Experimental is a limitless spectrum
LOST Festival 5-7/7/2024
We’d spent three days in a maze. Elegant and mysterious, built to hide secrets, it’s an enigma to walk through until you lose your orientation. Getting lost in space let us being abstract perceiver of the world and reach places we can only imagine somewhere in time. Getting lost falling into experiments and attempts, going afterwards and backwards, help us to connect with subconscious dimensions. Getting lost is the whole point and goal of this unique festival.
LOST (Labyrinth Original Soundtrack) is and immersive experience staged into Labirinto Della Masone, a mystic and esoteric architecture, whose environments are essential for creating an atmosphere suspended between the surreal and the magical: 7-hectare maze composed of more than 200k bamboo plants, as a result of the dreams and visions of the late Franco Maria Ricci, one of Italy’s most esteemed publishers, graphic artists and refined collectors.
The architectonical frame is the necessary premise to talk about the sound experience which creates the intimate and enveloping atmosphere in this sacred place dedicated to art and beauty that comes from exploration. To solve the enigma you need to travel between light and shadow, sound and silence.
Our journey starts from the Museo, a wunderkammer of sinuous and sinister objects. Entering the first room a sound seems to flow from afar. The acoustic drones resonate and vibrate across the rooms, the more you move into the more you perceive this sound deeper and deeper. The source is the site specific installation by Riccardo la Foresta and James Ginzburg (he is one-half of Emptyset alongside Paul Purgas) which treats the drum as an aerophone creating ancestral melodies and complex beats that drastically distance the instrument from traditional drumming. In a space which looks like the library of a modern alchimist takes place a second act created by la Foresta to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Moog Synthesizer.
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Our journey starts from the Museo, a wunderkammer of sinuous and sinister objects. Entering the first room a sound seems to flow from afar. The acoustic drones resonate and vibrate across the rooms, the more you move into the more you perceive this sound deeper and deeper. The source is the site specific installation by Riccardo la Foresta and James Ginzburg (he is one-half of Emptyset alongside Paul Purgas) which treats the drum as an aerophone creating ancestral melodies and complex beats that drastically distance the instrument from traditional drumming. In a space which looks like the library of a modern alchimist takes place a second act created by la Foresta to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Moog Synthesizer.
During the day, in the shade of the labyrinth, the hosts' DJ sets alternate between the stages. It’s a swirling cauldron of rhythms across a whole spectrum of genres, from old-school dancehall to its most futuristic and distorted mutations to musique concrète, ambient, and more. Music here is an attempt to trace new configurations of the audible in order to alter the usual relations between body, mind and sound.
From the narrative set by i-sha b2b ojoo to the ambient soundscapes by Huerco S. who transforms the sound until it becomes dub, through the experience of Ciro Pirelli heavily influenced by ambient/ noise culture and man-machine dialogue to Dali Muru & The Polyphonic Swarm inspired troubadour poetry,cinema soundtrack and primordial electronics. Music is the healing and transformative agent; an invitation to open other layers of engagement with reality using deep listening, observation, presence and mutual dialogue with an audience.
As the sun goes down we move to the center of the maze where LOST main act takes place in the an atmosphere of sacrality. Amnesia Scanner has presented the project PSYCHO CAT characterized by his typical deep fascination with system vulnerabilities, informational overload, and sensory excess to carnivalize present. 33 - Berlin-based music ensemble founded by its core-members, Alexander Iezzi and Billy Bultheel - play their live performance, often held in non-traditional spaces, take on a performative and installation nature, engaging audiences in a multisensory experience that pushes the limits of conventional music. Another highly anticipated debut is of Funeral Folk, the project of Maria W. Horn & Sara Parkman, for the first time in Italy. This project combines sacred and folk music in a deep exploration of Nordic musical traditions, reinterpreted in a contemporary key. Their performance remains one of the most moving and spiritual moments of the festival.
The lineup stands out for its boldness and diversity, bringing together artists who challenge convention and offer unique sonic visions. With the addition of these new acts, the festival confirms itself as one of the most important stages for experimental music, offering the public an immersive and unprecedented artistic experience.
