@missing__ear , alias of Italian experimental drummer and sound designer Matteo Gualeni, returns with “Hotel Infinito”, an album that further expands his research into sound and perception.
Missing Ear design in his music an immersive sonic universe in which the drum kit becomes living matter, environment, and perceptual device. Inspired by Hilbert’s “infinite hotel” paradox, the record reflects an understanding of composition as a continuously expanding structure, capable of endlessly accommodating and reorganising new sonic elements, moving between deconstructed rhythms, electronic textures, and spatial architectures.
Milan-based artist active across live performance, production, and sound design, Missing Ear develops a practice that often begins with acoustic drum recordings, which are then transformed through both digital and analogue processes into layered, continuously mutating soundscapes. His work sits at the intersection of post-club experimentation, electronic music research, and sound art, drawing references that range from IDM to more physical and corporeal approaches to sound.
In this interview with Missing Ear, we discussed his key theoretical and musical inspirations, the central role of listening as an active and immersive experience, the process of sound construction between physical gesture and digital manipulation, and the development of a fully realised audiovisual project in collaboration with visual artist Alessandra Leone. The conversation also explores the relationship between live performance, space, and perception, outlining an artistic trajectory in which sound becomes a total experience.
Read full interview on www.parkettchannel.it
#missingear #hotelinfinito
The Ever-Shifting Sonic Architecture
Hotel Infinito and its invitation: a conversation with Matteo Gualeni and Alessandra Leone
By Missing Ear (@missing__ear ), Alessandra Leone, (@ale.byss ), Lorenzo Saini (@lo.sai.lo.sai.lo.sai )
«There is a moment in Pauline Oliveros’ description of deep listening where sound ceases to be an object and becomes a resonating chamber—something you enter rather than observe. Years later, in a still optimistic view of the future to come, David Toop’s Ocean of Sound would echo this drift, describing ambient music as a form dissolving into an atmosphere where the composition (with sampling at its core) is guided by the conditions of the socio-political spectrum. Between these coordinates, and underlying the ever-emerging necessity of listening within the contemporary belligerent geopolitical framework, Hotel Infinito opens its gates.
Milan-based experimental drummer and sound designer behind the moniker Missing Ear, Matteo Gualeni presents us with a sequence of tracks conceived as a spatial continuum. Hotel Infinito unfolds like an architecture of rhythms and industrial textures referencing IDM, post-breakcore, and deconstructed clubbing palettes. The album opens and closes with two quieter thresholds, framing a central passage that feels in constant mutation, as if the listener were traversing a structure that reorganizes itself in real time. Almost like a hotel hall, the first track welcomes us with a spoken word manifesto on listening. The album closes with an exquisite dialogue between various layers of synths and viola da gamba in “flautando” lines.»
Continue reading at neroeditions.com or through the link in bio
Matteo Gualeni ha l’acufene dal primo anno di conservatorio. Era la settimana in cui cercava un concerto di silenzio – ispirato da John Cage, dall’idea del silenzio come elemento fondamentale dell’ascolto. L’acufene non glielo ha mai permesso. Da quel limite nasce Missing Ear: non metafora ornamentale, ma dichiarazione di poetica.
Il suo nuovo lavoro si chiama Hotel Infinito. Un paradosso matematico usato per descrivere il sovraccarico del presente: ogni stanza occupata, ogni frequenza saturata, ogni secondo riempito da qualcosa che compete per la tua attenzione. La risposta non è il silenzio – quello non può permetterselo. È il metodo: abitare l’infinito con una struttura, non fuggirne.
Per Missing Ear ascoltare musica con intenzione, ceglierla, darle tempo, viverla in uno spazio fisico condiviso, è già un atto di resistenza. In un ecosistema dove ogni giorno sono caricate online migliaia di tracce prodotta dall’AI, la domanda su cosa significhi fare musica con qualcosa da dire diventa urgente. «Io penso più a portare avanti un pensiero», dice. «Che poi magari tra quindici anni diventa un libro».
Leggi l’intervista di @bvlevard su Scomodo.org e ascolta Missing Ear a @laredazioneroma il 29 aprile :)
@missing__ear@nero_editions@_shhh_peaceful_@giulio.pecci
@missing__ear presenta dal vivo Hotel Infinito | Mercoledì 29 Aprile - 19:00
Mercoledì 29 Aprile Missing Ear presenta con un live set “Hotel Infinito”, il suo nuovo album ispirato al paradosso dell’“infinite hotel” di Hilbert.
In apertura talk con l’artista, @giulio.pecci , @matdegiuli e dj set di @alexia_robbio .
Missing Ear è il progetto di Matteo Gualeni, batterista e sound designer che esplora i confini tra suono, spazio e percezione. La sua ricerca trasforma la batteria acustica in strutture ritmiche stratificate e texture digitali, muovendosi tra architetture sonore alla Autechre e contesti audiovisivi performativi.
Con pubblicazioni su etichette come Mille Plateaux e One Instrument, il progetto è stato presentato in festival internazionali (Zeche Zollverein, Dongdaemun Design Plaza) al fianco di artisti come Hudson Mohawke e Afrodeutsche.
Oltre all’attività solista, Missing Ear cura una residenza mensile su Radio Raheem, ospitando nomi della scena sperimentale globale come Felicia Atkinson e SOS Gunver Ryberg.
Ci vediamo mercoledì 29 aprile dalle 19:00 alla Redazione, Via Carlo Emanuele I 26. Ingresso gratuito con tessera della Redazione.
Media Partners: NERO, Shhh/Peaceful
Trailer of PROIMION, my latest performance piece.
The performance functions as a prologue to the art film Baccanti. The concept of femininity remains constrained within a cage of patriarchal gaze and stereotypes. Bodies begin a silent escape, deforming eroticism into the grotesque, a hybridising process that will unfold fully in the film Baccanti
Conceived for the first time at @fertilefertilefertile as a site-specific work
Written directed and choreographed by me
Performers: @xhelisabetta@dopo8tto@katerina_karol
Music: @missing__ear
Costume: @michelescarafiotti
Hair: @andreapalazzo.mua
Video recording: @carlo_castiglioni_
Co-produced by @silentartexplorer and @madamecollecte
It’s been one week since HOTEL INFINITO came out! Thanks to the amazing team behind this project! The physical edition is available on @bandcamp and @soundohm : Metal Gong Version: 17cm metal gong, metallized printed CD, 350g digital print artwork, transparent PVC folder, @c.o.s.a.studio poster + sticker. Link in bio.
Tonight in Milan. Spin Society: Missing Ear presents Hotel Infinito.
MISSING EAR is the sonic identity of Matteo Gualeni, a Milan-based experimental drummer and sound designer whose work explores the shifting boundaries between sound, perception and space.
His practice revolves around the listener's active presence - an Immersive process in which sounc is not only heard but inhabited, re-defined, and transformed into a tool for new forms of awareness.
Drawing from theories of Auditory Streams and texts like AUDINT-Un-sound:Undead, Matteo's work evolved into a highly personal exploration of how sound can shape awareness. Combining visceral rhythm with timeless textures and sound design, Missing Ear draws inspiration from the fractured architectures of Objekt and Autechre and the spatial poetics of Lee Gamble.
From 7 pm, free entry 🖖
It is with great pleasure that I announce my new release, “Hotel Infinito”, coming out on April 2nd, 2026 ✨
This release took two years of writing, living, and letting things settle into sound. It also marks the beginning of a collaboration that had been in the air for some time, with visual artist @ale.byss , who is shaping both the visual world of the project and the upcoming #live show! Rooted in Hilbert’s paradox, Hotel Infinito approaches composition as an open, endless process—layered rhythmic architectures and spatially articulated environments where sound and image coalesce into a single perceptual experience. At its core lies a commitment to active listening as an act of resistance. The project reflects on the human condition at the threshold of posthuman transformation, framing intentional listening as a gesture against the noise of contemporary media culture, where listening becomes not only a perceptual practice, but a relational tool, a means of reconnecting with the layered, unstable realities of the present.
Pre-orders are now available on @bandcamp in a truly special format :)
Link in bio.
Artwork: @cielofuturo / @ale.byss
Ph: @aria.ruffini
Press: @alice.suppa
Management: @_saracastiglioni
#electronicmusıc #industrial #experimentalmusic #audiovisual
ENCORE, the first single from my upcoming album “Hotel Infinito”, is out now on all platforms. 📀 Link in bio!
Amazing visual concept by @ale.byss
Worldwide distribution @awal
Pre-order on @bandcamp
