interview Martux_m about Metaxu

Metaxu is a hybrid demon. In Plato’s Symposium, it’s the definition given to love, an inevitable incompleteness that opens up to encounter with the other. It’s what stands in between, protean and destabilizing, in a constant state of becoming. The artistic challenge of the collective that adopted this name is expressed by the essence of that sound: it’s about reinventing a language, breaking free from the concert format, and expanding the idea of a group. Music becomes a discovery, not just entertainment.

The Metaxu project was born in 1997 in Rome from the encounter between Filippo Paolini, DJ, sound manipulator, and plagiarist, and Maurizio Martusciello, one of the key figures in the European electronic scene, acclaimed by prestigious labels like Recommended, Staalplaat, Metamkine, and the only Italian to have won the prestigious composer-in-residence in France. Last TV season, the Neapolitan musician had his space on the Rai Mediamente program, dedicated to new technologies, interpreting the episode’s theme through sounds, something never seen before on TV. Ossatura, Martusciello’s previous group, received unanimous praise from international critics and was hailed as the new, mature voice of Italian experimentalism after Berio, Maderna, Evangelisti. But the experience had reached a standstill, perhaps exhausting its innovative charge, trapped in self-satisfaction.

Metaxu’s research is transversal, an instinctual contamination between electroacoustic experimentation and scratch, a blend of atmospheres from future archaeology and digital dance music, presented as cinema for the ears. It found space in museums and galleries, at the Venice Biennale and the Off-ICMC in Berlin, in radio broadcasts, social centers, and theaters. In 2000, the first CD, self-titled, was released by Plate Lunch. Today, Metaxu consists of three members, with Mattia Casalegno enriching the work with images, the only Italians on the bill, present at Electromusic Europe.

Tell us about Rumors of War… It’s a work we specifically conceived for this festival, and we’re proud to present it as a world premiere at Romaeuropa; we’ll then take it, with a specific project, to Paris and then to New York. This closes a circle because Rumors of War is based on what happened on September 11. We never tire of emphasizing our absolute respect for the victims of the American metropolis, people who tragically and unexpectedly lost their lives, and for those who suffered the loss of loved ones in a horrible pain. However, it’s not right to forget with this event all the other attacks, wars, and injustices that still demand a voice, noise. Other atrocious suffering, other innocent victims, other blood, other devastations that don’t touch our consciences. Invisible, silent. We want to denounce this: the disaster of the Twin Towers is being turned into political speculation, accelerating the globalization of thought. Everyone thinks the same way. Instead, we would like to ask questions, foster critical reflection.

How did you translate this feeling into music? Each composition starts from war, from different wars. We did thorough research, especially online, to understand the territory, how it happened, how it started, what kind of conflict it was. The great resource of the internet is that it doesn’t give you a single story, like a text, but many different stories, even from people directly involved, from those who lived through it, or from those who collected testimonials from relatives. We started from this information, as if an emotional nucleus emanated from there. The noise of war is definitely metaphorical. It’s a suggestion, an atmosphere. When we composed, if the subject was chemical or biological warfare, the sound had to convey that corrosion, different from a war in the 1950s fought with rifles or machine guns. We would like those who participate to come out of this sensory experience with a reflective state of mind.

A political awakening? We don’t believe in art for art’s sake. Even in our representation, we try to move away from traditional canons. We almost want it not to be a concert. And the idea of the image goes in this direction. What interests us is to stimulate a discussion that doesn’t remain abstract. Much electronic music has become a playful process, and this can make sense because we all objectively live in a condition of discomfort. However, we feel far from the idea of pure escapism. Our work also has a political aspect, in the noble sense of the term, as a critical and constructive relationship with the other.

Rome is talked about as a new capital of electronic music… Today this genre of music has become a trend everywhere, and therefore a real business. Rome is a contradictory city: there are interesting realities but also little critical capacity, too much attention to things that are rather questionable from a qualitative point of view. People get excited about some foreign artists just because they come from abroad. It’s a taste for the exotic traditionally Italian. But abroad, local artists are put in a position where they can interact with guests, play with them, are well promoted, exposed, evaluated. Here, often, we clash with the closure of certain operators. Paradoxically, some underground circuits are less attentive than institutions. Rome needs to mature in this sense.

Do you have other recording projects in the pipeline? We are looking for the right label for Rumors of War. After the experience of Romaeuropa, the work will definitely be published. What interests us is to convey our convictions to the market. We’ve had some proposals, but they seem more geared towards creating something that works right now, rather than promoting it properly. We want Rumors of War to be promoted for what it is, for a producer to believe in this project beyond the artistic and musical process. We are very calmly looking for the right dimension for this process.