The C2C Festival turns 25: avant-garde yet pop. And dance that becomes music

Rome. According to Fruttero & Lucentini, as they once remarked in response to some readers’ curiosity, Turin – despite competition from cities such as Rome, Venice, Naples and Genoa – was a ‘must-visit’ for anyone who considered themselves a writer. “Half-chilled, half-provincial, half-modern, half-Italian, it ends up being, in its own inexplicable way, a crucial city, where nothing happens and everything begins, surfaces, seeps through, and is silently born”. It is, in a way, the same spirit that, for the past twenty-five years, has animated the ‘C2C Festival’ – inexplicably, as it were, linked to the city in which it was quietly born. Whereas in the early years attendees shuttled between clubs (the original name was indeed ‘Club to Club’), in that sadistic game between sweaty interiors and the chill of an Alpine night, the Festival’s centre of gravity now lies at Lingotto Fiere, next to where cars were once assembled, with the skyline dominated by the regional government’s skyscraper. Although the four-day event actually spans seven venues (from the OGR to the Teatro Regio and Carignano, via the Le Roi ballroom and the Notorious Club – with side events also held at Rivoli Castle, the Reggia di Venaria and the Fonderie Limone), this makes the festival even more widespread than in its early days. For specialist magazines—those read by people who savour music as if sipping French wine, such as Pitchfork and the like—it is the ‘place to be’ in late October–early November (though the spin-off edition in New York, held in the spring, is also gaining increasing recognition). This date is no coincidence, as it also draws contemporary art enthusiasts and visitors to ‘Artissima’ to the city during the same period. And indeed, glancing through this year’s line-up – running from yesterday until Sunday – one finds everything from Oklou’s art-pop and electronic singer-songwriter sound to the eclectic cloud rap of Yung Lean and Bladee; the smooth pop of Sweden’s Robyn alongside Arca’s experimental sounds; Kode 9’s dub-jungle; and Gyrofield’s blend of techno and drum and bass. There is also a seven-hour set by Detroit deep house icon Theo Parrish, the Afro-trance of Cristalmess, Danish composer Marie Luise Buch performing with the Pessoa Quartet, and the world premiere of the experimental project by Chiquimamani-Condori – the latter two having also appeared at the last two editions of the Venice Music Biennale. This almost represents a sort of link between the two events, in terms of sonic exploration. Here, of course, all these labels are shunned, and the Festival has prided itself on having coined the term ‘avant-pop’, even printed on the scarves sported with confidence and pride by the attendees. As artistic director Guido Savini – who was called upon to carry on Sergio Ricciardone’s legacy – told Il Foglio last year: “Both the mainstream and the avant-garde, taken separately, are terribly boring. The middle ground between these two worlds remains, for us, the only truly interesting place to explore’. This is also why Thom Yorke came to southern Turin to play at two in the morning. Franco Battiato brought the Joe’s Patti Experimental Group onto the stage, whilst Aphex Twin held one of his last concerts in Italy (complete with a projection of his logo onto the Mole). And Samuel of Subsonica, a local icon, went out of his way to find a Roland TR-909 at the last minute for Jeff Mills (who struggled to get it back). It is from the (feigned) silence of this city that, in short, “everything begins, surfaces, seeps through”. Even – perhaps above all – when it comes to music.

Luca Roberto