Paolo Cantù / Makhno

Self-taught musician, electric guitar and anything else that comes into his hands.

His first experiences were in the early '80s with the historic band Tasaday, pioneers in Italy of the "industrial" genre.

In 1986 he was a founding member of Afterhours, with whom he played until 1990 and subsequently of Six Minute War Madness (1992 - 2000).

Simultaneously with Six Minute War Madness, he founded, with Xabier Iriondo and Fabio Magistrali, A Short Apnea(1997); a piece of history of the Italian underground scene.

In the 2000s he continued to play with the reformed Tasaday and, after the dissolution of A Short Apnea, with Uncode Duello (2004), a duo project with Xabier Iriondo, in addition to being part of numerous side projects including End Of Summer, Four Gardens In One, EAReNOW, Damo Suzuki Network.

After his debut as a soloist with 4 tracks on the vinyl Phonometak #10 (under the name Paolo Cantù), in 2012 he began his solo project under the name Makhno. Three albums to his credit, Silo Thinking (2012), followed by The Third Season (2015) and Leaking Words (2018), played, recorded and mixed in complete autonomy, with the participation of some guests including Federico Ciappini (Six Minute War Madness).

With various formations he has over 25 records to his credit, hundreds of concerts in Italy and Europe and live and studio collaborations with: Tupelo, Polvere, Bias, Mattia Coletti, Damo Suzuki Network, Wu Fei, Rhys Chatam, Hysm? Duo, The Great Saunites, The Rambo, Anatrofobia.

In 2020 he began collaborating with the film production company Cineparallax, composing the original soundtrack for the documentary Viaggio nel crepuscolo by director Augusto Contento, where he writes all the music, plays all the instruments and which features the participation of Thiago França on Sax and Flute and interventions by Federico Ciappini, Laetitia Sadier, Mark Stewart, Juçara Marçal, Margareth Kammerer and Audrey Chen on vocals.

The film was selected and presented out of competition at the 78th Venice Film Festival (2021).

Also for Cineparallax he has composed the soundtracks for two still unreleased documentaries by Augusto Contento, La U di Svanire, with the contribution of Iva Bittovà on vocals and violin and Strade nella Malerba, with the participation of Thymme Jones, Catherine Graindorge and Arrington de Dyoniso