Franco Battiato, Italian composer and electronic music pioneer, dies aged 76

The legendary Italian composer Franco Battiato breathed his last on Tuesday at his home in Milo. He was 76.

The electronic music pioneer had suffered from a neurodegenerative disease that forced him to retire from public life in 2019. 

Battiato - over the course of his four-decade career - earned the nickname "Il Maestro," beginning his solo career with 1972's Fetus, one of the first electronic records produced in Italy and the first in a trio of albums (also including Pollution and Sulle Corde Di Aries) that presented a groundbreaking and uniquely Italian mix of progressive rock, avant-folk and analog electronics.

Battiato's fourth album, Clic, was released by Bla Bla in Italy and by the venerable Island Records in the US (with a different tracklisting), and is a favourite among record collectors such as Pete Swanson, who mentioned the 1975 LP in his RA Playing Favourites feature.

Battiato would go on to establish himself as a pop producer and songwriter known for a long-running collaboration with the singer Alice. He released his first feature film, Perduto Amor, in 2003, and toured up until 2017.