Tip! 150 copies limited release

Xing presents the new LP Keyhole Mouth by Silvia Costa and Claudio Rocchetti, seventeenth release of Xong collection - artist records. The release is on white vinyl, in a limited and numbered edition of 150 copies, including a collector's edition of 20 copies, each accompanied by a keyhole of European and North American manufacture (from the 17th century till today) with the application of an original pen on canvas miniature by Silvia Costa.

Keyhole Mouth is the second collaboration, after Midnight Snack, between performer Silvia Costa and musician Claudio Rocchetti. Surrounded by objects and materials of different origins found by chance and arranged like sets, triggers for extemporaneous and fugitive narratives, Silvia Costa acted in the solitude and modesty of locked rooms, creating a series of unseen gestures and of which only a sonic memory remains. Barely audible excerpts of words, thoughts jotted down on a mental page, already forgotten and confused, mingle with the sound trails of actions, movements, steps, in a material and affective relationship with the most common objects.
A lighter, a rock, a newspaper. A chair, a pair of shoes, scissors.
Still lifes or enigmas to be deciphered. Claudio Rocchetti's elaboration of these fragile and wild sounds gave rise to a concrete music, marked by compositional strategies that are based on the use of various sounds, vocalized, shouted, breathed, beaten, rubbed and recorded. Frequencies and dust from another world, to be heard without being heard, to be spied with the ears instead of the eyes, through the keyhole, without disturbing. This Keyhole is the crack, the mouth from which the sound comes. It is like a region of the space-time, isolated from the rest of the universe, that attracts you towards a dark and obscure centre where little is seen, much is imagined in listening.

Silvia Costa is an italian artist, director and performer from Treviso. She studied Visual and Performing Arts at the IUAV University of Venice. Between 2006 and 2019, she has contributed as an actress and artistic collaborator to most of Romeo Castellucci's creations for theater and opera. At the same time she carried on her own artistic projects, developing since 2007 a visual and poetic theater nourished by a deep reflection on images. Alternating roles as author, director, performer or set designer, this protean artist crosses different aesthetic fields in a personal exploration of Theatre. She has created theatre works (Poil de Carotte, Comedie |Wry Smile Dry Sob, inspired by Spiel by Samuel Beckett, Erinnerung eines Mädchens, La femme au marteau on the cycle of piano sonatas by Galina Ustvolskaja interpreted by Marino Formenti, Macbeth), performances (La quiescenza del seme, A sangue freddo, Alla Traccia, Midnight Snack), installations and multimedia projects (Musica da Camera, Tabula, Emotional Intelligence, Descrizione di un quadro, E Dio si riposò il settimo giorno, Sono dentro, l’essere ciò che è chiuso in un tratto, La mano nel Sacco). Recent projects have definitely expanded to the musical and operatic world, collaborating with the Ensemble Intercontemporain for the mise en espace of Hièrophanie by Claude Vivier, and Intérieur, composed by Joan Macrané Figuera, followed by Così fan tutte by Mozart. She also directed the operas Juditha Triumphans by Vivaldi, and Combattimento, or the Black Swann‘s theory, based on the works of Monteverdi and his contemporaries, Freitag aus Licht by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Noah's Ark by Benjamin Britten, Like flesh, chamber opera composed by Sivan Eldar, libretto by Cordelia Lynn, with the ensemble Le Balcon, JULIE by Philippe Boesmans, Harawi, Chant d'amour et de mort by Messiaen, and L’autre Voyage, tableaux lyriques from the unfinished works of Franz Schubert with Raphael Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion. Among her recent music collaborations: Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight (2024), based on Ursula K. Le Guin's utopian fable, with compositions by Andrea Belfi and Wojtek Blecharz, and the record Keyhole Mouth (2025) with Claudio Rocchetti, released by Xong collection (Xing). Her productions and mise en espace were presented at Opéra Nationale de Lorraine, Opéra de Lille, Philharmonie de Paris, Opéra Comique Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Cité de la Musique Paris, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Landestheater Vorarlberg Bregenz, Hannover Staatsoper, Théâtre du Chatelet Paris, Comédie Française Paris, Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Festival dei Due Mondi Spoleto. She was associated artist at Teatro dell'Arte/Milan Triennale (2017-2019), at the Centre Dramatique National in Angers (2019). Since 2020, she has been part of the artistic ensemble of the Comédie de Valence. In 2022 she was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Claudio Rocchetti is a musician and composer whose research is mainly focused around concrete pastiches as the result of hardware live manipulation, turntable feedbacks as well as various recorded sources and objects. The work of Claudio Rocchetti is a deep plunge into thick sound, investigating its innermost workings. Using a variety of devices such as turntables, audio cassettes, samplers, radios, and microphones, often incorporating other objects and traditional instruments, Rocchetti builds compelling structures that employ sound as sheer matter, mass, and impact. The tarry, mesmerizing hues that characterize his ‘music objects’ are grounded in layers of sound detritus. From techno rhythms to slow melodies, edgy constructions to samples of choirs and strings, Rocchetti builds layered structures of elusive elements whose sources are often hidden, and enacts a mirror play which may cause dizziness. Apart from his main solo project he is also part of 3/4HadBeenEliminated with Valerio Tricoli and Stefano Pilia, half the duo Olyvetty with visual artist Riccardo Benassi an he melts together with noise-funk duo G.I.Joe and Stefano Pilia into In Zaire power quartet. He also played in projects with Jooklo Duo (as Hypnoflash), double bassist Klaus Janek and with Mattin, Bowindo, Fabio Orsi, M.B. and in the doom metal band Deadsmoke. His most recent works include collaborations with director and performer Silvia Costa, and Lenz theatre foundation. His works have been released by labels such as Hundebiss, Die Schachtel, Presto?!, Second Sleep, Holidays Records and Xing, among others. He is also the founder (with Kam Hassah) of Musica Moderna, a label focused on field recordings, sound poetry and sound art. Co-founder, with Alice Rocchetti, of the publishing house Black Letter Press in recent years his focus shifted into book making and exploring the written matter as he did with sounds. The most recent results can be seen in the book An Imitation of Life published by Kohlhaas in 2024.

Xong is the name of the collection produced by Xing, a vinyl-only record label of works by both Italian and international personalities linked to the variegated worlds of live performativity. The collection explores a geography of artists who present this sonic field as a platform to expand their staged worlds. "The space of the record" is given focus and amplifies their poetics as both a sonic and physical phenomenon. Xong is a unique project that draws out divergent understandings of the performative and live arts, beyond genre and intersecting between different practices. Xong collects a series of original creations that constitute an expanded program. Each physical record is a numbered edition on white vinyl hosting the solidification of the gesture. A wave upon wave, a series of "Music-Non-Music" to actualize both the artists and listeners imagination.