Archive Futuro - Experimenting with an Oxymoron

Archive Futuro is a functional paradox, a project that experiments with the duality between the acoustic and the electronic, the search for unexpected sound combinations, organic music and programmed music. We meet the collective made up of Lorenzo BITW, Danilo Menna and Vittorio Gervasi, on the occasion of their second EP, "Rituale moderno", produced by Tempesta Dischi. The result? A meandering journey that leads into a shadow zone, where the boundaries between jam session and electronic production become elusive.

You're now an established act on your second EP - how did you all come together?We came together through a chance encounter between two members of the collective in 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic, when it was really hard and complicated to have any perspective on what was going to happen in the following months or years. Driven by the urge to experiment and search for new forms of expression, we started meeting up and recording our first demos, which eventually led to our debut album, titled precisely "Archive Futuro". From there we kept producing, playing live, experimenting and bringing in other musicians, expanding the collective. Beyond the musical side, we've also collaborated with graphic designers, photographers and costume designers - it's a process that's constantly evolving.

Let's start with the album itself. Layalina opens "Mi trasformo", a dreamlike track that tackles very topical social issues, almost like a manifesto. Where does the spoken-word text come from? And why did you choose the theme of physical and mental transformation within society?

The text was written by a member of our band and then performed in the studio by Alessandra Diodati, a wonderful Roman jazz singer. The idea behind it was more of a list than an actual manifesto, although the concept of the track evolved as we were creating it. The mantra, the repetition of the phrase "Mi trasformo", acted as an entry point, before moving on to tackle social and personal themes, but always with the intent of communicating something and making sure it stuck in the listener's head. That's basically what we said to ourselves from the very start: with our music we want to send out messages - if on the first album it was "Occuparsi dei sogni", a phrase borrowed from Nietzsche, here it's "Mi trasformo".

At the same time, the tracks themselves transform. In "Jungle", for instance, we hear the piece start out in an experimental jazz world, then shift into electronics and a more rhythmic ambient sound. The track then alternates with further introspective explorations like "Cave". The EP seems conceived as a progressive journey, both sonically and in a dreamlike sense: was it planned that way, or did you experiment in the studio and this is what came out of it?

We have quite different backgrounds, but they stimulate one another, and the same goes for what we listen to. This lets us shuffle the deck a bit - there's no genre that pigeonholes us perfectly, and we're not looking for one either. We do make electronic music, but with a lot of different influences. We tried to write with a sound in mind that would tie the tracks together, a "fil rouge", and we think we managed it. "Rituale moderno" is indeed a compact work, 24 minutes long but very dense with nuance. The intent was to make sure each track had its own identity, and once everything was finished, we thought long and hard about what order we wanted to give it for listening, in order to achieve that sonic, dreamlike journey effect you're talking about - and we're really glad you noticed it. So it was born during the writing process, but then we brought it out fully in the final stages of putting the EP together.

How do you usually work? How do you create your tracks?

Usually one of us brings in a demo made with Ableton, and that's where we start building a track from. We've found our own balance, which lets us basically work six-handed on almost every track. We don't have fixed roles - everyone does a bit of everything: playing, producing, arranging. The core of each track gets developed from there, with each of us adding, changing or playing something that wasn't originally there. We kind of follow the flow, while still respecting the original spirit of whatever someone brings in. In that sense, teamwork really lets you bring out the best in a track, because maybe one of us would never have thought to add or take away something, while the others' ideas end up taking it in a direction that was originally unexpected. The great thing is putting yourself out there without any jealousy. In particular, on this EP we wanted to experiment with vocals, whereas before our tracks were completely instrumental - something that, especially in the case of "Cave", with Mauro Remiddi's vocal contribution, really marked a turning point.

On the album you've brought in "poetronica" - the fusion of poetry and technology in sonic form - integrating spoken word and pushing the experimental side like an out-of-control jam session. Where did that idea come from?

We felt like we wanted to add vocals on this EP. We didn't want to use samples, but rather look for artistic personalities that felt close to us. Alessandra Diodati, who provides the vocals on both "Mi trasformo" and "Rituale moderno", went along with us on this madness. That sense of an out-of-control jam session, though, actually came about through post-production and mixing work - when we recorded the vocals, the tracks were actually slightly different. We're glad you picked up on that live approach, since it's something we look for even when we're producing, and we hope people get the chance to see us live, because in our humble opinion it's worth it - it's almost more of a performance than a concert.

Last question: is there an album you're listening to these days that you'd recommend?

"Cenizas" by Nicolas Jaar or "Endlessness" by Nala Sinephro.

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