“The hardest thing was to break that silence, because since October the musicians had been blocked. No one had the strength and energy to think about things that seemed futile compared to the tragedy all around”. This is what Toni Cutrone, a key figure in the Roman musical underground, tells us over the phone. Many past and present projects, from the former Dal Verme club to the NO=FI Recordings label, which published some of the fundamental records for the scene known as Italian occult psychedelia. But what interests us in particular on this occasion is the recent experience he lived in the West Bank with his solo project Mai Mai Mai, in which Mediterranean folk songs merge with electronics, giving life to a dimension of “archaic future”.
“I LIKE range in the common basin that our sea represents, the shared elements are many and for this reason I have always found it easy to relate to the sounds of the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe. Palestine is obviously part of all this. I really wanted to go there, I had wanted to see with my own eyes what the occupation was for a long time” says Cutrone. The half ethnographic half experimental research of Mai Mai Mai finds its background in the origins of the musician, born in Calabria, and as evidenced for example by the double album In the South (La Tempesta, 2019), the process of recording ritual songs does not deviate from the tradition of ethnomusicology in the vein of Diego Carpitella, except to then encounter the rhythm and imagination of the “machines” of Mai Mai Mai. This process, however, could not take place when Cutrone was welcomed into artistic residence at the Wonder Cabinet in Bethlehem last January.
“I should have gone to record in the villages, with the elders, their songs related to the olive harvest, the changing seasons, weddings and funerals, but going around was not recommended at that time. So I focused on building relationships, I had a studio at my disposal where I invited several local musicians: Maya al Khaldi, Julmud, Ussama Abu Ali”. With the latter Mai Mai Mai made a track, Jinn Of The Bethlehem Soukwhich later became part of the compilation We Will Stay Here – Music for Palestinea project by the Turin label Love Boat in support of MAP (Medical Aid For Palestinians). «The compilation is like a small manifesto of a scene. We musicians know each other, we have played together, even with bigger names like Cosmo who is still very tied to the underground. Everyone participated for the cause but it was not a given that it would turn out as good a record as it did».
In addition to the aforementioned Cosmo, the lineup also includes, among others, Sara Persico, Bono / Burattini, Holy Tongue, Not Waving. «Our track is perhaps the last one to arrive, Ussama Abu Ali is a mijwiz player, a traditional flute, he is very well known in Palestine especially in popular contexts, he is called to parties or big weddings. He builds the flute himself, collecting bamboo in the area where he lives, on the border with Lebanon. In Jinn Of The Bethlehem Souk so there are the recordings we made together that mix with those I made with an ambient microphone in the Souk, the old market of Bethlehem. The idea was to take the listener on an almost dreamlike journey to those lands. The title comes from the ghost that is said to live in the market, according to legend you can meet him at night. I don’t think I met him, but I certainly felt him in some way! “says Cutrone.
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«Wonder Cabinet», resisting by strengthening artistic formsTHE COMPILATION We Will Stay Here is just another testimony of how the electronic scene has mobilized in recent months in favor of the Palestinian cause. If mainstream artists are lacking in speaking out, in the experimental “undergrowth” there are countless benefit concerts, themed mixtapes, radio broadcasts. Cutrone explains it like this: “We are part of an underground artistic world, made up of real relationships, without any obligation to multinationals and labels. Since we are not tied down, we can express ourselves freely while those who have contracts often cannot. We still risk something, many have had concerts canceled in Germany or France, for example.”
Returning to the experience in the West Bank, Cutrone talks about the impact with the harshness of the situation. «It was my first “physical”, “real” approach to what happens there: seeing the occupation in progress, the difficulties of daily life, of travel, things that are difficult to imagine because the news always focuses on the war and the deaths in Gaza but in the West Bank the problem is the everyday apartheid. The thing that struck me most, however, is the Palestinians’ desire to react, in the midst of a tragedy they always have the desire to understand how to create a possibility to move forward, to coexist, to find a solution».
Toni Cutrone
“We Will Stay Here” is like a little manifesto. In the track by me and Ussama Abu Ali there are recordings made in the Souk, where they say a ghost livesTHE MUSICIAN he then returned to those lands a few months later, in May, as part of a precious and unique initiative, again by Wonder cabinet/Radio Alhara. «Sounds of Places was a sort of festival that took place in the Cremisan Valley, a beautiful valley between Jerusalem and Bethlehem with olive groves and vineyards. For some years Israel has been trying to annex it illegally by building a wall. The wall is almost there, maybe a hundred meters, but it is complicated to do so because it would pass through the middle of a Christian monastery, with nuns and monks who have been producing wine since the 60s. The situation has been at a standstill for some time but the risk is that from one day to the next – given that these constructions are mostly done at night – the wall will be closed. The idea was therefore to shine a spotlight on the valley, keep it alive to make the occupation more difficult. With several international artists we created something there, from dance to installations that were left. I played in the monastery garden and improvised with Alabaster de Plume, an Englishman, on sax, and Sami El-Enany on piano, also English but of Palestinian origins. We recorded a lot in the valley in order to make 3D mappings, so if it is lost, it will be possible to relive it for those who come after. A sad and pragmatic role of art.
