About Roberto
Roberto Cassani is an Italian-born double bassist, improviser, researcher and educator based in Scotland, whose work explores improvised music as a practice of joy, freedom and collective resistance. Rooted in deep listening and human connection, his approach rejects virtuosity as spectacle in favour of sound as encounter: spontaneous, vulnerable, communal and alive.
For Cassani, improvisation is not simply a musical method but a social one. His ongoing artistic and research output focus around Music for the purpose of Joy, and investigates how collective improvisation can generate empathy, trust, freedom of expression and genuine community. Drawing equally from free improvisation, folk traditions, jazz and experimental music, he treats the double bass as both rhythmic force and emotional voice — capable of lyricism, noise, silence and raw physicality.
Originally from northern Italy and now deeply connected to the Scottish creative music scene, Cassani has collaborated with a wide range of internationally renowned musicians including his great mentor Danny Thompson, free music legend Daniel Carter, genius pianist Leo Genovese, Scottish music luminary Ross Ainslie, brilliant guitarist Graeme Stephen, sublime woodwinds player and main collaborator Fraser Campbell, as well as many, many others.
Recent projects as co-leader include the duo Cassani/Campbell, whose acclaimed debut album poet / shuts / clock emerged from improvised lockdown performances on a park bench in Perth and was released by Sunnyside Records. He also released critically lauded Pictish Spaghetti with Graeme Stephen on 577 Records. As a leader, Cassani alongside Ansema we stand, a celebrated work blending improvised and folk elements sung in the Rivoltano dialect of his hometown.
Whether performing in intimate acoustic settings or expansive free-form ensembles, Cassani’s music embraces instability as possibility. In a culture increasingly shaped by speed, division and commodification, his improvisations insist on something radically human: reciprocal listening, presence, humour, risk and shared creation in real time.