With R-Esistenze out now, we took some time to hear from B.I.T. Read below to learn more about B.I.T., the story behind R-Esistenze, and what’s to come.
Hi! Let’s start with how did the artist name come about?
B.I.T. = BACK IN TIME
The acronym we chose for our duo has two meanings.
The first refers to a time machine: in our exploration of musical origins, we imagined ourselves as the pilots of a time machine, traveling through different eras in search of fragments that could show us where our musical language comes from. The results of this work are Come Again and Puccini My Love.
The second meaning—also playing on the similarity to the word “beat” (pulse)—is about “being” at the same time, “together”: it reflects one of our earliest aims of expressive sincerity, mutual listening, and simultaneous presence during improvisation. From this concept were born Equilibrismi and our latest work, R-ESISTENZE.
What city are you both from, and where are you both based now?
We are both from Rome, and today Danielle lives in Casal Palocco, near the sea, while Manuela lives in the countryside north of Rome. Luckily, the distance between us isn’t too great, which allows us to meet often to work together!
How and when did the duo form?
We met in 2019 while playing together in the quartet Kind Folk (with whom we recorded Lights for Filibusta). From the very beginning, a special bond and a strong musical connection were born, and we discovered that we shared the same artistic goals. After that first encounter, we began working as a duo and have never stopped since—not even during the pandemic. In this formation, we have already recorded four albums for Filibusta Records, in 2021, 2023, and 2024.
The duo’s first album, Come Again, was based on a fresh interpretation of material taken from classical repertoire along with original songs. At that stage, our aim was to build a personal sound and lyricism, as well as to develop a shared musical language.
Our second album, Equilibrismi, was an exclusive collection of original compositions. It provided fertile ground for deepening melodic expressiveness and the art of dialectical interaction between our two instruments—the result of continuous and profound research, both compositional and improvisational.
In 2024, we released Puccini, My Love, a tribute to Giacomo Puccini featuring reworkings and original compositions, which we presented on a tour of the U.S.A. And today, R-esistenze.
Who are some of your group’s main musical influences?
There are so many musicians who have influenced us! Frederic Chopin, Wayne Shorter, Carla Bley, Clara Schumann, Sebastian Bach, Bill Evans, Jan Garbarek, Martial Solal, Karol Szymanowski, Norma Winstone… there are just too many!!!
What’s one of the proudest moments of your group’s music career so far?
Every time we finish a concert and feel the warmth of the audience showing us that they were moved along with us, that is a moment of pride.
Ogni volta che finiamo un concerto e sentiamo il calore del pubblico che ci dimostra di essersi emozionato insieme a noi, quello è un momento di orgoglio.
What would you two say are the greatest lessons that you’ve both learned so far?
Unity is strength. We have learned to embrace each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This has allowed us to support one another while also feeling free in our expression — an essential condition for artistic creation!
You two have just come back from a tour in the United States. What differences did you both notice between the atmosphere there and in Italy?
It was an experience of great emotional impact for us: at every stop, we encountered an enthusiastic audience, which was very rewarding artistically. It’s worth adding that the United States is made up of 50 states — we visited four (Illinois, etc.) — and there is still a huge social and environmental variety to discover!
And, what was the audience’s response to music that might have been different from what they expected to see on stage?
The American audience is certainly knowledgeable and receptive (after all, jazz was born there). We were always listened to with great interest and enthusiasm. Bringing Puccini in an original version with jazz influences was definitely an added value. The audience rewarded us with warm and moving standing ovations.
Now onto R-Esistenze. What inspired this album?
From our very first collaboration, we felt the need to express ourselves fully, without restrictions, and to give voice not only to ourselves as individuals, but as women. We are two adult women who work professionally in the arts and in education, and over the years — through our own lived experiences — we have seen how challenging this can be in Italy. Through the music we compose, we speak about these issues, and we also want to honor the women who came before us, who fought to give us dignity, the right to vote (in Italy, as women, we’ve only been voting since 1946!), and, more broadly, the right to self-determination. It feels like the right moment to do so.
Digging into history is like opening old family albums, filled with black-and-white photographs or ink-written postcards from distant places; fragments that build images of a past we come from but have not lived ourselves. Our generation, and even more so the ones that follow, have almost completely forgotten the sacrifices that earlier generations made to secure the freedoms, comfort, and well-being we enjoy today. We delve into the lives of figures from the past to shed light on these stories in which our roots unknowingly lie, and by doing so we come to understand ourselves and our country more deeply.
There are hundreds of figures who have inspired us; during our studies we encountered extraordinary stories and writings — modern, bold, moving: women such as Maria Montessori, Anna Kuliscioff, Sibilla Aleramo, or Ada Negri; poets like Lalla Romano, Miriam Mafai, Joyce Lussu, Dacia Maraini, or Eugenio Montale; but also ordinary people with a profound civic spirit. And the list goes on! All individuals who left an indelible mark on the history of our country through political action, activism, and poetry.
For our album, however, we were forced to narrow our focus to just a few personalities who inspired us most deeply on a musical level.
From a compositional standpoint, we granted ourselves the greatest freedom, and each of us chose and composed based on what had touched her most deeply. It was a profoundly meaningful experience.
What is the overall theme of R-Esistenze?
The central theme of R-ESISTENZE is war — past and present, the kind waged with weapons and violence, and the inner battles we fight within ourselves. We delved into history to gain knowledge and understanding because we are convinced that knowing oneself is the cure of all cures: the path to peace in the world begins with inner peace. To sum it up, in this work the music becomes a bearer of a social message.
What was the inspiration behind the cover artwork for R-Esistenze?
Thank you for asking! It’s not a usual question. I’m passionate about old magazines and newspapers, and during the research and study period that preceded the album, I found an old propaganda magazine from the Italian government. Among the many historically interesting things, there was a four-page photograph depicting the enormous crowd in Piazza Venezia. I started trying to recognize the faces, the hats, the uniforms, the clothes, imagining who those people might have been and why they were there. And we imagined that among that sea of people were also the very individuals we had been reading about and to whom we wanted to dedicate our work. So, we decided to use that crowd as the cover of R-Esistenze!
What was the creative process like when making R-Esistenze?
We immersed ourselves in the sounds of the poems, the words, the structures, the poetic forms. We read stories and accounts, and we transformed them into melodies — into fluid, sonic emotions — blending our different musical languages with the shared goal of telling these R-Esistenze, of capturing their essence.
The compositions are characterized by evocative, lyrical themes and by very open, unscripted structures that leave room for our improvisational sensitivity — just like a story.
How long did it take to complete R-Esistenze?
We are a well-established duo, and once the project was defined, it took six months of research, composition, arrangements, studio recording, and mixing.
Is there a specific song on R-Esistenze that speaks to you both the most? If so, why?
Perhaps “L’Identità Perduta” (M. Pasqui), a piece that includes original audio excerpts from the Historical Archive of Florence, featuring the first recordings of the sounds of war made in August 1944, along with a verse of the “Canto degli Italiani” played by a military band (which, in 1946, after the war, became Italy’s national anthem). We firmly believe that we must preserve the memory of that crucial moment in our country’s history; it is from that period that our parents’ identities were shaped, and consequently, ours as well. We are the forgotten history, the lost identity, and we want to defend this identity of ours — by remembering it.
What do you two hope fans take away from R-Esistenze and your duo’s music in general?
We hope that our music can move people and make them reflect, inspiring a deeper exploration of oneself and others — a sincere search.
What’s next for you all? Are you all working on any upcoming projects, or do you all have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
With B.I.T., we are already working on incorporating electronics and developing two new projects, but for now we are fully focused on R-ESISTENZE, which has only just been born.
Our upcoming concerts are:
• 29/12 at the Chiesa Collegiata in Rignano Flaminio (Rome)
• 10/01/2026 at Writer Monkey, Monterotondo (Rome)
• 15/02/2026 in Monterotondo (Rome)
You can check our social media channels for all the other dates.
Where can we follow you both on social media?
You can find us on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bit_duo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bitduo.backintime
As well as on our personal channels:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manuelapasqui | https://www.instagram.com/danielledimajo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/manuelapasqui | www.facebook.com/ddimajo
And our websites:
www.danielledimajo.com – www.manuelapasqui.com
Thank you both for the great interview; wish you both much continued success!
