I’m writing here on behalf of radio.sygma as a peculiar front-runner who is trying to get to the Lost music festival in the province of Parma city in Italy.

The lineup is promising, and the location is even more outstanding — Labirinto della Masone. Somebody from the locals told me that it’s the largest bamboo maze in the world. 

A little bit of information about the person who’s writing these words and the reason why… so I left rf a couple of years ago and now live in Germany.

My main field of activity is artistic practice and I came to Italy for the residency. And decided to check up on any interesting music events of the summer in Italy. Asked about it the only Russian friend that I know who lives in Italy now — music producer and owner of nonexistent anymore iconic Moscow club. Let’s call him S.

Then I asked organizers about accreditation since my long connection with sygma and they asked for publication in return. Which I’m doing right now. We also agreed on some stories on Instagram (so please follow) and an article in stylistics of gonzo journalism on the sygma platform (which you see now). 

Wikipedia gives this definition of gonzo journalism — it’s a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story using a first-person narrative.

Well here we go… would it be a real gonzo reportage or just a shitty neurotic diary?.. We’ll see. Can’t promise you a lot of drugs, but definitely promise full non-objectiveness. 

“…it was as if some new sonic force had been released from ancient permafrost. Like water pulsing its way through a freezing riverbed, his debut album wound through rich layers of organic textures, artfully rendered through brilliantly contrasted synths and resounding bass…”

Please don’t wait for anything like that from me here. My text probably would be emotional, dry, and pretty straightforward. 

Friday 05.06

17:22

Today is my mother’s birthday. 

I’m on a train to Milan where I meet my other travel companion — another Russian producer and musician, a real music digger with a wide range of musical picks from any genre and country (with a focus on the Eastern part, I guess). Let’s call him P. 

In Milan we’re gonna meet his friend and go to the location by car (a real relief for me cuz to get there by public transportation takes much more time and tons of transport changes). 

Yesterday I found out that I might have cancer. Last months I had my periods not by the schedule so I’m already was aware that something was wrong. And now when it finally started, in the morning in the shower I realize that my cup, which usually goes deep down in my body, now just stays somewhere at the entrance. So I decided to do some self-check and put my hand inside of me. And found there a huge bump. Hello David Cronenderg. 

And today I went to the music fest, well why not?.. maybe it’s my last opportunity to visit such an event, why should I miss it and spend time in anxiety and suffer. 

19:26 

We’re in a car, beautiful Italian girl named F is driving us, it is also her birthday today. We’re listening to some old punk band from Milan. I’m in the back and can’t hear what they’re talking about, all windows are open, it is windy and poetic. 

When I feel any small pain in my body I start to think immediately that it’s the metastases. 

We’re passing by a lot of agricultural fields, it smells like cow poop from time to time. 

My friend (P) told me in a car that everyone needs to bring their printed copy of the passport and some signed agreement… which I obviously don’t have. Hope it’s not so serious. Anticipating to hear Amnesia Scanner today for the first time live.

20:54

We entered the place. It’s beautiful. I am still mesmerized by Italy and Italian people so much after cold Germany. 

Nobody asked for any papers or anything (phew). 

We found a camping spot and set up the tents relatively fast.

21:34

Going to the main stage which is called the Pyramid stage because there is a huge pyramid (sick) standing there in the center of the labyrinth (crazy). Astrid Sonne is playing now with the accompaniment of a beautiful lady with a cello. Well, we missed half of it but somehow it sounds much darker than the material on her bandcamp page. I was mesmerised by her talent as a violist and especially as a composer — such a variety of used instruments, genres, and sounds.

At that moment I wondered if the owner and creator of this place — Franco Maria Ricci (famous Italian publisher and graphic designer) was really a freemason. Or the name of the place is just a funny jest that they made up together with Jorge Luis Borges.

23:10

33 are playing on the same main stage. The core of the collective is two guys/persons apparently from Berlin: one on the keyboard and another on the drums. They are usually collaborating with some other musicians. Today on the stage with them is/are Ivan Cheng: playing clarinet (crazy) and signing. 

Somehow it reminds me of another Berlin-based musician called Bela, whose performance was one of the strongest music experiences of mine. Such a shamanic vibes.  

So the first half was lyrical and flirtatious with classical music. And to be honest I am not a big fan of too many piano sounds in electronic music. But. The second part… 

The ultimate Berliner act. Ivan Cheng sings with this high-pitched baroque-style voice. Alexander Iezzi whose on drums — also plays most of the stuff from the computer. Stunningly beautiful Billy Bultheel (on the keyboard) — also sings! (reads?)

Wow, now they have brought very strong flashlights and some obscure round instrument, probably of Indonesian origin, and produce sounds with it using violin bow, rhythmic techno plays on the background. Then lyrical notes starts again. The audience is ecstatic.

Omg, they gave a microphone to the drummer too. No, this is just tremendous. 

00:04 

Waiting for Amnesia. Guys from the staff just installed a stroboscopic light in front of me (we’re standing just near the stage). My footage might be good… and I hope I won’t faint.  

01:33

“Till the day I die, till the day I die…” (probably pretty soooon…)

I think for an hour I not just forgot that I might have cancer, I forgot how to breathe. Feels like I never had that level of enjoyment from a life performance. Don’t think that I need to describe the music of Amnesia Scanner. But I really respect the strong sense of humor which is implemented in their compositions. Their last summer release almost coincided in time with the Prigozhin rebellion and the instagram filter mask — clown — was the most popular among Russians and Ukrainians, so I was listening the track called Clown on repeat. 

And this show was presented as a world premiere of a new project/album? called PSYCHO.CHAT. So closer to the end of the act came out THE DRUMMER and it was like a real fucking metal concert, with a double bass pedal and shit. 

The visual part of the show is also noteworthy for sure. A lot of red color, and a lot of beautifully synchronized strobe. 

I thought at that point that I received a total sensory overload for the year ahead and since then completely lost track of time. But somehow managed to get to the Bamboo stage (which is inside the bamboo labyrinth) and catch Florence Sinclair. 

Saturday 06.07

10:05  

We woke up (late by Italian standards) but slept well. Washed up, and went looking for breakfast. The breakfast place for some reason is one for all the whole festival crowd, there is a huge queue in it. And I have important things to do at 11 (business lady haha) — the first interesting live from a French Cambodian musician named Neo Geodesia. 

11:07

Stage Bamboo 1. Got in time, and, God, I love that. Just fucking love it when people are smartly using traditional music in contemporary electronics. Everybody is lying down on each other. I think we all got closer through the night. And I am just happy to be here surrounded by these nice people listening the quality music in the freaking nature. 

15:19

Same stage. Huerco S is almost closing his set. I’m pretty familiar with his work, as the same friend who advised me to come here (S) brought him couple of times to play in Moscow. 

The internet connection is so bad that I can’t post insta stories anymore.

P said that it would be also nice to interview someone from musicians for my text. I said that actually, Neo Geodesia would be perfect. Talking also about how a lot of people here are wearing different pro-Palestinian t-shirts and how nice is that (comparing to Germany again). 

After a couple of minutes, his friends were passing by and joined us. It’s musicians Ossia and Ojoo. Neo Geodesia is with them. P is asking him about the interview, but he needs to go to the airport like right now. Ossia is also wearing a pro-Palestinian t-shirt. Two cute coincidences in a row. Ojoo are playing next b2b with the artist named i-sha. 

19:54 

The friend named S has finally got to the place. 

My field notes are interrupted from here on since both my phone and power bank died. And it was almost impossible to charge (huge line everywhere). So I’ll recount the events from memory since then, no time code.

Going to hear Zuli. Love Zuli. Well everybody loves Zuli (that’s what P said). The guy is a genius. I think he deserved main stage but whatever. 

Further, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to reconstruct the events. Remember that we then went to see Funeral Folk on the main stage. This is the project of Maria Horn, which practice I genuinely love. Somewhere last winter I was present on her show during their tour with Basinski through Europe. That was nice.

To be honest this project scared shit of me. Women in kokoshnik (that’s how this type of headdress is called in traditional Russian costume) signing some dark Nordic traditional songs and playing string instruments accompanied by electric guitar. The fact that the crowd loved it — scared me even more… at the end they forced people to sing along with them (which they did). I was thinking about the pyramid and freemasons again. And death of course… Well, I guess, the music worked at the end. Honestly, I think that with uprising of the right-wing movement all over Europe and the world it is really inrelevant to make music like that. 

We decided to hide ourselves in the nocturnal forests of bamboo and came back closer to the end of Varg’s live perf, which apparently was great. Listened him a lot like 10 years ago, then lost track, but I guess his practice is changing and evolving through years. 

Going to another stage for Gabber Eleganza. P is disappointed. Saying he was expecting him to play something stronger. Because on the event in Belgrad he played the same boring stuff. I am trying to remember now what it was, asking P if was it some sort of tech house? P says — no more like regular techno without any adjectives or ебучка всякая. So let’s write it down like that — style: #ebu4ka_vsyakaya. Going for a walk and beer in a different bar, coming back — Eleganza is playing lento violento — haha apparently P’s favourite music genre. P is euphoric. To be honest I’m also in love with ridiculous dance music. At least it’s fun. 

Going to check the last musician for today — Cortex of light. We’re changing location from the bamboo stage to the bar closer it, occupying table with a lot of chairs and inviting passing by people to join us. Thus our company changes about five times.

Somewhere there I went to sleep. 

Saturday 07.07

S said yesterday night that the most important gigs for today are Perila and Pelada. 

I woke up early, trying to catch a coffee before the huge line. I managed that. Brought some coffee and fruits (stay hydrated) to the boys, woke them up too. Thus we won’t miss Perila. Going to Bamboo 2 stage. Perila is the long friend and co-founder of sygma radio. Perfect music taste, great feeling of the crowd. Playing calm morning ambient, 100% chill. 

After performance and spending some time with Perila we headed to listen Joanne Robertson. I think S was pleasantly impressed. She is charming indeed. And I guess to hear her life is great luck because of her cute performative monologues between songs. 

Since all our phones died we were just randomly roaming around heading towards the sounds without knowing the time or who plays where (totally LOST lol).

Around 3 we came to Bamboo 1 stage. S asked me like 10 times who’s playing. It was a mix of really high quality Reggie and Dub that transformed with time to a dancehall.

At some point we found F and P. F told us that the artist’s name is Judaah. Ah the guy from BFDM label. Nice. Of course. Then he played a track which I got obsessed with for a couple of hours. Don’t know and remember what it was till now. Hope they’ll post all the recordings of performances at some point. 

Somehow we missed all the performances in the museum that were a part of the residency. 

What is great about this festival for me is its perfect scale. Great lineup, but not so many performances (probably around 30), which gives opportunity to cover almost every artist. And the perfectly right amount of visitors (felt like 2-2,5k or something), because usually I start to be really anxious when surrounded by a huge amount of people. But I guess it depends on the crowd… here we felt absolutely warm, welcoming, surrounded by care and haven’t met in 3 days any inadequate character even though people were in entirely disparate states of being.

F and P need to leave around 6, they have stuff to do in Milano. Going to the last gig together. It’s a collective called Dali Muru & The Polyphonic Swarm. Dali Muru is reading some spoken word, which is kinda poetic and powerful (also some words in support of Palestine). The Polyphonic Swarm are playing on guitar and some sorts of strongly stood out drums and mb a synth? as much as I can hear (can’t see). I am a really big fan of any kind of percussion sooo… loved it. 

I was loosing my last remains of energy and was already considering to leave the tent to S and get out of the place that day together with P and F by car. The only thing was holding me strongly there — curiosity to hear the Pelada. So we walked the guys to the car and stayed there: me and S. 

Till the end I didn’t share with anybody my anxiety about the huge fucking tumor inside of me. Don’t know why. I guess didn’t want to spoil anyone’s good time (including myself) and kill the vibe. 

We went for the final but strong push — Pelada. It’s a duo that shortly describes themselves as electronic punk. Which is essentially what it is. The signer — Chris Vargas almost screams in Spanish her/their protest leftist anthems. 

The audience knew all the words. 

We were standing near the stage and felt all the mightiness of their extremely self-confiden, empowering, and sexy performance. Really raw and honest. 

Somewhere there I understood that I was not capable of consuming any more sensory material. S went to other stage to party more and I went to "bed". 

Next day on the way back I told S that it was probably the best music event in my life and now I can peacefully die. He said it’s kinda scary.

Well, thanks to all organizers and visitors for creating together such a powerful and genuine event. And thanks for the reading till the end. Hope to visit the place next year (if I’ll be alive.) Going to see a doctor tomorrow. Wish me luck.