Anastasio releases the new album “Machines cannot pray”, a hybrid project that mixes rap, narrative and illustration, escaping each label.
Twelve tracks that give voice to a dystopian and spiritual story, flanked by a graphic novel signed by Arturo Lauria, a narrative object that also includes a cyber-mosca pendant with NFC chips and exclusive content.
After four years of work, the rapper-cantapar relies on a collective, intimate and visionary work, where friendship becomes sound, word and drawing.
We met him to make us tell the genesis and heart of this stratified work, written in total freedom: a “rap work”, as he himself defines it.
The interview
Your new album is a nice blow. Intense, dense, a job that must be listened carefully. It is not a background disc, it is a lyrical and narrative project. Tell me: how did “machines not pray?”
Summering it is difficult. I can say that it is a story that develops in twelve songs, twelve chapters. Each song is part of a journey, but telling the plot in a linear way always puts me in difficulty, because I would risk leaving something important out.
However, to give you an idea, we could say that everything begins with the emergence of an electric demon evoked by Tecno-Sciamani. This spirit hypnotizes the world, represents the very spirit of the machines. Then there is a leap in the past, in 1848, where we see that this spirit was already present when the rioters shot the watches shouting “we abolish the time”, rebelling against the mechanism, to the machine that automates the man. In that scene there is also Baudelaire, who observes everything: a visionary, a man born at least two centuries before his time.
We then review the present as if it were the nightmare of Baudelaire, and finally the future, which is nothing but our present amplified. In the end, there is the rendering of the accounts: the comparison between the man and the demon. Every time I try to synthesize, however, it always seems to me to be reductive. It is a record that must be lived, rather than explained.
In addition to the musical aspect, there is also an important visual level. The project extends into a graphic novel. Where does this choice come from?
It arises from the fact that the story that I tell has a very vivid imagination, which in my opinion lent itself very well to graphic language. The graphic novel is not a simple complement, it is a means that enriches the story. He says things that music alone cannot say, and vice versa. It is the same story seen by two different perspectives, two languages that strengthen each other.
Inside the album the presence of a god-algorithm hovers, a cyclopean, imperfect entity. How does it relate to history? And above all, how much does it look like what we see in reality?
It is an imperfect God, in fact. At one point in the album the man says to him: “You are a cyclops, a huge giant, but stupid and unfair.” He can understand a story, a sequence of events, but cannot understand the poetic language, nor the symbolic one, let alone prayer.
That's why the machines cannot pray: the machine can help you speak, but it can never help you be silent. It is a fundamental limit. And in reality, unfortunately, we see that we are adapting more and more to this “algorithm God”, which evaluates everything according to mechanical parameters. Music, as I say on the album: there are scientists who analyze the songs. It is disturbing, but that's what happens.
How can you react to all this? How do you get out of this dystopian scenario?
On the disc, the answer is the spiritual revolt. But it cannot be collective: it must be personal. Everyone has to do a job on himself. We must raise inner barriers, find a way to remember that silence – which is irreplaceable – cannot be replicated by any machine.
Despite everything, on your album there is also a thread of hope. You speak of freedom, a concept that often returns.
Yes, freedom is central. It is a concept that torments me and inspires me. Also in this apparently dark context, there is always a glimmer, a possibility. I don't speak of naive hope, but about something that requires commitment, awareness.
Will the project also have a live extension? How do you get the transposition from the disc to the stage?
I would like the live show to take place as a story. Not a simple concert, but a story for images and music. I would like the public to attend the unfolding of events, rather than a series of songs. Bring something different, something that goes beyond the traditional format.
You also launched a NFT with a platform for exclusive content. What is it about?
It is a way to further explore the universe of the disc. Inside there is, for example, an artificial intelligence trained to impersonate the cyclops, the god-algorithm. It also serves to make a sort of exegesis of the project: guides you in listening, it helps you to interpret some steps. It is an interesting tool, which I will deepen better with the release of the disc.
So this project has a beginning and an end, or can it still evolve into other steps?
I hope he branches himself, that he grows up, that he continues. It is premature to say it now, but the desire is that.
It is a record that does not let itself be reduced to one song. A project that needs the complete context, such as the concept albums of the past. Do you agree?
Absolutely. This disc cannot be fully understood by taking a single song. It is designed to be listened to in one breath, from the beginning to the end. It is a narrative, musical and visual experience together.
And for the public? Do you think it's ready for this type of project?
I do not know. I gave everything, I did the best. Now it is up to those who listen to how to immerse themselves. But I'm satisfied, because I really believe in what I built.
Instore
These are the next appointments: April 12 Bergamo (NXT Station, 17:00), April 13 Bologna (Locomotiv Club, 12:00), April 13 Perugia (Casa Roghers, 19:00), April 14 Cesena (space Mars at 17:00), April 14 Arezzo (Malpighi Hub, 9:00 pm), April 15th Rome (Lazio disco at 18:00) and 16 Padua (Amsterdam, 9:00 pm).
Listen to the disc
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