Chtonian Music

Concept, ideation, site specific project direction, screenplay, score, texts, lyrics, sigils and design of the editions: RM-ED/L | Sandro Gronchi. 2 channels and multi channel audio composition, performing, mixing, mastering and real-time spatialization processing by Pietro Riparbelli. Acoustic installation by Sandro Gronchi and Pietro Riparbelli. Recording sessions: Francisco López, Christina Kubisch, Massimo Bartolini, Seth Cluett, Y.E.R.M.O., Francesco Brasini / Seven Guitars, Luciano Maggiore, Gianluca Becuzzi, Andrea Marutti, Philippe Petit , Deadwood, Burial Hex, Aderlating, Utarm, Nordvargr, L’Acephale. This conceptual album is a 2 channel stereo hi-fi transposition of a related site specific multi-channel acoustic installation set, based on the sound spatialization system I.M.E.A.S.Y, both developped from the hermetic multidimensional sound art project Chthonian Music, conceived by RMEDL to be performed in an ancient Etruscan hypogeum sited in Cecina (Italy), during the spring solstice (Ante Diem Duodecimum Kalendas Apriles) within the programmatic-conceptual event “Metasound – Independent Curatorial Experiences in ntemporary Art: from the object up to the event: sound art, multimedia and practice of the art of listening”,an hypermedial site-specific project, cured by SG as RMEDL, installed within the archaeological park of Cecina, in the core of the ancient Tuscia.

This conceptual album and the related audio installation are musically composed by Pietro Riparbelli / K11 who playing organ, voices, drum and directis the recording sessions of the acoustic sources produced by the previous mentioned artists, expecially conceived by the authors for this project. This multidimensional collaborative opera is a bridge between the conception of sound within the contemporary art scene, the postindustrial culture and the avantgarde black metal musical scene, focusing on creating a dialogic development between radical forms of concrete music, unorthodox sounds, conceptual arts and experimental recordings practices of the acoustic phenomenas.This project is based on the study of the territory where Cecina stands today, already known in Etruscan age with the name of Kaikne or Kaikna and was inhabited in Roman times, when an imperial personality, the consul Albino Cecina who was a descendant of an ancient Etruscan family that came from Volterra (Velathri), ordered the construction of a villa, the ruins of which are still visited in San Vincenzino.

The surrounding area of Cecina, knew a long period of decline, which began with the decline of the Etruscan civilization and marked during the Roman domination. However in medieval times the name of the Tuscan town was quoted by Dante Alighieri (Inf. XIII, 7). The peculiar state of re-veiling of the historical roots of Cecina town, began in the Roman construction plant of the Albini Villa by the department of archaeological sciences of the University of Pisa (in this contest stands the discovery of a headless statue in Egyptian alabaster that represents Isis). It becomes the right condition for the staging of meta-curator project Metasound through which a witness is shown, though as a part of a state of the art research on aesthetic trans-operative promoting by RM-ED/L. The choice of the roman cistern and its adjacent mysteric tunnels, as the core of the catabasis experience intrinsec in the concept of Chthonian Music. and as sound-chamber of the related acoustic installation, comes from the study on the symbolic meaning of places of worship, that was developed in Etruscan age – civilization that first settled in the adjacent grounds to the Cecina river. The re-veiling of the etruscan settlement, roman villa and medioeval cemetery, in the small park of San Vincenzino, opens to the possibility of considering the reading of the archaeological sites in their likely original function of sacred hypogeum. The cavity of the cistern, thus, becomes a possible reuse of an earlier site of Etruscan origine, with a more likely symbolic function of a place consecrated to the worship of Chthonic Deities. Demeter-Persephone (Phersipnai) was the goddess which was based the religion of the Mysteries, imported by the Etruscans in Italy.

Kidnapped by Hades and carried in the realm of the underworld, becaming the queen of the hell through his ritual death. Demeter, the goddess of the earth got that Persephone / Phersipnai reigned during the winter months and in the remaining months could return to earth, whose myth is the awakening of the soul and its cyclical path of death and transfiguration. Delving into the dark recesses of the earth, meant to open a gate to a supernatural dimension. Tunnels and mazes of paths represented the symbolic difficult journey of the soul towards a higher life. Exit from the bowels of the land, from the darkest recesses of the earth and the human soul, represents the rebirth of the soul to a higher level of living. The annual return of Phersipnai on earth among the living, coincided with the beginning of spring, and on this occasion were celebrated the Lesser Mysteries, or the second Birth. On this occasion, wizards with snakes twisted on the arms, moved at the flickering light of torches in long orgiastic processions (Nuktélia) that ended with a search of the queen Phersipnai.Hetrvria Hermetica.

Score

I – Mvndvs [Munth]
Francisco Lopez – field recording, acousmatic re-processing.
Seth Cluett – deep low frequencies sounds
Pietro Riparbelli – distorted organ, mixing

II – Katábasis

pt.I
Christina Kubisch – tuning forks, electromagnetic filtered
sounds recorded with an inductiveheadphone system, cello flageolett.
Francesco Brasini / Sevenguitars – guitars, amplifiers, enviromental feedbacks
Pietro Riparbelli – organ, composition

pt.II
L’Acephale – guitar, drum, voice
Utarm – power electronics, drones
Pietro Riparbelli – composition

pt.III [Epopteia]
Burial Hex – piano and effects
Andrea Marutti – sinth, drones, concrete sounds
Pietro Riparbelli – organ, voices, composition

pt.IV
Gianluca Becuzzi – crencrete sounds, drones
Massimo Bartolini – concrete sounds / field recordings
Francesco Brasini / Sevenguitars – guitars, amplifiers, enviromental feedbacks
Pietro Riparbelli – voice, drum, organ, composition

pt.V
Luciano Maggiore – concrete sounds
Aderlating – concrete sounds, drones
Philippe Petit – concrete turntablism
Andrea Marutti – sinth
Pietro Riparbelli – organ, composition

III – Nuktèlia
Nordvargr – drones, concrete sounds
Deadwood – drones, concrete sounds
L’Acephale – concrete sounds, guitar, violin, drum, piano Y.E.R.M.O. – concrete music, drones
Pietro Riparbelli – organ, composition

Full lenght audio: 80′:’00”
Concept, screenplay, installation design, compiled, editing curating and manufacture: RMEDL|SG

Includes handmade slipcase, handmade digiposter, transparent jewelcase, shaped paper and gold insert. Only 111 copies printed.

Full length audio: 72′:28”
Concept, editing and manufacture: RMEDL|SG

Link

Radical Matters