Metúo is an interesting musical project, created from the encounter between Giorgia Angiuli, the young musician and lover of the perfumed essences, Tommaso Bianchi, and Amelie Labarthe, a Parisian textile designer specializing in doll making. Together, they’ve created Toy Shop, an album composed of 10 electronic tracks that emanate a dream-like, suspended atmosphere. Central to all of their work are themes like multi-sensorial experiences and eco-sustainability.
“Shell Crumbs” – Metúo
EXCLUSIVE INTEVIEW FOR THE NEW YOOXER
1. How did the Metúo project come about?
Flipping through an ancient Greek dictionary, with the desire to immerse ourselves in new creative worlds where our acoustic, digital and “object noise” sounds can live together. The idea is to create a multi-sensorial atmosphere among sounds, images, and scents. Metúo is an ancient Greek verb and can be used to express three emotional conditions: being outside of yourself, being inebriated, or being full of love.
2. Are there other similar creative experiences that you appreciate and that have influenced you?
Some things we find suggestive: lazy summer afternoons in southern Italy, Barcelona’s Boqueria market, the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory in San Francisco: colors, liveliness, chaos, scents – presences that take on multiple shapes.
3. Before meeting Amelie were you interested in fashion? And if yes, what about this creative realm appealed to you?
We’ve already worked in the fashion industry and our dream would be to play for a Castelbajac fashion show, with the sets created by Yayoi Kusama. We’d love to be able to create a line of clothing, toys, and perfumes one day. Fashion provides the chance to unite many different languages. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll go through the city wearing scented and sonorous coats.
DREAM BOX BY METÚO
4. Eco-sustainability seems to be one of the most important themes for you: the cover art is made from hemp paper, part of the energy during your shows is generated by a stationary bicycle. What do you find so important about this issue?
Thanks to precious support and collaboration of “Raggio verde” we’ve created packaging for our album entirely out of hemp, without killing a single tree! A renowned expert of “green” marketing, John Grant states that “we don’t need to be perfect to do some good”, and that’s what we believe. We try to pay attention to the little things, which helps us face the current, enormous environmental problems. In our live shows, we even use the wind and leaves of some plants as instruments. And we play from a bicycle.
5. Plans for the future?
To take perfumery classes in Grasse, in the Provence area of France, to buy new cotton candy machine, to tour our exhibition on the theme “Toys For Good” – ecologically sound toys – to browse, smell, listen, grow, meld and transform. To compose new pieces, produce and record our second album.
Our Playlist
Faking the books ( Lali Puna )
Love me tender ( Elvis Spresley )
