A mixture of ethnological recordings, found sounds and pirated material was the basis for the performances of the radical theatre group Magazzini Criminali from Florence in the late 1970s.
Right at the beginning of the decade, when theatre in Italy was developing in the direction of Teatro-Immagine, the group was already involved. Il Carrozzone, as the trio of Federico Tiezzi, Marion D’Amburgo and Sandro Lombardi called themselves at the time, was influenced by performance and conceptual art as well as minimal art.
In 1980, right after changing its name to Magazzini Criminali, the group embarked on an extensive European tour with the production Crollo Nervoso (nervous breakdown). The soundtrack consisted largely of ambient and cinematic music by Brian Eno, Brion Gysin, Jon Hassell and others – used without their permission.
Hassell had no problem with appropriation; on the contrary, he liked the result. Just two years later, he collaborated with the group on an adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s iconic 1957 Beat novel On The Road, which had been commissioned by the Venice Biennale.
The American composer had previously defined the concept of Fourth World in ambient music by combining music from tribal cultures with Western technology. For Sulla Strada, he created an atmospheric soundscape full of ritualistic and dramatic allusions that correspond to the theme of the piece, which deals with the longing for a place in the south.
Inspired by the music and rhythms of the Beti and Bemileke peoples of Cameroon, Hassell created a place that cannot be located either temporally or geographically. The piece was performed at the Teatro Malibran in May 1982.
Find the scene Frontiera A Sud-Est on Sounds Central’s Live Ambient Show.
A passage from Magazzini Criminali’s new wave-style play Crollo Nervoso appears in Sounds Central’s mix Flokati – Tunes for a Chill-out Zone.
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