He explores a number of different areas of style and tone alongside the glittering, intricate, sonically alluring idiom that announced itself so strikingly in the I miei orologi[3] (1995) for trio, an example of his flair for an openly mediterranean approach to instrumental sonority, articulated in cascading figuration and complex metres.

[11] His music of the 1990s continued to emphasize complex mechanical rhythms, often in a less densely chromatic idiom (tending to favor displaced major and minor triads and polymodal structures); his scores make huge technical demands on performers; sometimes, as in the case of Huaco[12] for orchestra, creating parts that are so detailed they are likely impossible to realize completely.

He views compositions as reification and formal structures of abstract ideas; but «he realizes in a use of isolated sonorities, extended playing techniques, frequent silences and ironic quotation of previous music».

His harmonic writing eschews the consonant modality of much minimalism, preferring post war European dissonance, often crystallised into large blocks of sound.

[14] Carnevale's music is published by LIM[15][16][17] (Lucca), Verlag Neue Musik[18] (Berlin), Suvini Zerboni[19][20] (Milan), TEM-Taukay Edizioni Musicali[21] (Udine), NEN (Palermo), CULC (Catania).