Luciano Chessa, Squncr

Ç (pronounced “cédilla”) is the name of a duo consisting of Italian-American audiovisual and performance artist Luciano Chessa and French multi-instrumentalist and sound explorer squncr (François Larini). It is also the title of their first, self-titled album, a scintillating collection of sound art, oddball orchestral movements and beautiful oeuvres électroniques. Each track unfolds with eerie precision, opening wide meditative sceneries.

Ç was recorded in Monaco during Chessa's one-year artist residency there: For Chessa and Larini this was a period of intense sonic experimentation, spanning sound art, deep listening, and improvisation that led to this sprawling and cohesive release. Chessa mainly plays the Đàn Bầu, a traditional Vietnamese monochord stringed instrument, while Larini plays electronics, zither, piano and Hohner organetta.

Basking in the sunshine of Villefranche-sur-Mer, the Riviera town between Monaco and Nice, and inspired by the heritage of Robert Filliou and Georges Brecht’s mid-60s art and performance space La Cédille qui Sourit (“the smiling cedilla”) as well as the raucous unpretentiousness of the Trinquette Jazz club, Ç produced a tape of shadows and light—at once as dark and atmospheric as the Rue Obscure and as luminous and free as the Eyes in Cocteau's Chapelle Saint-Pierre.