He began playing at the age of 12, largely self-taught. Eventually he decided to study formally at the Scola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio in Rome. In his career, he has utilized an expansive setup of instruments, usually involving several keyboards, acoustic and electric, and many kinds of electronic devices, perhaps processed or accessed through a mixing table. He also plays the accordion (acoustic and amplified), amplifies the sound of objects electronically, and uses his voice for various musical purposes. Like many players of his generation, he is ready to work in a variety of settings from formal to informal, from completely composed to completely improvised and of course everything in between. This has led to alliances with a long list of players, many journeymen on the European avant-garde or free improvised scenes. Venitucci has played with German bassist Peter Kowald, from the first generation of German improvisers. One of his frequent Italian partners is percussionist Fabrizio Spera, and he also worked with British folk, blues, and avant-garde guitarist Mike Cooper, who has been living in Rome since the '90s. Japanese musical madman Otomo Yoshihide has played with Venitucci, as has the equally tortured German electronics player Thomas Lehn, saxophone playing Englishman John Butcher, vocalist Dagmar Krause, notorious Japanese tape artist Merzbow, and Hans Reichel, German guitarist and inventor of the "dax-o-phone" (a bowed bit of wood that produces a sound something like a young animal of some sort that has managed to pass an opera audition). These types of musicians should give a good idea of what Venitucci is up to, in other words nothing particularly normal. When a whole group of like-minded individuals got together to form a combo, the result was Ossatura, an Italian group that delighted in creating extended, thick improvisations involving electro-acoustical sound treatment, many non-conventional sound sources, and a lot of wires going back and forth across the stage. This ensemble, also featuring Spera, Elio Martusciello, and Maurizio Martusciello, was founded in 1995 and has played a selection of European festivals as well as a limited tour of North America. In 1996, he joined Zeitkratzer, a Berlin-based experimental ensemble that also performs compositions by Phil Niblock, Keith Rowe, Mario Bertoncini, Nicholas Collins, Lee Renaldo, Radu Malfatti, and even Lou Reed. The repertoire seems to keep the group pretty busy and they released three CDs in 1999 alone . He is also a member of Fanfararara, an improviser's orchestra under the direction of Tim Hodgkinson, formerly of Henry Cow. Small ensembles are regularly formed in the free improvisation scene and Venitucci has been a member of quite a few, including collaborations with German trumpeter Axel Dörner. He also performs as a soloist. ~ Eugene Chadbourne