ABSTRACT
Italian futurist Luigi Russolo was developing his own manifesto, The Art of Noises, which musicologist Luciano Chessa explores in depth in his book Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult. Russolo published The Art of Noises and developed and realized his theories via the construction of his intonarumori or “noise intoners.” When World War I erupted, many of the futurists were enlisted. Marinetti noted that when they were all at the front lines of the war, while soldiers were busy preparing dinners, lighting fires or taking turns drawing water, “Russolo was studying the noises of the war and drawing from them improvements for his intonarumori”. Throbbing Gristle was that “funny noise,” capturing the essence of just such a scene, and in so doing reflecting an era. The tongue-in-cheek moniker soon became driving force for this group of performance artists, who in time would become known as pioneers of industrial music.
