Italian occult psychedelia (IOP) is a subgenre of Italian
psychedelic music characterized by obscure atmospheres. Italian occult psychedelia was coined by journalist
Antonio Ciarletta in an article published by Italian music magazine ''Blow Up'', in January 2012.
A festival called Thalassa has occurred in Rome since 2013 to celebrate Italian occult psychedelia bands.
Characteristics
The music form has emerged as a form of
hauntology
Hauntology (a portmanteau of ''haunting'' and ''ontology'') is a range of ideas referring to the return or persistence of elements from the social or cultural past, as in the manner of a ghost. The term is a neologism first introduced by French ...
, an engine of reactivation of an Italian collective memory. The features of this shared past are related to the imagery of Italian genre films as
cannibal movies,
spaghetti westerns
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of ...
, Italian
B horror movies and their soundtracks, and are related also to the violent, obscure and esoteric folklore so well outlined in the essays of
Ernesto De Martino
Ernesto de Martino (1 December 1908 – 9 May 1965) was an Italian anthropologist, philosopher and historian of religions. He studied with Benedetto Croce and Adolfo Omodeo, and did field research with Diego Carpitella into the funeral rituals o ...
and in the documentaries of
Luigi Di Gianni. "The darkness of human mind and the superstitions of old religions are leit-motifs that run through Giallo films and the music of IOP bands is hardly surprising: Italy is a country bound by belief and superstitions."
Other references are the stories and the characters of
Federico Fellini and
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...
. Musically, Italian occult psychedelia is a cross of
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
,
psychedelic rock,
Italian progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initi ...
, Italian
library music
Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries.
Backgroun ...
and "Mediterranean vibes." According to Rumore, also other influences that "goes from
Krautrock to Italian B-movie soundtracks, from drones to analog electronics, from lysergic folk to free jazz." According to Joseph Stannard, "It's equally clear that Italian occult psychedelia is far from sonically homogeneous."
Simon Reynolds identifies italian occult psychedelia as an Italian counterpart to hauntology.
[Fogel, Benjamin]
'' Playlist Society'', France, 14 June 2012.
References
External links
IOP at Rai Radio3SentireAscoltare IOP festival
Distorsioni.net IOP festival third edition review
In Zaire on Il Mucchio Selvaggio
Fact Magazine preview IOP song
Distorsioni.net IOP festival second edition review
Blow Up IOP part 2Donato Epiro interview
Martin Hagfors interview
IOP and Italian Indie
{{Hauntology
Psychedelic music
Hauntology