Regarded as the link between Italian acid folk, Library music and Krautrock, Living Music was a collective of Italian Musicians, artists and poets active in the counterculture and student movement of Rome in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Taking their name and concept from the New York experimental theatre group ‘Living Theatre’ husband and wife duo Umberto Santucci (jazz critic, graphic designer (Brainticket), photographer, Library composer) and Gianfranca Montedoro (Jazz and rock singer, member of Alessandroni Vocal group, Brainticket) hosted improvisational sessions at their home where they explored the concepts of communal expression through music and poetry. These experiments would lead to a recording session in which they set their psychedelic compositions to the words of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Their sole 1971 album for RCA’s Italy’s experimental imprint ‘Free Dimension’ is a phenomenal psychedelic excursion into acid folk, Tibetan chants, Indian drones, and avant-jazz (Featuring Umberto’s brother and Italian jazz legend Cicci Santucci) all centered around the powerful voice of Montedoro. It has since become a highly sort after recording for folk and progressive collectors.
