Label - Discount [DIS-11] // country - Italy // style - experimental / minimal / DIY
Mutant farfisa rhythm tracks from Turin's discount label (Mint / New)
In 1931 - a year before his death following a plane crash - the Czech entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa purchased a large piece of land in an uninhabited area in the heart of the Moselle department in the Lorraine region, with the intention of building an industrial complex and a small town that could accommodate future workers. Within a few years, on the sides of a straight road that connects the countryside to the factory, a town called Bataville was born and soon the entire population - from the worker to the butcher - is paid by Bata, the multinational shoe company that still exists today.
The life of the town revolves around Bata, inside and outside the factory. The company builds the first municipal swimming pool in France and pays particular attention to the free time of its workers, experimenting a paternalistic welfare that could strengthen the workers' loyalty and sense of belonging. As part of this social activity, every month in the canteen ballroom (sal de balle), a musical evening called "Nuit du cuir" ("Leather nights") is held. Managers, employees and some particularly praiseworthy workers dress up and dance until the early hours of Sunday rest.
In January 2002 the multinational Bata decides to stop the activities in the Bataville industrial district, leaving 840 workers without work. Today the town is in a state of semi-abandonment, except that the canteen rooms host the headquarters of the Fabrique autonomes des acteurs, an association of actresses which carries out theatrical research and organizes monthly dîners des voisins and which animates every year the premises of the industrial building and the surrounding meadows with the Festival des Antipodes.
It was during a residency program at the FAA that in the spring of 2022 Stefano Murgia alias gianni schicchi had the opportunity to stay for two weeks inside the former canteen of the factory. Intrigued by the presence of an old Farfisa Partner abandoned in a corner of the ballroom, every evening after dinner, immersed in the darkness of the empty room, he made it resonate. The result is a nostalgic and odd sound that seems to bring back to life the masked bodies of employees and workers who crowded into that same immense room in search of an escape from a stringent routine and a life sacrificed to work.
Tracklist
1. Nuit du cuir 02:49
2. Monsieur Sicco 03:02
3. Honneur et travail 01:06
4. Zone interdite 05:12
5. Bataville 04:43
6. Nausicaa 02:49
7. Mode de printemps 03:24
8. Bata Pop 02:46
9. Le bon vendeur 01:49
10. Trajectoire 110 02:52
11. Bonne retraite Monsieur Duez 01:41
