Roman noise omnivore Toni Cutrone aka Mai Mai Mai names his poisonous, punishing electronic
miasmas after characters of the Greek alphabet, beginning with Theta in 2013 and followed by
Δέλτα (Delta) in 2014.
Φ (Phi) is the third and final installment in his Mediterranean trilogy, pushing the project deeper
into a vivid interzone of digital synthesis and scorched ritual. The album opens with a searing
collaboration with avant-folk instrumentalist Luca Venitucci, locked into a lofty duel of distorted
drones, before pivoting to a throbbing oblivion of jackhammer bass, seething feedback, and
combat samples.
Later passages ooze through industrial spoken word, technoid voodoo hallucination, seasick
prayer loops, and nightmare exotica, assisted in places by Italian experimental percussion
legend Lino Capra Vaccina (of 1970’s “golden age” groups Aktuala and Telaio Magnetico).
Cutrone ascribes a degree of his maximalist tendencies to a rootless youth packed with parents
through Europe and the Near East, absorbing fragments of sensation and sound, but his own
decade-plus experience in the Italian underground has doubtless played a role as well. Intensity
accrues, patience decays. Closure is its own reward.
Featuring:
Luca Venitucci (A1, Accordion)
Lino Capra Vaccina (B3: Vibraphone, Gong, Percussions)
Recorded, mixed and mastered by V.Fisik at Hombrelobo Studio
Pictures by Ilaria Doimo
Artwork by Legno
The album is released on tape by Not Not Fun (cat. no. NNF332)
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