Italiano
Les Jeux Sont Funk come from Trento, in the shadow of the Dolomites and the groove, or the abstract energy that releases the movement of the body, is the inspiring principle. They say they are inspired by the words of the enigmatic Vizier of Funkology, according to whom music “does not aspire neither to security nor to stability, but to vertigo, to ecstasy; it tends, at the same time, to the deviations of the dream and the fertility of disillusionment “.
The band is composed of three musicians with a different background: Elisa Amistadi, singer and author already known for various prestigious collaborations and for winning prizes such as Musicultura and Pavanello; Michele Bazzanella, composer of music for dance, DJ and above all a recognizable bass player; Carlo Nardi, producer, guitarist, composer of music for video and, for some years, DJ of the Berlin scene in clubs such as Delicious Donuts, Lovelite, Cassiopeia, Privatclub, ZMF, Rosì, and many others. Their collaboration is of long standing and boasts, among other things, performances at Pistoia Blues, Porretta Soul Festival and Berlinale with the funk Tabasco group.
Excluding some songs released at different times (“That’s It ?!” for a Sisley campaign, “We’ve Got the Groove” for the compilation “Funkabbestia” edited by DJ Fede and a remix of “Gírias do Norte” by Sovversamba ), “Erasing Rock” is the first attempt of the band to fix their artistic vision in an organic form, already tested on the occasion of their live sets.
The album, whose work took several months, brings together the three souls of the band – acoustic, electronic and digital – in a journey that touches sixties sounds, dance music and, of course, the funk in its many manifestations that in its renewed current affairs. Moreover, from “Erasing Rock” film music, it takes back a certain freedom in structures, in the relationship with different musical styles and in creative solutions in general.
The musical experience and the use of analogical and digital instruments are therefore functional to a project in which for Les Jeux Sont Funk technology is placed at the service of the artistic project, not vice versa: “We wanted a listener to recognize every detail, every single instrument, every rhythmic or melodic line and at the same time able to instantly identify a specific sound “. A sound that is aware of the past but does not want to appear necessarily as nostalgic and that, on the contrary, puts the song in the foreground as a reflection of the present.
Their live set – 2 workstations and 1 microphone – reflects the desire not to take everything for granted, accepting risk as a source of opportunity for new creative solutions. To this end, the LJSF rely only in part on bases and samples, continuously introducing elements of uncertainty that allow to recompose the groove in real time. As a consequence, only a part of the events is predetermined, while the rest is entrusted to intuition and improvisation but never to chance, since funk is any sound imaginable, right or wrong, provided it is in time and place righteous.
Paraphrasing Malcolm X, the LJSF argue that: “the merits are all the masters we are inspired by – Funkadelic, Beck, Zapp, Sly & the Family Stone, James Brown, Daft Punk, Nina Simone, Prince, Fela Kuti, Curtis Mayfield, R.D. Burman, Chic, Pharrell Williams, Herbie Hancock, The Meters, etc. – while the mistakes are only ours.” Paraphrasing Thelonious Monk, they add: “we hope to always make the right mistakes“.
Streaming here