Kety Fusco and Aris Bassetti on transcending the harp: "I always had an interest in punk rock"

Kety Fusco is one of those very rare musicians who comes along and does something entirely new and exciting — a classically trained harpist who now uses her instrument to create beats, soundscapes, and guitar-like sounds in her stunning, contemporary solo music. She’s joined by her producer, Aris Bassetti (of the band Peter Kernel), who explains how he helped Fusco transition from a traditional player to creating her one of a kind sound. As well as releasing her debut album, Dazed, Fusco also talks about releasing a library of experimental harp sounds for fellow producers to sink their teeth into.

To crystallise what it is Fusco does, it seems her mission is to create music using her harp, only for the listener to not know exactly what they’re hearing. Despite her traditional, classical background, upon leaving university she quickly realised a career playing Vivaldi and Mozart wasn’t going to satisfy her. 

She’s at her home amongst the stunning landscape of Swiss-Italian Switzerland, and producer Bassetti is kindly able to translate, as she understandably isn’t always able to understand English over a Zoom call.

“I studied harp at a traditional conservatory,” she says. “But I also always had an interest in punk rock. So when I finished my studies, I discovered the electric harp. And with this instrument I…” She then turns to Bassetti and finishes her sentence in Italian, and he translates: “She realised that she had opened a new world with this instrument.”

It becomes quickly clear that the pair have developed a close working relationship, and Bassetti, who plays in the rock band Peter Kernel, has been a big influence in drawing out this inner punk approach that Fusco now delights audiences with.

“I come from a totally different background,” he says. “DIY, punk, and I didn’t like the harp.” Fusco lets out a laugh. 

“When I started working with Kety, she was super classical. She was very much coming out of the classical world. And what we’ve tried to do is put together these two attitudes and it took some time to convince her to not play like a harpist.”

When we think of a harp player, the most stereotyped image that might commonly come to mind would be of a lady in an elegant dress in an opulent room, performing to a small group of smartly dressed people in posh chairs.

Fusco’s music may cause offence in such a space — using her harp to create all the sounds you hear in her music, her pieces are very electronic, beat-laden, and often quite dark in character. 

Nor could you easily compare her to the most famous pianist-composers creating new sounds and moods in the world of neoclassical (such as Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds), the BPMs and beats in her music make it more akin to IDM music. Discover her recent album, Dazed, as the perfect introduction to this.

Watch her live videos and you will see Fusco standing with her harp (a harpist usually sits), plucking away at the strings with such a frenetic and passionate energy that truly distinguishes her from the concert hall. 

Some of these performance videos see her in the incredible natural scenery of Switzerland, one of which she did in collaboration with The United Nations to raise environmental awareness.

“She wanted to express the fact that as humans, we have to adapt to nature and its rhythms,” Bassetti says of the video. “That's why she tries to record videos where she's in nature and forests. Her heart is there in the middle of the mountains. She has really tried to link the music with the mountains nearby.”

Fusco has just released her own library of harp sounds, Beyond The Harp. She shopped it around, but ultimately decided to release it independently on her website (ketyfusco.com). 

Composers and producers already have an abundance of options when it comes to nice, traditional orchestral sounds to use digitally, but as Fusco’s title suggests, this sound library utilises the incredible and experimental sounds she has achieved with the harp.

Bassetti says of the project: “This project was just Kety, actually. She decided to do it alone. She did discuss releasing it with Native Instruments, but in the end she decided to release it on her website. And to promote the library, she composed a new song that she hasn’t released yet. It’s a little bit more pop, to show that you can use the library for all kinds of music.”

 Fusco adds that “there are plenty of harp libraries already, but with mine, you can create all kinds of sounds; drone sounds, tibetan bowl-style effects, scratching. Which I achieved by using all kinds of objects on the harp strings, like my hair clip, or creating vibrations on the strings.”

Fusco doesn’t appear to be taking a breather this year, with all that said. “So far this year, I released my new single (Music to make a dream come true), and then my new album is out in July. Then I’ll be playing at festivals in Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain. I can’t wait for people to see the visuals that I’ll be combining with my electric and classical harp performances.”

She’s fast becoming one of the most innovative artists on the scene currently. Think you know the harp? Go and listen to her album Dazed and new single Music to make a dream come true to have your conceptions fully blown away.