Harry Bertoia

Biography

Italian-born American sculptor and designer Harry Bertoia is remembered in music for his Sonambient recordings. After emigrating to the United States and finding fame with the Diamond Chair for Knoll, he devoted himself to sculpture, creating tonal works whose metal rods sound when touched or stirred by wind. Playing these sculptures in his Pennsylvania barn studio, he recorded hundreds of pieces and issued eleven Sonambient albums, pioneering a form of sound sculpture that still influences ambient and experimental musicians.