Malasomma - Inside the Dystopia of 1984

Malasomma is one of the most interesting and compelling Italian experimental electronic musicians of his generation, endowed in particular with an extremely powerful visionary charge that turns listening to his albums into something halfway between hearing a record and reading a book. Given these premises, the imaginative power of “1984” could only be the perfect choice for an artist who has dedicated two albums to Orwell's masterpiece, “Jura” (2018) and “Neolingua” (2024), both of which we praised from the very first listen. Malasomma has the extraordinary ability to turn himself into an alter ego of Winston Smith, the novel's tragic protagonist, to feel his suffering, to see the Orwellian world, and to translate it all into music. We met him and had the pleasure of asking him a few questions.

The pleasure is mutual! As for the name changes, the process was completely spontaneous. The work under the moniker Ergo grew out of my first solo electronic experiments. At that point in my life, with the project/collective White Noise Generator, we were constantly searching for new, “unpredictable” sonic material, almost always born out of improv sessions with other musicians. Most of the time I was busy processing in real time acoustic sounds produced by other instruments, but oddly enough, I had never actually engaged with sounds produced by myself. With Ergo I explored that dimension, working mostly with voice, feedback and field recordings. The shift to Marco Malasomma (with “Jura”) and then simply Malasomma (with “Neolingua”) marks my need to tell concepts, not just explore sound. So we could say Ergo is a creature of pure sound, while Malasomma is simply me, with my view of the world expressed through music.

Was there a particular moment, musician or album that pushed you to start your career?

My career as a musician starts in territories very far removed from the ones I live in now. I played drums for years in all sorts of projects, and (especially as a teenager) the music that probably influenced me the most was rock. A project I've always particularly loved is Area. That's probably the bridge that led me toward sonic experimentation. From that point of view, their album “Maledetti” is probably one of the ones that influenced me most. As for the specific question, I've never really thought of it as a “career as a musician”: in a very fluid, simple way, music has always taken up most of my time.

Fascination with Orwell's text, probably reinforced by its at least partially prophetic scope, has a long tradition in the sonic realm, but it has rarely been used as the guiding thread of an entire cycle of work. What elements of the book pushed you to use it as the conceptual framework for both albums released under your own name?

Whereas with “Jura” it was the whole Orwellian scenario that gave me an intense fascination, in the case of “Neolingua” I wanted to focus on one specific concept that I simply see happening. After building a fairly broad “picture” with the first work, I felt the need to examine what is perhaps the subtlest part of that prophetic idea of control: the impoverishment of language as something that corresponds to a reduced capacity to develop complex thought (or dissent). 

Recording an album devoted to a novel is interesting, and it shows just how powerful the descriptive capabilities of electronic music can be. I'd like to ask you how difficult you think it is to translate a concept or an atmosphere into music, and whether you have one or more reference musicians in this field.

Electronic music certainly has expressive possibilities and a “vocabulary” that allow for a complex, immersive narrative. I couldn't say whether it's a complex process, because when I tackled it, I did so in one go, with fairly clear ideas. I had in mind (especially in the case of “Neolingua”) a well-defined sound, which became concrete thanks to the album's guest musicians. Specifically, I don't have reference musicians for this kind of relationship/process, but most of the artists I love in the electronic field almost always tend to engage with other languages. 

In an era marked by pronounced bulimia, your slow production times represent a kind of healthy anomaly. Is there a precise intention behind this choice, or is it simply your natural pace in handling the creative process?

Actually, in recent years I've produced a lot of music for multimedia installations and videos (short films and commercials) and worked on collective projects (in particular FUTURO ARCAICO). I don't think it's necessary to produce new music according to deadlines. On the contrary, I try to make new music when I have something to say, without forcing the process in any way. 

Is a third chapter dedicated to "1984" planned?

It's not planned, but there are ideas swirling around in my head.

Are there any particular differences in the production or the instruments you used between "Jura" and "Neolingua"?

Absolutely. In "Jura", besides electronics, I play drums and some percussion, and the sonic fabric leans more toward a percussive, distinctly rhythmic minimalism. In "Neolingua" the textures are more expansive and deep, thanks to the extensive use of strings. I'd say that while in "Jura" the rhythmic parts were acoustic in origin and the ambient and drone parts were produced through electronic instruments, in "Neolingua" there's a real reversal. The rhythms are in fact more "synthetic" in nature, while the atmospheres are created through acoustic instruments. Crucial contributions come from Ambra Chiara Michelangeli and Caterina Palazzi on strings, Tuktu & The Belugas Quartet on guitar, and Martin Mayes on winds.

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