a project by Andrea Mi
in collaboration with Intooitiv
a Fabbrica Europa production
City Mix is a project configured as a journey among the "Hot Spots" of contemporary electronic creativity, in those cities which by nature and vocation are the hot spots of artistic merging and propulsive junctions on a constantly expanding map. In the ever-widening panorama of the arts and electronic mixmedial experiences, some towns more than others seem able to collect, motivate and give space to productive energies which put together research, experimentation and production quality, tracing a new outline of European culture under the sign of digital sharing and networking.
The journey can start from nowhere but Florence, in whose undergrowth new energies and project creations spring up, well able to win a place on the ever more crowded European scene, moving through far-sighted Holland with its avant-garde cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam, stopping in Cologne, German epicentre of the culture club, and finishing in a night of "full immersion" in the new nightlife of London.
As part of the project there will be also the installation Iceberg by Ciboideale, especially conceived for the Leopolda Station square: an ephemeral work that will be visible only the opening day (May 3rd), a video projection on an ice block that will slowly thaw.
The programme will also be enriched by the sonorizations of URBANsoundWORK, a project by Radio Papesse that involves radio producers, musicians and sound researchers.
CITYMIX > FLORENCE
Of late, the independent Florentine electronic scene is making a great effort to establish itself as one of the most interesting and surprising in the Italian panorama. Although it is true that, apart from a few happy exceptions, the clubs' situation is lacking, few other Italian cities can boast such a number of festivals and specialised events: Nextech, Elettrowave, Muv, Screenmusic and SwitchOff act as boosters of digital creativity and showplaces for much emerging talent.
METùO _ mixed media live
METùO is an audio video project revolving around the energies of various artists brought together by the common desire to "dream not mean". From interactive installations and multi-sensory performances, Giorgia Angiuli (laptop, guitar, toys, keyboard, voice, smells), Tommaso Bianchi (artistic production), Blanche (videos), Amelie Labarthe (voice) and Master T (mixing and electronics) develop a complex world of sweet, estranging melodies, rhythmic accelerations overlapping into Pop, playful, perfumed visions. Feverish and surreal is the universe of Metùo, which tries to make tangible the desire (common to a certain "bedroom generation") to stay, eyes closed and headphones on, as if in a golden-barred prison. Sounds, images and smells as intrinsic elements of a soft synesthetic labyrinth invaded by grace, lightness and imagnificent groove.
ETHER _ live/dj set
Andrea Bracali and Andrea Masi met in Florence in the second half of the Nineties. After a series of appearances in local music projects, their debut under the name Ether came in 2001 with Tree of Porphyry, a self-production followed by Nunca Mais of 2003, the soundtrack of the environmentalist documentary on the tragedy of the Prestige oil tanker off Galizia. The duo's sound, meanwhile, reached towards minimalism without losing its strong melodic, groovey, carefree content: from this came Tin-Tole-Lata, a side-project remote from the intimism of the Ether, rousing the interest of AI Records, the "neue-electronica" label, which included the Tin-Tole-Lata, featuring their Hue Song, in the Station sampler. The arrival of the project of Francesco Bigazzi, talented Florentine dj and manipulator, widened the Ether's outlook and they started to collaborate with Mousikelab. Included in the Condominium compilation and inserting the EP Quasi Quasar via PersistenceBit Records, they reached the adult debut of Intimo Personelles for the eclectic Neapolitan label. More recently the EP Interferenzo appeared on the English Audio Aubergine label and collaboration started with Homework and Betulla records.
ALFA ROMERO _ live/dj set
The Alfa Romero project came from Francesco Parra (Eclat) and Marzio Aricò (Prudo) to explore the "darker" side of dance. The duo was already known for its productions and remixes under the name Eclat & Prudo on labels such as Moodmusic (GER), Dirt Crew Recordings (GER), Music For Freaks (UK), PIAS (UK), Trapez (GER) and others; its sound was oriented towards a tech-funk based on solid rhythms, essential tracks and a strong sense of the dancefloor. In some ways it could be called minimal house, but they prefer to call is simply funk! The productions and remixes named Alfa Romero were supported by the best international dj's such as Marco Carola, Ricardo Villalobos, David Duriez, Dirt Crew, MANDY, Davide Squillace, Troy Pearce, Karotte and many others. Their sets have already been hosted in some of the main European clubs and festivals (their performance at the Sonar in Barcellona 2006 was unforgettable) and they will soon be the stars in the prestigious surroundings of the Miami Dance Conference 2008.
Live, Alfa Romero offers a mash-up somewhere between a dj set and a real live making records and computers interact in a rhythmic continuum that becomes deadly for any dancefloor.
BLANCHE _ vj set
Silvia Bianchi, aka Blanche, is one of the most famous vj's and visual artists on the Italian scene.
In spite of her youth (she was born in Pisa in 1984) she can boast a good deal of experience in live exhibitions and as curator of events, festivals and reviews devoted to audiovisual culture.
In recent years she has curated vj-sets for many of the most famous Italian dj's and producers, among whom Popolous (Morr Music), Ether (MousikeLab), Drama Society and for some among the most influential leaders of international electronics such as Richard Dorfmeister (G7), Andy Smith (Portishead/Trojan Rec.), Daniel Meteo (Scape), Ellen Allien (B-pitch), Apparat (Shitkatapult), Daedalus (Ninjatune), Tomboy (Kitsunè), Chloè (Kill the dj), Andy Smith (Portishead), Richard Dorfmeister, Vibronics, Channel One, Soul Jazz Records, Grand Wizard Theodore. She has taken part in numerous Italian and foreign festivals, among which are LPM (Rome), Arezzo Wave, Muv (Florence), Homework (Bologna), Nextech (Florence), MarryKlain (Munich), Avit (Berlin).
Her aesthetic research concentrates on the creation of toned-down atmospheres where layers of vision overlie one another, colouring each other in play on transparencies.
She collaborates and has collaborated, furthermore, in carrying out audiovisual projects with: Retina.it (Mousikelab), Marco Messina (Mousikelab), Metuo and Besegher and Flushing Device (Betulla rec.), with whom she did the "Desperate" project.
She is co-director of the Italian portal Vjcentral.it and collaborates with the e-mag Digimag for which she writes on Vjing and Live Media.
In January 2007 her work was chosen to appear on the BMW Serie1 site One Like No One, the portal that BMW devotes to the latest trends in electronic culture. Blanche was The One for January 2007 with an entire page of the Visual section dedicated to her work.
www.myspace.com/citymixfestival
