WITCHESS (Women Implement The Creation of Harmonious Ecosystems of Selfless Species) is an ambitious, interdisciplinary concept album which combines feminist literature and experimantal electroacoustic music of the Italian, Bergamo-based drummer-percussionist-composer Francesca Remigi, inspired by the works of American Marxist and feminist political activist, and philosopher Angela Davis (and especially her essay Frameworks For Radical Feminism from 2019), Italian-American scholar, and Marxist feminist activist Silvia Federici, and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The album WITCHESS explores themes of feminism, social justice, and historical memory, and re-imagines a world without patriarchy and predefined gender roles.
Remigi alternates drumming with electronics and vocals. She is accompanied by vocalist Andrea Giordano (whose voice is heavily processed), flutist-electronics player Andrea Giordano, and guitarist-electronics player-vocalist Silvia Cignoli. The live performances of this project included the dances of Clotilde Cappelletti. The album was recorded at Elfo Studio in Tavernago in December 2024.
The album is structured as a nine-movement, urgent, and multilayered suite that begins with quotes from Davis’ statement. Each movement is a sonic argument that reflects and confronts different intersections of gender, race, and capitalism. It traces the historical foundations of patriarchal, colonial violence, from the dark legacy of the European witch hunt to today’s systemic economic inequalities, while celebrating gender diversity, the LGBTQ+ community, and the fluidity and spectrum of gender. It concludes with Davis’s insight that art can radically transform popular consciousness. Therefore, art refuses conformity, and transformation shifts not just representation but the very structures of power and expression.
Remigi thinks of WITCHESS project as a space for critical reflection and collective transformative liberation. This impressive, thought-provoking project articulates its arguments with an intense urgency, sonic imagination, and grace. It invites listeners into introspection, to absorb, to feel, and to imagine new possibilities beyond gender and race struggles.
Eyal Hareuveni
Andrea Giordano (voice, flute, electronics), Silvia Cignoli (electric guitar, electronics, vocals), Francesca Remigi (drums, percussion, electronics, vocals), Alessandro Mazzieri (electric bass), Naomi Nakanishi (piano, synthesizers), Clotilde Cappelletti (dance performance)
