Coming from a background in jazz, where he sometimes worked under the alias Digi G'Alessio, Italian musician Cristiano Crisci made a transition into electronic music with the
Clap! Clap! project around the beginning of the 2010s. Crisci's work as
Clap! Clap! wove the influence of Chicago's footwork scene into a tapestry of West African percussion samples as well as frequent use of Crisci's own field recordings.
Clap! Clap!'s 2013 debut EP, Gwidingwi Dema, and several singles were followed by a proper debut in 2014, with the eclectic Tayi Bebba on the Black Acre label. Crisci's profile expanded when he collaborated with iconic folk-rock songwriter
Paul Simon on production for several tracks on
Simon's 2016 album
Stranger to Stranger. Sophomore album A Thousand Skies arrived in early 2017, finding the producer folding live instrumentation into the earthy samples that had come to define his style. ~ Fred Thomas