City Mix > Florence
A smile for Timbuctu_live
Scary Grant_dj set
Influx_vj set
a project by Andrea Mi
in collaboration with Intooitiv
City Mix is a journey among the 'hot-spots' of contemporary electronic creativity. It is a journey among those cities that by nature and vocation have become artistic hotspots: the dynamic hubs of a map in constant expansion. In the ever-growing panorama of multi-media electronic techniques, some cities seem more capable of grasping, motivating and giving space to the productive energy that unites experimentation and high quality production.
The voyage had to begin in Florence, in whose underground new energies and projects are moving, capable of renewing the legacy of the pioneers Pankow and Alexander Robotnik. Next it passes by Amsterdam and its kindred spirits, stops off with the rapid advances of Bucharest and Frankfurt in the east, moves onto the fervid activity of an ever-more global Barcelona, and returns south as always to a bewitching and absolutely up-to-date Istanbul. The journey finishes in the city that has done more than any other to build the European electronic landscape: Berlin.... To watch the sky above and the music beneath.
City Mix > Florence
Describing the music scene in Florence takes you without fail to the late 80s and early 90s, when a wave of groups emerged that are still cult for many, during a period that definitively marked the panorama of Italian independent music. Many musical currents have been active ever since and other young, already significant talents have sprung up from the vibrant Tuscan underground scene that includes festivals such as Nexttech, Fosfeni, Station to Station and Elettrowave. Two of the crux points for the landscape of creative electronica and digital experimentation are the originally named A Smile for Timbuctu and Scary Grant.
A smile for Timbuctu _ live
The Florence-based electro-artists Cristiano Crisci and Simone Brillarelli make up A Smile For Timbuctu. Their EP Manuele Atzeni (available for free download from www.audiaubergine.com) is one of the best micromusic releases of recent times and confirms the group as one of the Italian groups to watch, as small as it is interesting. Their activity includes live performance (a recent UK tour was hugely successful), gallery installations and university workshops.
This is music for a childlike and greedy public: soft like spun sugar, rich in treacly 'basso continuo' beats, joyful and vintage. They please those who played on an Atari console just as much as the users of the most cutting-edge Playstation. "Our pieces are made to be listened to in the morning as a great start to the day. The breakfast of champions!" says the pair. They include the Fugazi as their principal inspiration, even if some pieces seem to have as much to do with Aphex Twin and the ping of the Gameboy.
Their next release on the English label Audio Aubergine, will be the LP Our Disco Disastro, and two tracks will be released in an imminent compilation for the American label Mana Media.
Scary Grant _ dj set
Scary Grant is Giulio Andreini. His musical career began at the end of the 90s when he toured Italian and European clubs as a photographer for magazines like Orbeat, Rockerilla and Groove Magazine. He made his reputation as the co-founder, with Francesco Parra, of the Eclat project, with which he played in the most important Italian and European clubs. Eclat also made singles for significant foreign labels (PIAS, Music For Freaks, Trapez, Morris Audio) and participated in the major Italian festivals (Sintesi, Dissonanze, Distorsonie, Arezzo Wave). At the beginning of 2006 he decided to leave the project and to focus on Scary Grant, his solo project. His first EP Crash/Almost Crash was released on Lo Fi Stereo and was played by Sven Vaeth and Villalobos with great success. His sound is an elegant and absolutely irresistible variant of glitch and tech-house.
Influx _ vj set
Influx is the project of Federico Fiori and Francesca Lenzi. Begun in 2003, it moves between video art, visuals, live performance and photography, experimenting with the artistic possibilities offered by digital technology. The duo intermixes styles and techniques, searching for unknown forms of expression. Their work is an investigation of the everyday, 'the real', and the interpretation to which the human psyche subjects it. Melting, decomposing and intermixing images arrive at a primary essence, transforming them into a 'fluid continuum' in which everything changes and regenerates, assuming a new meaning. Reality becomes image and image becomes reality. The vision becomes a 'cerebral vision'. Influx were among the 17 Italian VJs selected for the 2006 Elettrowave DVD, Mixing Identities a/v compilation. They also participated in the 2006 Videominuto as part of the One Minute Suite.
