On new album Far Inside, Italian composer Marco Di Stefano turns orchestral music into a living, breathing world of its own.

It’s an album that resists easy classification. Part film score, part folk chronicle, part meditation on memory. Instead of writing a suite of disconnected pieces, Di Stefano shapes Far Inside as a continuous emotional arc, a journey inward that still manages to feel expansive and global.

Di Stefano’s backstory, from metal guitarist to classically trained composer steeped in media scoring, shows in the album’s immediacy. Strings surge, brass swells and electronics flicker at the edges like distant signals. But underneath the cinematic sweep beats a very human heart, one which is very much rooted in his Sicilian heritage.

“Tarantella Noire” is a standout, folding traditional dance rhythms into a shadowy noir narrative, while “The Girl in the Woods” feels like a forgotten folk tale retold with woodwinds and muted percussion.

The lead single, “Angels on Our Shoulders” exemplifies Di Stefano’s ability to fuse history and modernity. It is written as a tribute to WWII’s dead, and it borrows the solemn dignity of mid century military music but refracted through a contemporary lens. Bold brass themes balancing heroism and grief without slipping into sentimentality.

Elsewhere, “The Last Time of Everything” offers a tender trio about parting, and “Get Out of My Dreams” pushes into darker territory with brass and electronics evoking anxious, waking nightmares. The album closes with “Procession of the Just,” a full-orchestra sweep that feels both moral and mythic.

“Far Inside is a concept album that talks about extreme emotions we daily face, from heroism to anxiety, passion to obsessive love, justice & injustice … Each piece tells a story which is related to one of these emotions/situations.

Far Inside is about the research of ourself, it is far but it is inside us. Today people tends to look outside to find their happiness, which is the opposite of what we should start doing. So the full album is about an introspection and journey to find our true self.”

Di Stefano integrates subtle electronics with acoustic forces, creating a soundscape that is at once ancient and modern, rooted in lived culture and yet cinematic in its scope. It is an album that invites you to travel inwards, outwards, across borders and through time and it rewards you with new details on every listen.

About Marco Di Stefano

Marco Di Stefano is an Italian composer and orchestrator whose music blends classical, minimalist, avant-garde, and cinematic styles. With extensive training under masters like Giovanni D’Aquila, Adriano Guarnier,i and Luc Brewaeys, and experience in both orchestral and electronic production, he creates music designed to tell stories and translate complex emotions into sound.

His work has been praised for its emotional depth, structural precision, and narrative elements. 

With influences ranging from Morricone to Rachmaninoff, and a background spanning orchestral composition, live conducting, and music production, Di Stefano writes scores that are as carefully crafted as they are moving.

Keep up to date with Marco Di Stefano on his Website.

Stream music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music.