| Turzi - "A"
Artwork created by Marke Newton
Levitating and mediating, introspective and ecstatic, Turzi’s music is a mental and sensory experience, an invitation on an internal journey of the mind and body. A is an electronic mantra.
“Music, whether you are initiated in it or not, should make you have the same sensations as doing drugs. With this is in mind it is our intention to play with the listener, to make him go up and down, to create a malaise as well as pleasure.” – Romain Turzi
Versailles 1979. Romain Turzi was born to a French mother and an Italian father from Calabria. A sense of family is important for Turzi, as he has a strong connection with the people he surrounds himself on stage and in the studio whilst still being conscious of his contemporaries (Zombie Zombie, Aqua Nebula Oscillator) as well as his predecessors. The band, Reich IV, was pulled together by Turzi through various random encounters and consists of Sky Over on drums, Hard Rock Gunter on guitar, Judah Warsky on keyboards and Arthur Rambo on bass.
It is evident that Turzi are intensely aware of the European heritage provided by the likes of Goblin, Kraftwerk and the Hypothetical Prophets as they seek to reinterpret their vision of a Europe that is cold, experimental and synthetic. The influence of Krautrock cannot be denied also, as embedded in Turzi’s music is the desire to fuse the various possibilities provided by electronics, minimalism and tribal music displayed by such luminaries as (Ash Ra Tempel, Neu!, Can) with a confident assertiveness borne out of their anti ye-ye stance, a stance against those who seek to express themselves through replication and regurgitation of British and American sounds.
Turzi’s use of electronics is similarly defiant – used solely as live instruments. This demands a level of mastery unfamiliar to those who create with Pro Tools always in the background. Such actions would jar with the carefully crafted balance of tracks such as Acid Taste or A, pieces which evoke a Kraftwerkian future after the revolt of the machines, who are now free to play themselves. This emphasis on the live aspect was reinforced during the recording of A, as Romain Turzi and his band experimented freely resulting in an album that has all of the hallmarks of their quasi-hypnotic live shows, where guitars are used and abused and completely demystified. The artwork for ‘A’, designed by Marke Newton, evokes this dynamic contrast between order and precision and boundless creative expression.
Handpicked by Simian Mobile Disco for their recent UK tour, Turzi have been demonstrating to wide and varied audiences the potency of their self-proclaimed disciplinary rock. In addition, Tim Blake, of Hawkwind / Gong, has joined them on stage for many recent shows as well.
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