Donato Dozzy and Eva Geist (born Donato Scaramuzzi and Andrea Noce) live in two opposite poles of Rome: he inhabits Monte Mario, a quiet residential area surrounded by greenery, and she lives in Malatesta, a lively, creative and multi-ethnic area. We asked the two musicians – who are working together on the project Il Quadro di Troisi – to tell us about the capital's landscapes through a series of photographs, taken with a Fujifilm Instax, and its soundscapes through a mixtape, which the duo produced exclusively for Domus and OSS – Ortigia Sound System festival.
Images and music converge in the chronicle of an anti-monumental city. “We simply tried to capture moments from our day. We thought about the concept for a long time, but in the end we said to ourselves that right next to us there are things that are unique in their simplicity and banality. Although Rome has a cosmopolitan dimension, each of its neighbourhoods is a village and an independent reality. We tried to tell the story of our suburbs and some poetic situations related to everyday life,” the duo told us.
The mixtape is designed as a soundtrack to some phases of their daily routine. “We wanted to follow the sound affinities of the various places with very different tracks but with the same impressionistic approach. For the mixtape we selected tunes from every era, focusing on experimental, hidden music. Here too we tell the many dark sides of Rome: music created in marginal contexts, mysterious, poetic and linked to the intimist aspect of the city.”
This article is the result of a collaboration between Domus and OSS – Ortigia Sound System, an electronic music festival that has been taking place in Ortigia, Sicily, since 2014. The event combines traditional Mediterranean rhythms with new trends in contemporary music. Thanks to Fujifilm for providing the artists with the instax mini 40 analogic instant camera.