Π​​​έ​​​τ​​​ρ​​​α / Petra by Mai Mai Mai

▼WV084: Mai Mai Mai - Πέτρα (Petra)

This presentation text is quite personal (By WV Sorcerer)

This is a very important release of the label, because Mai Mai Mai is one of the musicians that gave a significant influence on this label and my own music project, when I started everything at the very beginning. Around 2015-2016, when I was still searching for my own sound and hesitating if I needed to create several projects to separate the noise/industrial part and the acoustic/ritualistic instrument, I discovered Mai Mai Mai's track "Βάσσαι / Bassae", those enormous sounds and deep tribal rhythms immersed with noise fragments just gave me a glimpse of a new horizon.

I had the chance to discuss with Toni, when I played my solo set for the very first time in Lyon. He told me that the starting point of this mixture of sounds came from his childhood travels with his parents, and often at sea, the sound of the ocean waves comes together with the engine roaring of the huge ship. He doesn’t consider that as a boring noise but a balance between nature and the machine, I guess from that moment, a seed was planted for Mai Mai Mai's sound mechanism.

"Πέτρα" means "stone" in Greek and it's the concept of this album, the stone is intended as a granite memory, and as the spirits of the earth. The first track “Βάσσαι / Bassae” is dedicated to those monolithic structures made of stone, marble, and clay that survive time and carry with them memories and stories.

"Πέτρα (Petra)" was previously released as one-sided LP by CORPOC in 2015, now WV Sorcerer is honored to make the reissue of this pearl from the early days of Mai Mai Mai, along with 3 more tracks on side B, a collection from various compilations and splits.

Each record also includes a 12-page booklet, with photos of the stones collected by the musician on various travels over the years.

Always moving, always different, but always there... bringing back memories, dreams, and ghosts...

Mai Mai Mai is an Audio/Video project, an idiosyncratic examination into Mediterranean and Southern Italian folklore, a dark journey into past traditions, made of blurred memories and hazy sounds.
It can be considered as a 'Mediterranean Hauntology', one that avoids the pitfalls of nostalgia yet which reanimates the ghosts of a lost past, in the form of an evocative ritual.