massimo milano born torino 1967 is an ethnomusicologist critic and sound experimentalistmember of aistugia italian association for japanese studies venice and of the international jury of the down beat annual critics poll usa he has been editorinchief of the monthly magazine finis terrae httpwwwfinisterraemagazineit for which he interviewed zimbabwes musical icon in exile thomas mapfumo in addition he regularly contributes to several italian and spanish leading newspapers and magazines il manifesto jam rumore jazzit il giornale della musica carnet amadeus playboy cuadernos de jazzhis activity also includes extensive studies researches and essays on contemporary brazilian music msica popular brasileira its social implications and its leading role in the collective imagination as a paradigm of the socalled world sound he coauthored the encyclopedia of rock recently republished by arcana editrice and during the 90s he actively collaborated as a consultant both for blue note artists the doky brothers and pianist niels lan doky for whom he wrote the liner notes for the album haitek haiku produced by gino vannelli in 1998 he published a book of essays and conversations with japanese composer ryuichi sakamoto ryuichi sakamoto conversazioni featuring a foreword by banana yoshimoto a year later he contributed with a semiological essay transititransits to the catalog for the exhibition musica senza suono soundless music conceived and realized by producer francesco messina and critic enzo gentile for the museo revoltella in trieste italyin 20032004 he settled in tokyo to conduct researches for the japan foundation in collaboration with the kyoto university under the supervision of philosopher akira asada on the theme of the reversed exoticism in modern japanhis upcoming projects include a short essay about the perception of western pop culture in the far east a book about alejandro jodorowsky and his influence on the psychedelic movement the neomysticism and the counterculture of the 1960s and a selfproduced dvd about japan for which hes currently writing the music and the screenplay