Lisfrank - Unmasking the Future

Thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Thank you, it's a pleasure.

Lisfrank has a long history behind it. If I'm not mistaken, the project dates back to 1979. Tell us a bit about its genesis.

Precisely, it all started in 1970 with the purchase of a drum kit, and from that moment on came my interest in the music of that era: Van Der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, Neu, Faust, Soft Machine, Gong and many others. I was immediately drawn to expressing a personal musical language, and in the winter of 1975, when I met keyboardist Eugenio De Vincenzo, things started to take shape.

We formed a duo, unusual for the time, Electric Nostalgia, keyboards-drums-voice. Shortly after, punk exploded, and it hit us like a jolt. We started recording on cassette, a huge amount of material, made up essentially of improvisations. By early 1979 we had about ten tracks ready, and that same summer we played a concert. For the occasion we wore white jumpsuits, I created an entirely white backdrop, and placed a large sheet of transparent nylon between us and the audience, which created a glacial, alienating effect heightened by the coloured lights reflecting off it. It made a big impact. A few months later I went to London with our tape looking for a record deal. Despite the negative outcome, the experience was electrifying for me, since I saw so many gigs by new bands, and that was the decisive shot of adrenaline. When I got back, I immediately started composing music alongside the band, and in January 1980 I did a mini-live show under the pseudonym Lisfrank, at the Salotto Club in Savona, where, backed by a friend on a second synth, I performed 3 tracks, "Out Of Control", "Dead Girl" and "If You", later renamed "S.W.M. (obscure version)", all of which later appeared on the CD version of "Mask Rewind" (Anna Logue Records, 2012). Once my time with Electric Nostalgia was over, I focused on my own project, initially forming a band with bassist-keyboardist Silvio Melloni and English guitarist Graham Wanham. In the spring of 1981, we played three concerts, including one in Florence, but I disbanded the group over misunderstandings and artistic differences. In 1982 I took the big step, founding Mask Productions, a small label initially intended solely to release my own music, and I produced my first record, "Man Mask".

You were one of the Italian pioneers of a certain sound, along with Pankow and a few others. In your view, was there a genuine scene in Italy in the Eighties, or was everyone working separately in their own artistic pursuit? I ask because I think many phenomena are subject to retrospective readings that now reveal affinities and connections that can help us better reinterpret the musical history of those years.

The Italian scene did exist, but it was very fragmented, and mostly concentrated in the big cities; among the most active were certainly Bologna, but even more so Florence, undoubtedly the hub of a remarkable youth cultural awakening. I shouldn't forget Pordenone, which was a case apart, a genuine alliance among musicians who, free of envy and rivalry, came together to create a movement unique in Italy and, perhaps, in the world: Great Complotto. A phenomenon that was both musical and media-driven.

Still, there were few places to play, and the scene in the provinces was quite isolated. News about homegrown bands came through the many fanzines that sprang up all over Italy, and through Rockerilla, which was essential in spreading this new musical world. The true scale of the phenomenon in Italy, however, emerged thanks to the magazine Frigidaire. It was a magazine focused on graphic design and pop culture, which published a survey of the bands active at the time, broken down by region. This survey revealed a myriad of scenes that would otherwise have been impossible even to imagine.

Those were years of musical ferment, and in 1984 the Independent Music Meeting was born in Florence, a trade fair for national and international independent labels connected to the world of new music, from post-punk to new wave and beyond. Naturally I took part too with my label Mask Productions, and among the most important names, among many others, were the Italian labels Materiali Sonori, Contempo Records and the newly-founded I.R.A. Records, plus the English labels Mute Records and Rough Trade. There were numerous events and concerts connected to the event, which that year was hosted at the Fortezza da Basso.

Tell us something about your 2009 return with the album "Mask Rewind". What did you do during all those years of recording silence, and why did you choose to come back on the scene under the guise of Lisfrank? In your view, how has the perception of a certain kind of music changed internationally?

During the years of silence I kept composing, collaborated on productions and created new projects of my own. One project I'm certainly attached to is Abitoscuro, where I handled composition and wrote the lyrics in Italian. Unfortunately, the project never got the release it deserved, so I shut it down. Another project, instrumental and dance-oriented, was Global Age, of which there's a whole cassette that was never released or even proposed to anyone. With the following project, Bangdito, I had some decent success in Spain. The track was "No Tiengo Controllo", and it was 1995. It came out as a mix with 4 versions of the track, remixed by DJs Alex B. and Pier J., released by Sound Records for Edizioni Musicali Lombardoni. Later, Alex B.'s remix version alone was included on the compilation "Experimental Ep" (1997) by the Milanese labels Richter Records and Frhenetik Records.

One evening in October 2007, I got a phone call from Fulvio Delprato, a young guy from Savona who was passionate about 80s music. He told me that the German label Anna Logue Records was on my trail, wanting to propose a reissue of the material tied to my Lisfrank project. I accepted the contact, and a few days later I received an email from Marc at Anna Logue, and from there we started the project that led to the release of "Mask Rewind", which came out on vinyl in 2009.

With the release of "Mask Rewind" and the unexpected interest in my music, I decided to work on new compositions, which later led to the release of the album "Elevator" in 2014 and, this year, the album "The Human".

I have to say that, compared to the past, music has evolved in an increasingly electronic direction, and this has led to a general acceptance of this sound, which in the past was fairly opposed. Today I find that part of the evolution of this music is of considerable interest.

Compared to the Eighties, how has the equipment you use to compose your tracks changed?

I still use some of the equipment from the 80s, and the only new instrument is Yamaha's DTXPRESS IV, a sample-based drum kit that I had fun playing on "The Human", mainly on "Mask's Solitude".

Which new names (meaning those who emerged from the 2000s onward) on the scene do you feel closest to?

Musically speaking, I don't feel any affinity with groups or projects currently active. However, I've had the chance to appreciate several new artists, including Haus Arafna, Soft Moon, Qual, Beta Evers, Keluar, Boy Harsher and Die Selektion.

Your historical influences? Who were you listening to between the late Seventies and early Eighties? Which artists influenced the birth of Lisfrank back then?

My influences, going by age, start as far back as the late 60s and carry on through the whole of the 70s and 80s. Actually, back then I was a real music devourer, of pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I was constantly on the hunt for "new" and unusual music. So, starting with Lucio Battisti, clearly ahead of the pack among his Italian peers, the very first, brilliant Battiato, then moving through the already-mentioned Van Der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, Gong, and then on to Kraftwerk, Frank Zappa, Chrome, the great David Bowie, and later on to the Sex Pistols, Ultravox!, the early Human League, Throbbing Gristle, D.A.F., Cabaret Voltaire, just to name a few. All of that listening certainly shaped my musical sensibility, yet when I compose I never have a role model in mind. For me it's always been like standing in front of a blank canvas, where I paint shapes and add colors that gradually appear in my mind. And that's the aspect of composing that fascinates me most — the rest really matters very little to me.

I feel very close to your reading of it. That oppressive sense of betrayal is very much of our time, and the album certainly oozes with that feeling. It definitely includes dark music centered on a humanity that is losing itself. The album contains some tracks recorded many years ago, included because I still find them very relevant today. I'm referring to "I Hate", which examines the contradictions and the dystopia that exists today, along with the universe of lies gripping us, and "Greta", which is the only truly human trace present on the record, an intimate and profound grief over a great personal loss. I feel this moment as a desperate, unheard scream, a discomfort overwhelmed by the noise of the mainstream propaganda machine.

Staying on the theme of disasters and betrayed futures, I was really struck by the track you dedicated on "The Human" to the collapse of the Genoa bridge. You're from Liguria, so I imagine it hit close to home. It's as if the optimism of a track like "Autobahn" had given way to a dark side, the collapse of a modernity that perhaps trusted too much in itself and in humanity's magnificent progressive destiny. Looking back, a certain strain of industrial music, starting with the Einstürzende Neubauten (whose name translates from German as "collapsing new buildings"), had foreseen, especially in the early part of their career, that things could take a turn for the worse for the human race. Even an electro-industrial band like Front Line Assembly made a track in the Nineties, "Virus", that imagined pandemic and dystopian scenarios not too far removed from what we're unfortunately living through today. How do you see it?

"The Voices Of Tragedy (Never Forget)" was born out of a desire to denounce the state's blatant betrayal, not only of its citizens but above all of the victims of that tragic collapse. It's no accident that I chose to layer, over a hard, sparsely sequenced rhythmic base, the voices of the TV news broadcasts that covered the tragedy day after day.

Coming back to the other side of your question, about modernity: I have to say that, in light of the facts, scientific and technological progress - which were presented to us as forces for good in the service of humanity - have turned out to be exactly the opposite. The betrayal of that modernist, liberal dream is plain to see. Technology has reduced employment, and will keep on reducing it. Politics, having lost its authority, has bent over and handed the sovereignty of states to economic powers that, thanks to globalization, have been able to amass limitless economic strength.

Compared with the Eighties, how do you see the new generations? Do you think it's still possible to imagine youth countercultures capable of opposing a certain cultural and social decline, a massified, consumerist, sterile and flavorless globalist outlook, much like mainstream music itself?

That's my hope, and I'll always support the fight in that direction. Unfortunately, young people have two powerful, insidious enemies, which are also connected to each other: the internet and smartphones. These dangerous "technological opportunities" are costing us our freedom. Young people, and not only them, are now hooked on phones, on influencers, and on the enormous amount of information and stimuli fed to them by a cleverly steered internet. Culture and music have gradually been degraded by the superficiality and stupidity spread on a mass scale. It will be a tough challenge for young people, but I hope, for their sake, that the future won't turn out the way it currently seems to be heading.

Which artists do you enjoy collaborating with today? I know you've also done several remixes for some Italian projects...

Yes, I've done a number of collaborations, starting with The Frozen Autumn, Armenia Project and Psycho Kinder. Also, on "The Human", Maurizio Fasolo (Pankow) contributed to the arrangement of the track "Feel It (Your Body, My Body)". Collaborations are something I care about a great deal, and right now I've just started a new one with fellow Ligurian Andrea Bellucci (Red Sector A), a refined electronic composer. But there are others on the horizon too, plus a few dreams still in the drawer.

What do you think about digital music versus physical formats like vinyl, CDs and cassettes? What are your own preferences?

The physical format has been in deep crisis for a long time now, although vinyl is going through a good moment and I'm a supporter of it. Cassettes are also seeing some renewed interest - proper labels have sprung up that only release artists on that format - but honestly I suspect it's more a fad than a genuine interest. Only time will tell, though. The CD remains without doubt the most effective format for music that needs a purer sound, but unfortunately downloading is bringing these formats, and independent artists, to their knees. Music has costs, and the lack of education and respect towards artists risks killing it off. Naturally this doesn't apply to commercial music, which can boast big productions and unlimited budgets, but only to honest, creative, exploratory music.

Plans for the future? A new album on the horizon?

I have plenty of ideas. I'd like to go back to painting, which I've neglected for too many years now, and develop a new project running parallel to Lisfrank. "The Human" has just come out, so a new album will take a bit of time. If nothing gets in the way, I intend to do it all. After all, the future is always ahead of us.

Thank you so much for the time you've given us.

Thank you.

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