Rumors of War

When the thin line between war & peace gets as blurry as it is nowadays, a good old unfashionable labour of memory might just be in order. For Rumors of War, Italian duo Meta_xu concerned itself with pivotal moments of recent World History (particularly Occidental), times when History itself seemed to end at once, giving way to an orgy of chaos, violence, blood, rape & death (not to forget shock & awe…) But let’s not be fooled: History is going on still & watching silently, whether we are aware of it or not.

How to describe Rumors of War? I like to think of it as a romantic poem on a particularly dangerous subject. For one, it might not make you feel good about your own convictions. Surely it is bound with compassion for the true victims of war. But listening to it, you could think Meta_xu are flirting with their subject, giving it some reverence. It’s a matter of fact that the duo has not clearly specified their own stance on the matter, though I would suspect them to be, ultimately, pacifists. Well, who isn’t?

Art as a battleground? Maybe we’re getting to it. A place where blood is drawn with ink, where violence is but a musical simulation of itself? After all, Wagner is not the inventor of fascism. And neither is Goya responsible for the horrors of war he illustrated. Perhaps the problem is in the listener…

Mastered by Louis Dufort. Includes a bonus Quicktime video (8 min) by Mattia Casalegno.