Color me intrigued by the whole package here. First, there’s the performance. The notes on “Dottori” indicate this is “a list of doctors’ addresses, captured on a minicassette by an unknown person for unknown reasons.” Which, frankly, is one of those found-sound things that can seem a little eerie if you let your imagination run a bit. It turns out that recording is only a starting point of this piece. The mystery voice is shrouded initially with some slightly disjointed harmonium, which is really the spine this audio trip is built upon. The overall effect makes for a creepy listening experience. As the track develops, there are other elements mixed in (muddied tv or radio samples, for example). By the end, that harmonium starts some slightly nausea inducing pulsing, before slowly breathing its last and quietly fading away. It’s a very interesting sound piece.
Next up is the artist, but I’m not sure what to make of Kircher Elettrodomestici. They describe the duo as “Maria Valentina Kircher, descendant of Athanasius Kircher, and Stefano Elettrodomestici, a sales representative.” Athanasius Kircher was a renaissance man (both literally and figuratively) who lived about 400 years ago. I don’t plan to do any genealogy research to confirm Maria’s connection. Meanwhile, Stefano’s last name translates from Italian to “household appliances.” I’m not sure how much Kircher Elettrodomestici is taking the piss with all this information, if at all, but I’m happy to leave a little mystery in our relationship.
Finally, the label releasing this also piqued my interest. You’ll find “Dottori” on the 23 Diskettes label out of Turin, Italy. The label releases their music on reasonably priced floppy disk (Why on old tech? Why not?) or, sometimes, cassette, and it appears all their releases are free for electronic download. There’s no reason not to explore. And who knows, it may turn out to be just what the dottori ordered.