Mai Mai Mai
STWST Main Venue
8. Sept, Friday night, 02:00
Sometimes it's hard to force electronic music into categories, especially when the reference is more classical music or sombre spiritual folklore. The work of Rome-based artist Toni Cutrone - aka Mai Mai - often feels like an ancient ritual designed to reawaken the spirits of the past. They offer an impressionistic journey into the unknown that can sound both frightening and exciting.
The idea of ritual is not just a matter of imagination: Cutrone has worked extensively with other musicians, visual artists and ethnomusicologists to reinterpret past traditions and lost sounds, particularly the folklore of the Mediterranean and southern Italy.
Mai Mai's latest LP Rimorso focuses on the human voice as a vehicle for lived experience, drawing on a variety of singers from around the world to revive stories lost in history. For example, he recontextualises protest songs of female tobacco workers in Salento, revives ancient Italian folk music and transforms Mediterranean exotica into nightmarish gothic dirges.
Termed Mediterranean Hauntology, Mai Mai's music is always the result of extensive research and investigation into global musical movements, reinterpreting elements of folk, minimal music, synthwave, industrial, dream pop and ambient. His earlier records were conceived as sample-based compositions, while his newer material focuses heavily on organic human elements. His sets demand total immersion in the music and often leave listeners stunned.
‘Mai Mai Mai trades in energising' - The Wire
‘Diggin this f-cked, weirded out, atonal mad shizzle from Rome’ - Kevin Martin aka The Bug
https://www.facebook.com/maimaimaikr/
http://maimaimaikr.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SriXroTTUC8