On August 6, 2013, I’ve recorded the entire route of the “B” line of the subway in the city of Rome, that connects the “Rebibbia” station with the “Laurentina” station, and the “B1” line that connects the ‘Bologna’ station with the ‘Conca D ‘Oro’ station… Audio samples collected were manipulated and transformed electronically, and enriched with synth and/or musical instruments such as guitars, piano, violins. The result is “Metrophony”, which is also an art installation.
Main idea is that the metro trip represents a dinamic soundscape in conflict with a static soundscape boxed in itself with a lot of samples already listened in a circular way like the mechanical sounds, doors of the train, train brakes and so on.
In the general path of the train and in the long to medium term we can understand how actually even the so-called dynamic soundscape is in fact a static soundscape because every passing day it becomes more akin to himself.
Metrophony has been released on late october 2014 for Time Released Sounds
http://timereleasedsound.com/shop/releases/francesco-giannico-metrophony-standard-version/
TRS047 is an atmospheric and underground metro centric release from Italian sound artist, Francesco Giannico, entitled “Metrophony”. On August 6, 2013, Giannico recorded the entire route of the “B” line of the subway in the city of Rome, that connects the “Rebibbia” station with the “Laurentina” station, and the “B1” line that connects the ‘Bologna’ station with the ‘Conca D ‘Oro’ station… Audio samples collected were manipulated and transformed electronically, and enriched with synth and/or musical instruments such as guitars, piano, violins. The result is “Metrophony” which is also an art installation.
For the deluxe limited version, in an edition of just 75 copies, we decided to change mediums and worked in the neighboring Berkeley silkscreening workshop called the Grease Diner. The set of hand silkscreened 6” square prints are renditions of the dark and moody photographs taken by Giannico himself in the subway. Each of these 12 unique prints is printed on a different sort of paper… ancient ledger papers, music sheets, rice papers, antique vellum, cardboard etc. They come in a vintage, hand stamped, 7” 45rpm sleeve from a 60 year old vinyl binder. Each outer envelope is then tied up with a string, from which hangs a used ticket from the Rome metro system. Also included within the set of prints is a scrap of paper detritus from the stations and trains, and a factory pressed CD in a hand stamped cotton sleeve.
Metrophony – excerpt – Time Released Sound from Francesco Giannico on Vimeo.