Teho Teardo and the Nocturnal Map of the Benandanti
The Benandanti - mysterious magical figures from Friuli’s pagan and rural tradition - were said to leave their bodies at night, riding the spirits of animals to protect villages and harvests.
This ancient mythology becomes the narrative seed of the new cover created by Teho Teardo, one of the most acclaimed composers in the Italian music scene, celebrated for his film scores and for his refined, experimental projects centered on the nature of sound.
For this special edition of the Corriere Art Collection, Teardo draws inspiration from the stories documented by historian Carlo Ginzburg in his renowned book I benandanti.
Starting from a 17th-century map identifying the villages tied to this tradition, the artist transcribed each name and transformed the cartography into a soundscape of nocturnal field recordings rustling forests, distant calls, and the subtle pulse of the night.
Available from Tuesday 16 December, this collector’s edition includes a QR code allowing access to a digital version of the work: a poetic video composed of birdsong, atmospheric textures, and the hidden noises of the woods, expanding the artwork into an immersive sonic landscape.
A Sound Artist at the Threshold of Myth and Memory
Teardo’s practice, rooted in experimental research, approaches sound as a living material, intimate, emotional, and capable of evoking entire worlds. In this project, the boundary between map and melody dissolves: geography becomes rhythm, and myth becomes a listening experience.
“In Teardo’s cover, sound transforms the past into presence,” notes curator Gianluigi Colin. “What emerges is not only an image, but a permeable threshold, an invitation to enter a realm where myth, memory, and sound converge.”
The work unfolds like a mythological atlas, where ancient beliefs and contemporary sonic exploration weave together. Each place name becomes a note; each nocturnal recording, a fragment of an invisible journey.
A Collector’s Edition That Opens an Inner Landscape
The resulting cover is a map of a symbolic world, intertwined with the melodies of a mysterious pentagram. More than a visual composition, it is an invitation to explore an inner territory, one shaped by echoes, shadows, and the quiet presence of stories preserved through centuries.
The digital expansion accessed through the QR code deepens this immersion, turning the artwork into both a visual and acoustic experience, a portal into a landscape that hovers between myth and imagination.
Credits
Courtesy of the artist
Graphic design by Mirco Muner
Map courtesy of Biblioteca Civica V. Joppi, Udine