In the summer of 1914, the London Coliseum played host to one of the most unconventional musical acts ever to grace its venerable stage: an orchestra of futurist noise machines. Bearing little resemblance to traditional instruments, these boxy contraptions with their jutting funnels and onomatopoeic names—the rombatore (rumbler), the gorgogliatore (gurgler), the ululatore (howler)—provoked bewilderment and derision from the audience. Yet today, over a century later, those same machines are recognized as trailblazers, paving the way for entire genres of avant-garde music.
The brainchild of Italian futurist painter Luigi Russolo, these so-called intonarumori or “noise intoners” were conceived as a means to, in Russolo’s words, “conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds.” In his inflammatory 1913 manifesto The Art of Noises, the young firebrand declared war on the limitations of traditional Western music, envisioning instead an orchestra capable of replicating the cacophonous soundscape of modern industrial life.
Resurrecting the Intonarumori
Sadly, the original intonarumori did not survive the ravages of the Second World War. But now, more than a hundred years after their creation, an ambitious project led by composer and historian Luciano Chessa has resurrected Russolo’s eccentric instrumentarium. Through meticulous study of archival photos and documents, Chessa and his team have painstakingly recreated the intonarumori in all their earsplitting glory.
As Chessa explains, this was no mere academic exercise—the goal was to build practical, durable instruments fit for the rigors of live performance and touring. Crucially, the reconstructed orchestra will also serve as a vehicle for new music, with several noted contemporary composers already penning fresh works to exploit the intonarumori‘s unique sonic palette.
“Russolo thought of his intonarumori as an organism. Building just one would be like building a car with one wheel.”
– Luciano Chessa
Opening New Frontiers
Among the first to compose for the reborn intonarumori is experimental luthier Ellen Fullman, known for her own massive Long String Instrument. In Fullman’s hands, the noise intoners become a conduit for a “meditation on decayed industrial zones.” Conjuring images of rusting machinery and dormant factories, her piece speaks to the irony that the once-futuristic sounds championed by Russolo have, in our post-industrial age, come to evoke a certain nostalgia.
Still, there’s no denying the profound impact of Russolo’s vision. By insisting on the musical potential of noise—of found sound, of the everyday sonic detritus of modernity—the Italian iconoclast helped open entirely new frontiers of artistic expression. Composers from John Cage to Einstürzende Neubauten are all, in some sense, his spiritual heirs.
Now, with Chessa’s reconstructed noise-intoners poised to take the stage once more, Russolo’s radical ideas are primed to win over a whole new generation of open-eared listeners. The rumblers, gurglers, and howlers ride again, as weirdly compelling now as they were in 1914. Brace yourself for an earful.
