Almendra Music is a curatorial factory, a think-tank and a creative incubator with its own production facilities, based in Palermo, Sicily. We also run a boutique label of our own sound and music productions, with a growing catalogue moving forward from Classical Music to 21st century composition, Electronic Music, Ambient, Improvisation, Experimental, Sound Art, and Art-Math-Jazz-Whatever-Rock’n’Roll.

For millennia at the crossroads of civilizations, Sicily has a rich and uniquely layered culture, which inspires Almendra artists to creatively approach every artistic belief and tradition with deep respect and an open mind.
At Almendra we believe this is a valuable attitude, an answer and a task especially today, when the Mediterranean is once again a crossing point of peoples, at a time where capital, goods, people and culture flow globally – oftentimes colliding into dramatic or even tragic clashes – and thus call into question the individuality and identity of everyone, everywhere.
At Almendra we believe that there is no pure way of doing it, because in the end, whatever you like to do or listen to, you are music, and music is you.

Almendra Music was co-founded and is run by composer, sound artist, curator, and record producer Gianluca Cangemi, producer, sound engineer, and electronic music wizard Luca Rinaudo a.k.a. Naiupoche, and visual artist Antonio Cusimano a.k.a. 3112htm for the design part, with the active support and commitment of all the artists involved.

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What’s in a name?
“Almendra” is the Spanish name of the almond, the fruit whose earliest varieties came from China, carried via the Silk Road to the Middle East and the countries which surround the Mediterranean Sea. The word “almond” comes from the Greek αμυγδαλη (amygdalē), an almond, and “amygdala” is how is now called the brain structure which has a key role in the processing and memory of emotions.
The almond is highly revered in many cultures all over the World. Explorers ate almonds as sustenance as they travelled the Silk Road. In the Old Testament, the almond was a symbol of watchfulness and promise due to its early flowering. In classical times Romans tossed almonds at the bride and groom to wish the couple fertility, prosperity and luck. In India, eating almonds is believed to be good for the brain, and the Chinese consider the almond a symbol of female beauty.
Modern nutritional science shows that almonds are incredibly rich in dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals, and research cannot stress enough the health benefits of a regular consumption of these precious gifts Nature gives us.
Nowadays almonds are products of excellence local to Almendra Music’s homeland, Sicily.