glauco di mambro


The Sanctuary has a very strong, almost ritual aesthetic. How much did that context shape you, and how much do you think your contribution has shaped it over the years?


Really a great question, not easy to answer: the experience with The Sanctuary, especially in the initial phase, was indescribable. There was no distinction between work, relationships, friendships, private life, relaxation: everything was fused together in a conti- nuous creative magma and the atmosphere was really powerful, you could feel that energy with your hands. And of course that reached the people who started frequenting the location, which itself was (and still is) very ico- nic and distinctive. You cross that portal and enter another world, another time: all this a stone’s throw from the Colosseum, inside an archaeological park. I will ne- ver stop thanking Stefano Papa and Simone Menassè for creating The Sanctuary, and for involving me in this unique project.


The strength that gives life and shapes things inside The Sanc- tuary is undoubtedly theirs: I am an interpreter, but they created the perfect context for me to ex- press myself freely.


The relationship between me and the Sanctuary has been a pro- cess of continuous osmosis. You can’t inhabit a place so dense with aesthetics and ritual wi- thout letting yourself be inspired, struck, changed.


In the beginning, that context gave me the discipline of musical storytelling. It taught me that a set is not a sequence of tracks, but a flow of energies that must harmonise with the dancefloor. The Sanctuary taught me to un- derstand the “moment”, to wait for the crowd, to respect the si- lence before the beat. Thanks to The Sanctuary I learned the di- fference between a DJ who plays and an artist who inhabits the space.


At the same time, I believe I’ve contributed to creating and strengthening The Sanctuary’s name internationally as a refe- rence point for a specific elec- tronic sound with an indie soul, but with those acid and minimal


nuances that have characterised a style.


The Sanctuary gave me roots, I tried to give it a musical horizon that looked beyond the bounda- ries of the already heard. Today I wouldn’t be this artist without those walls, but perhaps that temple would have a different sound without my journey.


At the beginning I was comple- tely fused into The Sanctuary project. The exchange of ideas, visions, projects and initiati- ves was mutual and continuous: now I’m certainly more deta- ched, both because my artistic career demands it, and because The Sanctuary has also chan- ged a lot. We’ve all grown a lot, both in age and professionally. The Sanctuary has opened three other venues, taken on an almost corporate dimension, and I’ve grown as an artist. Almost ten years have passed since the first opening, and everything evolves in unpredictable ways, but the love remains intact. I would never have chosen any other location than The Sanctuary to build a path: that’s why my monthly re- sidency with State Of Flux at The Sanctuary in Rome is a pillar of the whole project, and I’m really happy about that.


Rome is a city that over the years has never struggled to tell its story within international club culture. How do you see the city’s scene today?


Rome is a complex, visceral city that gives you nothing, but pre- cisely for that reason has a tru- th that few other capitals in the world possess.


Rome is unique in many ways, and club culture is no exception: there’s an enormous amount of talent, but also a lot of arrogan- ce at times. There’s that mix of self-satisfaction


and


There’s a return to the under- ground understood as an attitu- de, not as a musical genre: fewer frills, fewer “tables and champag- ne”, and much more attention to sound culture.


For those who do my job, Rome is a constant challenge. It’s not an easy city for


“copy-paste”


formats: here the audience im- mediately understands if you’re authentic or just playing a part. The success of realities like the Sanctuary or the explosion of new collectives shows that there is room for excellence, but only if it has a soul.


I see the Roman scene today as an open-air laboratory. There’s a beautiful mix between the almost sacred aesthetic of the city and much rawer sounds. We’re emer- ging from the dictatorship of pre- defined genres to embrace a freer flow.


The scene is experiencing a frag- mentation that I think is unpre- cedented: countless crews and micro-crews have sprung up pus- hing their own events, their own residents, often changing venues or even inventing them, reconver- ting spaces.


There are no longer those few big players monopolising the market, and I see this as a very positive thing. I perhaps miss a Rome-ba- sed radio station dedicated to electronic music that manages to establish itself internationally, but otherwise the scene seems to me to be in a very interesting moment, because we are in the middle of a reversal of trend.


self-pity


that is so Italian, of the “I’m bri- lliant, but they won’t let me prove it” variety. Then who or what this enemy that puts a spoke in your wheel actually is, nobody knows, but you lose yourself in the beau- ty that this city gives off in every corner, and in the end you feel okay like that.


Today I see Rome in a phase of extraordinary creative reaction.


The audience seems less and less interested in the big name, and clubs and promoters are no lon- ger willing to pay those astrono- mical fees to headliners, or even to midliners who ultimately have a decisive impact on the event’s budget, but in the end never gua- rantee a return on investment. And often, they are also musically disappointing.


This is a crucial moment: if the new generation of residents and promoters take seriously this great responsibility they’ve been given, experimenting, focusing on quality and research, then we’ll witness super stimulating times.


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