Italian alt-rock/psychedelic band Earthset released “L’Uomo Meccanico”, the soundtrack written for the silent movie “L’Uomo Meccanico” (Italy-France 1921).
After their debut album “In a State of Altered Unconsciousness” (2015) and the EP “POPISM” (2017), in 2018 Earthset were assigned the silent film “L’Uomo Meccanico” during the Soundtracks 2018 project, sponsored by Corrado Nuccini (Giardini di Mirò) and Stefano Boni (Museo del cinema di Torino).“L’Uomo Meccanico” is the first sci-fi movie produced in Italy. But the author and main actor of the film is André Deed, one of the first great comedians of French cinema. The film had been lost for decades until a copy was found in the Cinemateca Brasileira in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Therefore, “L’Uomo Meccanico” isn’t as well-known as it probably deserves to be: the movie testifies the close relationship between Italy and France in the early ages of cinema. It is also one of the very first silent films to have a robot as a villain and probably the first one in the world to show a fight between a good and an evil mechanical man. The reel was partially restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, with only 43 minutes left of the hour and a half of its’ original length.
During the project Earthset had the chance to work alongside musicians such as Nicola Manzan (Bologna Violenta) and Tiziano Bianchi. “L’Uomo Meccanico-Live Soundtrack tour 2019” started, with the partnership of the Cineteca di Bologna and the support of Bologna UNESCO City of Music. The live soundtrack appears to be a mix of the band’s more experimental attitude with the melodic research that has always characterized their writing.
Earthset translate into music a continuous state of alteration, evolution and dynamism through a non-linear structural composition, sharp and acid sounds, transitions between heavy distortions and limpid, clean sounds, generally cold psychedelic atmospheres disturbedly noise inserts. These elements have been emphasized and mixed with melodic solutions taken from the early twentieth century contemporary music, such as whole tone scales and dodecaphony. After a long tour in 2019 with the ciné-concert, Earthset are about to release the live soundtrack LP via Dischi Bervisti/Koe Records.
Listen to “L’Uomo Meccanico” here
