"Music: Krisma" - (Manhattan - Autunno 1983)
"I had to adopt a toy mentality. Like the Arcades!"
Italian composer oral and electronics buff Maurizio Arcieri and Swiss-born vocalist Christina Moser are Krisma. They have 4 successful European albums to their credit, plus houses in Switzerland, London and New York, and at least part of their success is due to Maurizio's widely heralded new system of computer-based composing. Now they are releasing their first U.S. album, and we meet in the Rockfeller Center offices of Atlantic Records. They immediately begin talking in a rapid fire exchange.
RB: "How did you meet?"
Christina: "Maurizio was already a musician... It was love at first sight:"
Maurizio: "I was part of a group called New Dada. The name had no meaning itself, it was all in the phonetics."
Christina: "And we started working together 6 years ago."
Maurizio: "We've done 5 albums."
Christina: "And this is our first U.S. album."
Maurizio: "There is a method you can use to listen to both of us at the same time. I'm on your right, so pay attention to me with your left ear."
Christina: "And I'm on your left, so pay attention to me with your right ear."
Maurizio: "It has to do with the hemisphere of the brain."...
.............
Christina: "He told them he had a group called Krisma and he came home that day and said, 'Now you're going to sing'. We are into 50% doing the business. In fact now is 100% (Christina reaches into her bag). I have a very new pen. Use it instead of the one you have, to write down the interview. Here. Let's see how it works... Hello. Hello. Hello... Do you like it?"
RB: "Yes. It picked up everything you said."
Maurizio: "We did an album - "Chinese Restaurant" - in London."
Christina: "With Vangelis, from "Chariots Of Fire"."
Maurizio: "We were one of the first into keyboards and electronics... Then we did another 4 albums."
Christina: "The second was called "Hibernation". Its meaning has to do with the restrictions in the period of Prohibition. But it is very optimistic at the end. You shouldn't lose a chance for hope."
Maurizio: "It as decadent hope, nihilistic hope."
Christina: "That's too much. How many times do they look at a dictionary? By the way, I'm reading a lot of books in English now. I just read Shogun. It's very funny to read an Englidh version of a Japanese thing. You have to listen with your heart... Like the same way you do with music... Like you must do with the single from our album, "Nothing To Do With The Dog". We did a video too."
Maurizio: "It's like a fairy tale."
Christina: "There's a very beautiful little girl in the park, and she's chased by a young group of ten-year olds, and a dog comes to rescue her. She chases the dog behind a tree, and when she reaches him... it's me! One thing you have to know, we are Krisma. But we are very Rin Tin Tin."
RB: "Rin Tin Tin?"
Maurizio: "Rin Tin Tin has nothing to do with the dog. It's style."
Christina: "Why Rin Tin Tin? It's not punk. Not new wave. We are Rin Tin Tin."
Maurizio: "It's Dada. The album is called "Fido" (its original title was "Rin Tin Tin")"
Christina: "If I talk in the States, Rin Tin Tin is the dog... And here it's copyrighted. So the album was renamed to Fido. Rin Tin Tin is preppy, European style. The way we move. The way we do. The music is called Rin Tin Tin. But it has "nothing to do with the dog"."
Maurizio: "Should we go back to the history? And then we did another album, called "Cathode Mama".
Christina: "Cathode Mama kiss me in my cable paradise"
Maurizio: "It was still electronics, of course."
Christina: "I'm an engineer too..."
..............
Nota di Stefania: I Krisma sbarcano negli USA e gettano scompiglio, finendo fra le pagine di "Manhattan" assieme agli Eurythmics! Finalmente ora conosciamo l'origine del titolo di "Nothing To Do With The Dog"! L'intervista (che ho preferito lasciare nella lingua originale perchè è piuttosto comprensibile) è stata trascritta grazie a Christina che ha fatto pervenire il materiale (purtroppo parzialmente bruciato da un incendio, come si portà notare da altre foto presenti nel sito e gentilmente forniteci da Chris), le parti bruciate purtroppo sono risultate illegibili e sono contrassegnate da una serie di punti di sospensione. Superfluo è dire che ringraziamo Christina (e Maurizio, of course) di cuore per la disponibilità e la gentilezza con cui ha voluto divedere con noi i suoi memorabilia.
Thanx to Christina Moser (we love you)