Luciano Chessa and squncr Channel Fluxus Play on the Côte d’Azur with ‘Ç’

The Côte d’Azur has long sheltered artistic experimentation beyond its postcard image. On Ç, Italian composer Luciano Chessa and French musician François Larini (squncr) step into that hidden history, shaping sound pieces around sites linked to Jean Cocteau, Robert Filliou, and the Fluxus circle. The album germinated during a year-long residency Chessa held in Monaco, where Larini was directing the Théâtre Princesse Grace. Together they assembled a tactile palette—đàn bầu, zither, organetta, electronics, eBows, and found objects—that reads like a quiet refusal of studio polish.

Tracks take their names from real locations: the Trinquette jazz club in Villefranche-sur-Mer, the Chapelle Saint-Pierre, the Rue Obscure. But the music avoids literal depiction. “Finding Filliou” interprets play as a form of self-distraction, while “La Cédille qui Sourit” nods to the storefront laboratory Filliou and George Brecht once ran nearby. Across the record, pieces drift between reflective grace and gentle disruption, never settling into fixed structures.

Rather than a tribute, Ç functions as a continuation. Chessa and Larini treat sound as a social situation, much like the Fluxus artists who valued the event over the object. The result is an album that listens like a cartography of forgotten encounters, drawn by two players who take play seriously.