I have often dabbled with the concept of our city’s “electronic renaissance” on The Florentine’s pages and apparently I’m not the only one to have sensed its potential. In June 2016, Paul Simon will be releasing new album Stranger to Stranger and the single “Wristband” gently sets the sound of silence aside to embrace the sound of Florence, supplied in this case by Tuscan producer Cristiano Crisci aka Clap! Clap!. Blending EDM beats with the warmth of world music, Cristiano’s vision and rhythms are contagious. We’re not surprised by this overseas debut, especially under the wing of one of pop history’s most avid experimenters. Clap! Clap! Indeed!
Tuscan producer Cristiano Crisci aka Clap! Clap!
Michelle Davis: Let’s keep the juicy news for later. Tell us a bit about your personal liaison with music and how it all started.
Cristiano Crisci: My story started in 1996 when with two friends we decided to put up a b-boy rap project called Terzo Cavaliere Crew. In 2000, I started playing sax in a punk jazz band, Trio Cane, which brought me back to my black music roots. I founded another band, A Smile for Timbuctu. We toured Norway and played in London. After this first taste of the “international”, I fell in love with sampling and decided to go solo. In 2008, I created Digi G’Alessio and after cranking out numerous albums and Eps, I found myself utterly fascinated by tribal sounds, so decided to forge yet another musical moniker: Clap!Clap!
MD: Sounds like you’re starting to reap what you’ve sown. 2016 has truly been an extraordinary roller-coaster of events!
CC: Wow, I know! To tell you the truth, 2014 was even better. My first LP Tayi Bebba, released with Bristol-based Black Acre Records, probably laid the groundwork for all this. It shined an international spotlight on me. This year, I was signed under Warp Publishing and, well, then came Paul Simon.
Paul Simon’s latest album “Stranger to Stranger”
MD: How did that happen?
CC: It was surreally simple. My manager was contacted by Paul Simon’s staff. I couldn’t believe it, but two weeks later I received an e-mail from Paul Simon himself telling me that he was coming to Milan on tour and wanted to meet me. It turned out that his son Adrian is a fan of my music. I was supposed to work only on one of the tracks, but he was so impressed that I produced three. He’s so humble, making me feel at ease and he taught me a lot about gospel and microtonal music. In the end, we’re just two obsessed nerds. I went to meet him with my dear friend and musician Dre Love. Like Paul, he’s from Queens so it was a real treat. I see Dre Love as a sort of bridge figure between New York and Tuscany.
MD: Interesting, how so?
CC: What Dre Love has been building for over a decade is a cultural bridge, between old and new school, between Europe and the USA. Many of the people who come here don’t perceive it, maybe because of the static and overly bureaucratic entertainment scene of our city centre. But the hip hop and electro underground is ablaze with this kind of multicultural energy. Florence has to shed its skin and embrace its contemporary potential. Dre Love brought Black History Month to Florence, a big step for the city.
MD: How do people react when they find out that you’re Italian?
CC: Southern Europe is still considered slow, underdeveloped, second rate, especially when it comes to music. People raise their brows when they learn that I’m Italian, given that my whole entourage is international. Stereotyping is dangerous and misleading, and Italy suffers the consequences of its poor choices.
MD: Do you feel that by sampling world music you are preserving it and giving it a new meaning? Any plans for the future?
CC: Some confuse this kind of operation with cultural exploitation, but my music is the result of constant anthropological research. I’m interested in exposing our human roots; it has nothing to do with sex, races or categories. I’ll be playing at the Cascine park’s amphitheater on July 21 with Brooklyn-based electronic artist Gramatik, and my second full-length album is scheduled to come out before the end of the year.
