New York, NY (Top40 Charts) In a striking video, Italian pianist and composer Francesco Taskayali explains why he collaborated with investigative reporter Ian Urbina to draw attention to human rights and environmental abuses at sea within The Outlaw Ocean
Music Project.
The project, run by the label Synesthesia Media, is a global and expansive effort to disseminate The Outlaw Ocean Project's investigative journalism to a broader audience by releasing music inspired by offshore reporting.
Spanning genres from classical to hip-hop to electronic, hundreds of musicians around the world have joined the effort. Many of the artists who participate in the project draw from an audio archive of field recordings captured by Urbina while reporting offshore.
Growing up, Taskayali spent time living in Istanbul and Italy, and began composing music at age 13 with the song, "E' Sera." The musician now lives in Milan, Italy, and has performed as a solo artist in more than 15 countries worldwide.
In 2010, Taskayali released his first album "Emre," a collection of all the songs composed when he was just 18 years old, which includes the single, "Addio al Terminal." In 2016, he signed with the Italian neoClassical label INRI CLASSIC. In 2017, his album "Wayfaring" entered the top 100 charts in Italy. He collaborated with The Outlaw Ocean
Music Project to release the album "Piano Waves" in 2020.
In a "Behind the Music" video posted by The Outlaw Ocean Project, Taskayali reflects on the impact of The Outlaw Ocean Project's reporting.
"I do think this kind of journalism is important because its audience is the global community. Humankind," the Taskayali said.
Taskayali compared the silence felt at sea with the silence he experiments with as an artist.
"The most beautiful thing you can experience in the sea is silence," he reflected. "As a musician, you have to know what silence is and therefore, you must experience it."
"Piano Waves" by Francesco Taskayali is available in all stores, including Apple Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Synesthesia Media announces new waves of releases monthly on its social media.
The Outlaw Ocean Project is a non-profit journalism organization founded by Ian Urbina that produces investigative stories about environmental and human rights concerns at sea globally. The project seeks to not only produce polished, narrative investigative journalism, but also to amplify that reportage by converting it into other mediums to reach new audiences all over the world.
