MAI MAI MAI presents Mediterranean Hauntology, a journey through the traditions and folklore of Southern Italy and the Mediterranean. The concert weaves together materials drawn from the artist’s most recent works: from the reinterpretations of Southern Italian folk songs featured on the album Rimorso (2022), to the soundtrack for the Montenegrin film Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master (Ivan Salatić, 2025), as well as previews from the upcoming album Karakoz (to be released on February 6, 2026, by Maple Death Records and Radio alHara/Wonder Cabinet), recorded in Palestine in 2024 between Bethlehem and Ramallah.
The event will take place in the first-floor room dedicated to UNAROMA LIVE.
Free admission until capacity is reached.
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From January 16 to 21, the trace of the intervention produced by MAI MAI MAI will be on view within the exhibition space.
MAI MAI MAI, Karakoz – Soundtrack of a Journey in Palestine, 2025
Video, color, sound, 62’
Recorded at Radio Atheer Studio (with Julmud), Ramallah, and at Wonder Cabinet and Radio Alhara Studio, Bethlehem, in January 2024
Recordings from the Sound Archive of the Popular Art Center, Ramallah
Inspired by the traditional shadow puppet theatre of the Ottoman Empire, Karakoz invites listeners to explore Palestine through sound. Bustling marketplaces and whispering winds, traditional instruments and analog synthesizers come together to create a symphony of life. Each sound reflects the echoes of past generations, like shadows dancing on the walls of an ancient theatre. Through the interplay of rhythms, melodies, and ambient noises, Karakoz evokes a dreamlike landscape in which the boundaries between reality and imagination blur, allowing the listener to immerse themselves in a long and profound journey.
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MAI MAI MAI is an audio/video project by Toni Cutrone (Crotone, 1981) that interlaces sounds and images from a dark journey through the traditions and folklore of Southern Italy and the Mediterranean. The project explores in depth the interaction between pagan rituals and Catholicism, between nature and magic in rural life, and between musical tradition and its contemporary developments, using archival sounds and field recordings alongside collaborations with contemporary “avant/ethnic” musicians such as Vera di Lecce, Lino Capra Vaccina, Maria Violenza, Youmna Saba, Mike Cooper, Nziria, and Go Dugong. The project embodies a form of “Mediterranean Hauntology” that, far from being merely nostalgic, noisily awakens the very ghosts it speaks of, evoking them to accompany us in our everyday lives. MAI MAI MAI has released records on labels including Boring Machines, Yerevan Tapes, Not Not Fun, God Unknown, Instruments of Disciplines, La Tempesta International, Maple Death Records, and WV Sorcerer.