All compositions by Zac Gvi except track 6 by Zac Gvi, Maurizio Ravalico and track 10 by Zac Gvi, Julie Kjaer and Maurizio Ravalico. Mixed by Zac Gvi with additional mixing by Alex Bonney. Mastered by Steve Arguëlles. Produced by Zac Gvi 2012-23.
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about
The Spectacle is a tone poem that revisits the Situationist Manifesto of Guy de Bord, whose radical and prescient critique laid bare the cornerstones of the ideological regime under which we live, a poem that entraps its text in an ever-rising spiral laced with sweetness, vertigo and chaos; the fourth contrapunctus
lyrics
I
society is the spectacle
it’s all around us
in every sound in every gesture
in every rise in every fall
it’s in us all
in all images
in all events
in all our hopes
in all our dreams
we are the spectacle
watching ourselves watching
an infinite screen
wherein all life parades
an endless progression of faceless bodies
desperate to be desired
while inside is an all consuming
all negating void
II
and me subject, where do i start, where do i finish?
where do i perform, where do i live?
is my whole life on show?
are all my actions surveilled
randomly sometimes in case i do something wrong?
a wedding, a graduation, a flat at best
a film, a series, a reality show in worst case scenarios
here is the scholar, the accountant, the socialite,
the media journalist, the conspiracy theorist, etc.
fed by the lack of ideology of the consumerist victory
over revolutionary élan
III
alienated to the point of delirium
characters of the film of our own life
protagonists of the show in which
we are the most dedicated and sometimes disgusted spectator
inadequate because invisible,
inadequate because precarious,
inadequate because unsuccessful
we struggle to tear the veil of the simulacrum
and march blindly, day in, day out,
to the tune of our ephemeral and deafening desires
what is this spectacle we talk about? if not explained it becomes reified as a concept familiar to a chosen few
family, nation and church are back in force, proud and inflated, fed by the lack of ideology of the consumerist victory over revolutionary élan
“the spectacle”, de bord writes, “is a social relation among people mediated by images”
and our fresh-faced, good-for-nothing, ready-for-all leaders ride in limos talking stock exchange through protests for bread or benefits or fees or pensions, when our protests have become a kind of carnivalesque background noise to capitalist realism
what de bord described 50 years ago constitutes our reality to an extent where it is becoming impossible to dissociate our personal identity from its mediated self, or reality from the spectacle
already convinced in 67 that ‘the true is à moment of the false’ the totality of the spectacle is its most inescapable feature
for what we understand best between each other is the spectacle - celebrity games, fashion brands, manufactured stranger than fiction real life characters who make our hearts pound with their invented adventures
credits
from Material Tropes,
released June 30, 2023
Giulia Loi - voice, Julie Kjaer - flute, alto sax, Ben Davis - cello, Ruth Goller - bass, Seb Rochford - drums, Maurizio Ravalico - systrum, djembe ears, cowbells, woodblock, Zac Gvi - accordion, bass clarinet, synths, additional alto sax, additional percussion
This compilation catalogues the weekly performances aired on Triple R, an independent community radio station in Melbourne, Australia. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 14, 2020
