposite of what it wants to say. In fact, the music and video evoke a nightmare, the ghost of myself being evoked by the sound of a harp in the forest. But I like the idea of surprising the listener with an illusory title. Like my music after all, you would never expect a harp to compose a Horror soundtrack, but rather you would think of something angelic.
A lot of your music challenges the conventional sounds of a harp. As a harpist yourself, where did that style come from?
The world is really full of music, and when I found myself at the end of my harp degree, I said to myself: what can I do that will enrich people, give them something new, with the oldest instrument in the world? It would be really easy for me to play the harp showing off my technical skills, (although I will certainly do that for some pieces!). But to start my artistic expression I said to myself: “No, I want to get out of the obvious, I want to create something that is not expected. I want to convince people by going down a less commercial, but more authentic road”. I decided to work on sound research in parallel to my live harp project. My debut album DAZED is an album designed to change the live concept of harp music. A harp that makes you dance and move your ass, moving away from its classical sound and mixing in digital electronics. Now, for this sound research project, I took the harp and extracted its essence: the metal of the mechanism, the gut of the strings and the wood of the structure, and then I obtained unconventional sounds, but more noises and sounds that are less usual for the harp. For example, I took a hair clip and put it between the strings and created a sound similar to a Tibetan bell! From this I composed a library of harp sounds, which I called Beyond the Harp, Extreme Extended Experimental. It is for sale on my website ketyfusco.com.
And the music video was shot by Francesca Revert and Riccardo Bernasconi! What do you hope translates from the magical visual?
I loved working with Riccardo and Francesca from Studio Asparagus! The video evokes anxiety, suspense and even a bit of fear, and this is thanks to a harp. We have to go outside the box and create by daring to always see beyond and find new creative solutions. I expect that people watching the video and listening to the music will realise that it is the harp that is the protagonist, a contemporary harp that breaks out of its classical connotations and twists common thinking.
Many categorise your music within dance and electronic genres, but how would you describe it?
I have decided that I don’t want to label my music, as there is not really a single genre to attribute to it. When I play live, I compose music for harp with electronics, even if the main character is still a harp, or with my soundtracks the music becomes classical but also contemporary, so it’s too complicated to classify a genre. My music is the discovery of the harp instrument in various forms, and there is no reference in the world. I could tell you a new genre though: Electro Space Harp. Yes, maybe that’s my genre.
And we heard you’re currently finishing a new album! What can we expect from your latest project?
Yes! In July I will release a limited edition album, which will be the final result of this experimentation with the harp, in fact it will be called THE HARP According to Kety Fusco. I will have a tour in Europe in more refined situations, like art galleries and events of a certain kind, because it’s 17 minutes of a visual sensorial experience, I will play my music and at the same time there will be visuals, lights and smoke. And in 2023 my official album will be released!
Your music has already travelled from Pisa to Europe, do you have any specific goals for the near future?
Yes, for the future I want to write mainly soundtracks and music for video games and bring my vision of the harp not only to Europe, but also to the rest of the world. I love to play concerts. Despite covid, I have spent the last 2 years on European tours and I was also lucky enough to play for the United Nations, sharing the virtual stage with great artists like Patti Smith and Ben Harper.
And finally, for those who don’t know you yet, what’s one thing you want people to know about you?
I would like them to know that I am bipolar, Gemini, Gemini ascendant.
