** Edition of 400 copies ** Xing presents the artist record Il Terzo Reich by Romeo Castellucci and Scott Gibbons, fourth release in the XONG series, accompanied by an insert that collects on a long strip of black paper an extract from the flow of words screened in the homonymous stage work.
Il Terzo Reich is the image and sound of an inculcated communication. The nouns of the Italian language flash on a black screen, about fourteen thousand words. Here, a language-machine devours entire spheres of reality, as the beats, like the nouns, appear the same in their mechanical seriality, as if they were the building blocks of a knowledge that leaves no way to escape. Unrelenting, each opening occupied: a treatment that attacks our mnestic capacity, unable to retain a word that appears in a flash of microseconds. It is a matter of compressing the gaze and the listening arriving to the critical point where a fusion occurs, of indulgence just before our perception loses its grip. This work by Romeo Castellucci and Scott Gibbons is an unstoppable flow that overwhelms everything, where the totalitarian transparency of language lets the physicality of sound emerge in all its apodictic intensity.
"This release presents the musical facet of a multi-media work in which all the named objects are presented as a flash of text and burst of sound. All of the sounds used were taken from transmissions by Voyager 1 sent from outside our solar system as it passes through interstellar space. The obdurate tic which composes the backbone of the music, as well as the interferences and sonic elaborations, all come from the absolute horizon of our species; from the very limit of our reach. We are left only with the sense of overwhelming density and resoluteness. Within a few years, Voyager 1 will lose the last of its remaining power and cease transmissions. My intent was that the material should be experienced physically; the new arrangement and remix for vinyl retain this approach. Please play back loudly." (Scott Gibbons)
Romeo Castellucci, Italian director, creator of sets, lights and costumes, is known over the world for creating a theater based on the totality of arts and aimed at an integral perception of the work. His theater proposes a dramaturgy that overturns the primacy of literature, making the stage a complex form of art, made up of extraordinarily rich images, expressed in an understandable language such as music, sculpture, painting or architecture. Castellucci's stagings are regularly invited and produced by the most prestigious international theaters, festivals and opera houses, in over sixty countries covering all continents. He was director of the Theater section at the Venice Biennale, Artiste Associé at the Avignon Festival and is currently Grand Invité at the Milano Triennale and guest director at the Schaubühne in Berlin. The Paris Festival d’Automne has presented an anthology of his work for two consecutive years. Awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic and an honorary degree from the University of Bologna, he is a member of the Accadémie Royale de Belgique and received, among other international awards, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale Teatro and two Golden Masks for Opera. His most recent productions are the theatre works La vita nuova (2018), Il Terzo Reich (2020), Bros (2021), the direction of the lyric operas Don Giovanni (2021), Pavane für Prometheus IX (2021), Il Castello di Barbablù and De Temporum Fine Comoedia (2022), the outdoor action Milano (2021) and the installation domani (2022).
Scott Gibbons is an American-born composer and performer of electroacoustic music. Active for over 30 years in the field of sound experimentation, he is a seminal figure for dark ambient and micromusic, utilizing a two-fold exploration into the possibilities of natural acoustic phenomena on the one hand, and those of audio technology on the other. Focused on the study of perception, he extracts sounds from the depth of matter, capturing their emergence from the most hidden volumes and movements, between the molecular level and the cosmic plane. Each sound thus obtained retains a connection to its root but is charged with latent energies and significance. Since 1998 he has created music and sonic events for the award-winning theatre productions of Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio (Genesi. From the Museum of Sleep, the cycles of Tragedia Endogonidia and La Divina Commedia). He has released more than 30 albums with various groups and solo, including electroacoustic works Stone and Redwing (Sub Rosa) released under the pseudonym Lilith; The Cryonic Chants (KML Recordings) suite composed with Chiara Guidi; Il Terzo Reich/The Third Reich (Xing) techno mantra for Romeo Castellucci; My Computer My Stereo (Thousand) synthpop by Orbitronik; Dialtones. A Telesymphony (Staalplaat) sound performance for more than 200 mobile phones with Levin & Shakar. Gibbons also creates music for large-scale firework spectacles with Groupe F, for the inauguration of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and for the 120th anniversary celebration of the Eiffel Tower incorporating sounds of the tower itself. He has also collaborated with artists as diverse as the Hilliard Ensemble, Survival Research Labs, Dead Voices On Air, Not Breathing, and The Flying Luttenbachers.
