Luca Ferrari (writer)


Luca Chino Ferrari is an Italian music writer and lyricist.
He has written books about folk and rock musicians such as Third Ear Band, Pink Floyd, Robyn Hitchcock, Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Syd Barrett, and articles and reviews for Italian magazines such as Ciao 2001, Vinile, Buscadero, Mijuzik and Rockerilla. He met Syd Barrett in 1986, and contributed to the reunion of the Third Ear Band during the 1980s.
Having run Italian fanzines about Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett since 1979, he worked together with Ivor Trueman on a petition to release the album Opel.
His book Tatuato sul Muro: L'enigma di Syd Barrett, published in January 1986, was the first biography of Syd Barrett.
In 1993 he contributed an essay to the Captain Beefheeart exhibition catalogue Stand up to be Discontinued: The Art of Don Van Vliet and in 2011 he gave an expertise advice to a book titled Barrett, edited by Russell Beecher and Will Shutes.
After a new book on Syd Barrett in 2024, a collection of writings written in forty years, in November 2025 Zona Editrice published a book on Tim Buckley titled Incontro con il demone, one of the few biography existing.
His book about Italian folk music titled Folk Geneticamente Modificato is one of the few books on the subject ever published in Italy.
With the consent of the band's heirs and musicians, in 2009 he conceived Ghettoraga, the official archive of the Third Ear Band, of which he is the online editor at
In 2015 he published for Gonzo Multimedia Out of Nowhere, the first biography on English jazz piano player Mike Taylor. In the following years for Gonzo Multimedia and Cherry Red Records/Esoteric Recordings he edited booklets for CDs by Captain Beefheart and Third Ear Band, included the CD box titled Mosaics with all the remastered original E.M.I.-Harvest catalogue.
In 2020 November Books published his book Glen Sweeney's Book of Alchemies about the story of the Third Ear Band.
In 2021 he formed with avant-garde musician and composer Francesco Paolo Paladino the band His Majesty The Baby, which in 2022 released its first album Hope For Madness, with all the lyrics written by him.
In 2022 with Paladino and singer Dorothy Moskowitz, he formed Dorothy Moskowitz & The United States Of Alchemy, which in early 2023 released the album Under An Endless Sky on California label Tompkins Square Records, with all the lyrics written by him.
After a book on Syd Barrett, a collection of writings written in forty years, published in 2024, in 2025 Zona Editrice published a new book on Tim Buckley titled "Incontro con il demone", one of the few biography existing about the American folker.

Translations and curatorship

  • Mike Watkinson-Pete Anderson, Syd Barrett. Il diamante pazzo dei Pink Floyd
  • Tom Robbins, Lo Scopo della Luna
  • John Cavanagh, Pink Floyd. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
  • Steve Matteo, The Beatles. Let It Be
  • Mike Watkinson-Pete Anderson, Syd Barrett. Il diamante pazzo dei Pink Floyd 2nd revisited edition
  • Mike Watkinson-Pete Anderson, Crazy Diamond. Il viaggio psichedelico di Syd Barrett 3rd revisited edition
  • John Perry, Jimi Hendrix. Electric Ladyland
  • Mike Watkinson-Pete Anderson, Crazy Diamond. Il viaggio psichedelico di Syd Barrett 4th revisited edition

CD/LP/DVD booklets editing, writings, and expertize

  • Massimiano Bucchi, A school guide to XTC
  • AA.VV., The Vegetable man Project Vol. 2
  • AA.VV., The Vegetable Man Project
  • Dario Antonetti, Il Rigore Esistenziale
  • Third Ear Band, Necromancers of the drifting West
  • Third Ear Band, New forecasts from the third ear almanac
  • Captain Beefheart, Pearls before swine ice cream for crows
  • Third Ear Band, Exorcisms
  • Maria Assunta Karini, Dreamsmellers
  • Third Ear Band, Brain Waves
  • Third Ear Band, Spirits
  • Third Ear Band, Third Ear Band
  • Third Ear Band, Music from Macbeth
  • Third Ear Band, Alchemy
  • Francesco Paolo Paladino, De Musica et in fungorum effectis
  • Unfolk, Alessandro Monti, The Diplodisc Years 2006-2014 - Diplobag
  • AA.VV., Love You. A tribute to Syd Barrett
  • AA.VV., Miniatures 2020
  • Third Ear Band, Druid One

Novels, Short stories...

  • Finale
  • Shiva a Milano
  • La Giornata Mondiale
  • Domani, Armageddon
  • Dei delitti e delle pene altrui
  • La Frisona Cosmica in AA.VV., ''Cartoline d'Italia''

CD/LP lyrics composition

  • His Majesty The Baby, Hope For Madness
  • Dorothy Moskowitz & The United States Of Alchemy, Under An Endless Sky
  • Dorothy Moskowitz, Rising To Eternity lyrics for "The Creation" and "Dimension"
  • Francesco Paolo Paladino and Martyn Bates, Treasure Of Light lyrics for "The Same Airport"
  • Enten Hitti, Mistiche Ribelli lyrics for "Our needs of consolation"
  • Francesco Paolo Paladino and Dorothy Moskowitz, Monastir Intro & Outro, lyrics adaptation for the singing
  • Five Miracle Tent Crusade, Snaporaz! Lyrics, laughter and sonic punctuation