SØVN Records – Release #24

Sinfonia Meccanica is a project aimed to highlight the noises and the sounds typical of the letterpress printing process. The tracks were first premiered as an audiovisual installation within the walls of Archivio Tipografico on the 11th of September 2019. Also in 2019 it was presented at “Cripta 747” gallery and in 2021 at “La Platine” printshop in Marseille.

Starting from a series of sound recordings of the printing presses housed in Archivio Tipografico and through digital manipulation, five tracks were composed, one for each of the chosen machines. These constitute the sections of a sound composition that, together with visual and typographic elements create an organic whole capable of valorizing the soundscape of a printshop, familiar to the printer as a friend's voice.

"Every mechanical instrument produces, as a by-product of its operation, a noise, a vibration sustained and propagated by an elastic medium. Noises, sounds and voices are perceptive distinctions, machines speak but you need to know their voice to understand what they say. Work instruments emit sounds that speak of their age, the time that has passed since they were new; they warn when they work too hard or rhythmically confirm they are functioning correctly. We've tried to collect these noises, distinguish sounds and recognize voices. The goal is to give them importance and to assign them a form. The sound is the starting point, the form is the vehicle, the voice is the result. The message, let’s not get confused, could be hidden everywhere in the project: in the shapes, in surfaces, in colours or in the overall experience."

Sinfonia Meccanica is a collaborative project born from the encounter of Francesco Ameglio, sound designer and co-founder of SØVN records, and Studio 23.56, the graphic and type design studio working with, for and within Archivio Tipografico.

To fully enjoy the experience you can visit this website while you're listening to the tracks: link

Includes unlimited streaming of the album via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more: link

Sound design, composition: Francesco Ameglio
Audio samples: Francesco Ameglio, Andrea Bo
Graphic design: Studio 23.56
Printing, binding: Archivio Tipografico
Paper: Fedrigoni Arcoprint Milk
Cover: Guyenne Sunifluo
Format: 16×23 cm

Limited edition of 60 hand-numbered copies
Torino, November 28th, 2019

This book is currently sold out. To stay informed about a potential reprint, subscribe to our newsletter, but watch out: a reissue is most likely to have a different shape. that's how we like to work!