In case you missed it, Stone Island has teamed up with C2C Festival – formerly known as Club to Club – for an ongoing collaboration. We unpack what the two institutions have built together.
Titled Stone Island Sound, the wide-ranging collaboration has seen the two organisations not only release a series of Buy Music Club playlists, but also launch a label and their groundbreaking, new digital event.
To trace the trajectory of the partnership, it first began from their partnership on Club to Club’s Milan debut in 2019. Following from the successful Italian debut, in 2020 Stone Island Sound kicked off the new partnership with in-store playlists curated by C2C Festival. By doing so, the pair built a “world sound map” that champions independent music scenes around the globe.
Divided into five instalments, the latest two entries feature three playlists – labelled yellow, magenta and cyan. Across the playlists, the avant-pop festival selected tracks from artists such as Yu Su, Piezo, Slikback, Autechre, Novelist, Equiknoxx and Space Afrika – essential artists you should be paying attention to right now, along with some independent favourites.
The format – hosted via Buy Music Club – is an indication of C2C’s innovative approach to music curation. “In the realm of web2, Bandcamp is doing amazing things,” the team behind C2C Festival said. “They are raising awareness on the principles of what support looks like, preserving the integrity of the releases and restoring value to independent music communities. In order to compile the music from Bandcamp in handy list format, we think buymusic.club is a great tool.”
Later, in November 2020, C2C launched a new label as part of Stone Island Sound. The imprint’s first release was the Bienoise piece To Be Banned From Rome, followed by the Invrs Solaria EP by Italian composer Alessio Capovilla.
“In 2017 we commissioned Bienoise to work on a soundtrack for the dance piece To Be Banned From Rome, whose main theme became the signature sound of C2C Festival’s intermissions since the same year,” C2C said. “Soon after, the track turned into something more, an instant classic, thanks to the collective experience happening every year at our venue Lingotto. In a year where we undergo a lack of the live experience, To Be Banned From Rome is a candid testament to togetherness.”
“Initially the collaborative project curated playlists, aggregating the new transglobal sounds into a multi-coloured and chaotic combination of genres,” C2C added. “Always with the vocation to unearth outsider sound, Stone Island Sound now begins a new phase with the release of Invers Solaria EP by XIII on the Festival’s label imprint.”
“XIII is the moniker for Italian composer Alessio Capovilla under which he examines the most tactile reaches of his sound, bridging ancient tools and new technologies through synthesis, computer music and field recording, cross beats and genres. ”
Expanding upon the collaboration, the two followed up the label with the free digital event C0C Milano, at the Royal Palace of Milan, in March 2021. Titled ‘The Festival as a Performance’, the event offered “a glimpse into culture in times of pandemic crisis”. A stellar line-up featured the boundary-pushing Kode9 and festival favourite XIII. The tracklists for their sets included artists who’d played at C0C in November, from Lorenzo Senni to Silvia Kastel, and Ninos du Brasil to Caterina Barbieri. More is yet to come from Stone Island Sound, but for now you can rewatch C0C Milano and tune into the collaboration’s world sound map below.