**The idea of a medieval-inspired musical project was born after I had been living in Austria for about four years. It was a time when my ambition for success in the progressive/alternative rock scene had faded away, slowly dissolving with the breakup of Perenne Symposio — the band I co-founded with Mauro Pertosa, which had given us both great satisfaction but also many illusions.

After that phase, as often happens when waking from a dream, I felt the need to return to a kind of music “for its own sake”: free from the pressure of success and detached from any commercial purpose. For a couple of years, I found myself playing as a street musician in a small ensemble, traveling through Liguria and southern France. We played Irish music, and that deep study later became an important foundation for what would eventually grow into the Nicostrauss project.

Back in Austria, I had already left behind any connection with the music scene. What remained was only my home studio. I didn’t have much to do, so I started publishing my old works on Spotify, including Il Cantico dei Cantici. And that’s when something unexpected happened: one piece in particular — Il Primo Intermezzo, with its strong medieval flavor — began to receive positive feedback.

Encouraged by that small spark, I had the idea to build a musical project inspired by the medieval world, with its atmospheres and its melancholy. I never imagined that choice would take me so far. And that’s how Nicostrauss was born.

Over time, the music evolved, embracing epic, cinematic, and Celtic sounds, always with strong orchestral influences. This evolution allowed the project to reach an ever-wider audience.

Today, Nicostrauss counts around 40,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, with tracks such as The Raggle Taggle Gypsy and The Inn of the Prancing Pony surpassing one million streams. The music is also available on other platforms such as SoundCloud and YouTube, where it continues to gather appreciation and reach new listeners.**