Renato Grieco (aka kNN, born 1991) is a composer and musician from Naples, active in the field of musique concrète, acousmatic, sound-art and radio-art. He is engaged on the themes of listening, recording, archiving, storytelling, voice and speech. He questions space through production, recording, organization and dissemination of sounds.
After starting out as a double bass player, he ventured into composing music for fixed media, under the moniker kNN. Immersing himself in active research, he experimented with the arrangement of one or more sound sources in a habitable context; he imagined and designed objects or spaces for listening, both physical and virtual; he has spoken inside some objects; he listened through other objects. His work has very little to do with the so-called "acoustic ecology". He believes in absolute waste and carnival. He tries not to align with the hordes that place sound practices among scientific or purely theoretical disciplines. He considers listening as a cognitive activity per se, affecting the intellect and the body with its semantics, humor and tragic nature.
Renato Grieco, who defines himself as a "sound enthusiast", was co-curator of the festival La Digestion–rarely heard music in Naples, and has collaborated with several musicians and ensembles including MP Hopkins,
Valerio Tricoli,
Evan Parker,
Xavier Charles, Ingar Zach, Elio Martusciello, Tom White, ensemble Dissonanzen,
Canedicoda. He is also a lecturer, sound dramaturg and sound engineer. He has released records for the labels Pseudomagica, Canti Magnetici, Glistening Examples, Regional Bears, Chocolate Monk, Dinzu Artifact, Falt, Granny, Toxo, Mikroton,
Xing.
