Krisma - The synth-pop duo

We meet Christina Moser and Maurizio Arcieri before a show at a venue on the outskirts of Milan. Both still with the same unwavering enthusiasm for talking about themselves and their music, they told us anecdotes about their prestigious past as well as about their current projects, which, despite a thirty-year career, are far from running out of steam.

It's always struck me that you released your first album, "Chinese Restaurant", in 1977. So alongside historic names of the after-punk scene like the Stranglers and Ultravox, and well before Joy Division even came into being. Did being Italian weigh on you, or was it instead a source of pride for you (the only Italians…!)?

Maurizio: I have to correct you: we wrote "Chinese Restaurant" in 1974, it came out in 1975, so Ultravox hadn't even formed yet and Joy Division were still lurking in who knows what corner of Manchester. Being Italian weighed on us very little, because we were living in London as Swiss nationals (Christina has Swiss roots, ed.), and besides, we were singing in English a kind of music that had never existed before. If anything, what weighed on us was being released late in Italy.

Speaking of things that worked against you, I get the impression that younger audiences don't have a clear sense of what Krisma really were. Isn't it possible that appearing on too many mainstream "popular" TV shows, alongside people who have little to do with you, damaged your artistic image?

Maurizio: Anything's possible, except that if we don't go on as guests when they invite us, we wouldn't even get those opportunities. Maybe it is as you say, but people in the industry, Subsonica for instance, know very well what we've done and were more than happy to bring us into their projects. Of course, we'd like to have more of a presence on our own terms…

…maybe by reissuing "Chinese Restaurant", "Hibernation", "Cathode Mama" and "Clandestine Anticipation". That would be an excellent promotional vehicle, don't you think?

Maurizio: Well, look, I'd be delighted! Why don't you step up, OndaRock (!!!), give me the exclusive and make it happen (who knows, maybe I'll turn record label boss too, ed.). Actually, I heard that in France they recently dedicated a special to us on the show "Haute Ténsion", featuring a track called "Miami" that came out…

…that track came out "tomorrow"!

Maurizio: Nice! I'm glad you say that! Just think, last week at Cocoricò in Riccione they played it in a DJ set: if you're rediscovering it too, all the better, considering it dates back to 1982.

Later, after the show, Maurizio confided in me that the failed reissue of their material was due to the numerous acquisitions that took place between majors over the years. The result is that they've been left drowning in an endless "out of catalogue" limbo, now in the hands of foreign record labels that don't even know they have it.

But forgive me, now that there's so much attention on the electronic sounds of the late Seventies/early Eighties, isn't it time to put out a new record that sets things straight a bit? A record that says: "Gentlemen, this is Krisma, and the songs you'll find inside are the offspring of things we were already doing thirty years ago". After all, in these past years I've only seen you involved in collaborations: first Subsonica, then Battiato...

Maurizio: First of all, there's a bit of laziness on our part; add to that the total absence, here in Italy, of anyone who can guarantee us proper distribution and the kind of production we expect, and you'll understand the reasons behind our prolonged absence. Although in the last year, aside from the work with Franco Battiato on "Ten Stratagems", which we're very pleased with, we've recorded some unreleased material with really innovative sounds. But the new record will come out in Denmark on the Deltalab label from Copenhagen, which is much better than putting ourselves in the hands of record companies that aren't worth a damn! People who tell you: "Okay, we'll make the record, but then you'll have to go on 'Music Farm'." I'd take part in that show alright, but only alongside Vasco Rossi, Garbo, Morgan and Battiato (Maurizio smiles sarcastically).

New album aside, are you working on anything else?

Look, they're shooting a film called "Electro Labors" about our artistic story at the Dams University in Turin, and that will be the occasion to let people hear our new tracks, with sounds... it'll be pure noise, basically!

...lots of things brewing...

Yes, of course, otherwise we wouldn't be out there doing shows.

I read somewhere that Jarvis Cocker, the Pulp frontman, intended to work on the "Hibernation" material. Is that true, or did I get it wrong?

Absolutely! But nothing came of it, because those are people who take and then give you nothing back. To be precise, it was the Pulp guitarist who contacted us, only we would have had to do everything on their terms, including staying in England for eight months entirely at their disposal, and frankly I have a different idea of what artistic collaboration means. Mind you, I've got nothing against Pulp, but before they contacted us I didn't even know who they were.

In the track "Thank You" from "Chinese Restaurant" you name a series of great artists who made rock history and influenced you. If you had to update that prestigious list with names of artists who've emerged since '77, is there anyone you'd want to add?

You know, that's a great question? Right now I could definitely add Gary Numan: no more than twenty days ago, I listened to some of his tracks that have yet to come out, played by a truly spectacular band. That's the only name that comes to mind, at the moment...

I haven't heard anything about Krisma Tv in a while. Is it still broadcasting? Tell us, the enslaved audience of Sky-Tv's satellite, if and how it's possible to tune in...

Maurizio: Right around the time Sky burst onto the market, they took our frequencies away, for commercial reasons you can well imagine; however, Krisma Tv still broadcasts from France, from Australia and even from Hong Kong. So you'll have to go over there if you want to keep watching it...

...what's the schedule like?

Maurizio: The setup is the one you know, and it's mostly taken up by improvised music, composed with a program I helped develop called “ReBirth” from the software company “Propellerheads”, and by images that Christina creates with the Mac…

Speaking of software and technology, I've always followed your electronic gadgets with great curiosity — I'm thinking for instance of the “Krismino”, and the little Casio keyboard you modified to get some really unusual sounds out of it. Do you think the laptop, which has by now supplanted analog instruments, encourages this kind of creative exploration?

Maurizio: I've always tried to get the most out of the instruments I grow fond of, whether analog or digital. Even “ReBirth”, though, which was conceived by me along with four other musicians who come from an analog background, and which is a simple program to use, still demands a lot of inventiveness: it doesn't hand you anything, in other words. Actually, just think: if one day some Bill Gates were to notice our software, there's even a chance we'd become billionaires all over again! (a remark made with a tone somewhere between sly and amused).

Do you still enjoy taking electronic instruments apart?

Maurizio: Absolutely, it's still my favourite hobby!

Years ago I read an interview of yours in which you predicted an era — referring to the still little-known “walkmans” — in which music would become mostly “portable”, and you seemed in favour of that new direction. Today we've arrived at “peer to peer” and the iPod: do you still hold that view, or do you feel we've reached an excessive vulgarization of the phenomenon?

Maurizio: Even today, just as back then, I welcome without reservation anything that moves in the direction of accessibility. I would like, however, for that to go hand in hand with quality, and I realize that isn't always possible. It would be nice if the tool available to everyone spread good music, in other words, rather than the banalities we too often find ourselves having to hear, and see. It's desirable, for example, that it be the artist themselves who “builds” their own image in videos, without having to resort to the many stereotyped formulas of other “industry professionals” who invariably end up flattening everything out.

Maurizio, name three records you'd bring to a desert island.

Maurizio: Without a doubt, a collection of early rock'n'roll tracks, those collections with Fats Domino, Little Richard, you know the kind? Then an album by a Danish band I'm producing, Darleen, who play punk-country tracks (!!!), and that... it'd be a disaster if I didn't have them! As the third, a Mahler record, let's say.

Is there a song of yours you're particularly proud of?

Maurizio: I'd say “Lola”. (meanwhile Christina walks up from behind and I realize it was her who suggested it!)

…Oh no! That doesn't count, someone suggested it to you!

Maurizio: Yes, but I'm happy to go along with the suggestion.

…(I take advantage of Christina's presence for a quick exchange)

Christina, what does it mean to be by Maurizio's side for so long?

Christina: Well, it's exactly the same for him being close to me! Anyway, we get along very well, if that's what you want to know…

Have you ever happened to argue over musical matters?

Christina: Absolutely not! It's really easy to get along, since there are only two of us…

Is there one of your records you prefer?

Christina: There isn't one of our albums that I prefer, you know? …See, when you put out a new work you're always satisfied with the result. Well, of course, thinking about it, I can't help mentioning a track like "Black Silk Stocking"… Just think, that was the first song we made under the name Chrisma, after which I could mention other songs, like "Many Kisses", but that one, besides being the first, was really… "a bitch inside" (obviously at this point they both burst into loud laughter).

(Interview conducted in 2005)

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