Name: Cesare Mich aka Treasure Island
Nationality: Italian
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Current release: Treasure Island's new album Holotropic Dancefloor Dreams is out via Manual Smiles.
Recommendations on the topic of sound:
Philip Taggs - Music's meaning
Paolo Apolito - Ritmi di festa. Corpo, danza, socialità
Claudia Attimonelli - Techno. Ritmi afrofuturisti

If you enjoyed this Treasure Island interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Soundcloud, and bandcamp.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I think it depends on the situation and the context of the listening experience. Listening by myself, or at home, affects my mental state more than my body.

It's the exact opposite of what happens when I go clubbing: if the sound system is great, the physical aspect takes over the mental one.

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

I was lucky enough to be exposed to music within my family from a very young age.

Thanks to my older brother, we always had a good stereo system at home to listen to music "the right way." So, growing up, I always felt the need to have both good speakers wherever I lived and a pair of high-quality headphones with me.

This theme is explored in the track “First Time,” where I chopped and reworked a vocal sample to tell the story I wanted.



Towards the end, it touches upon this exact feeling: that sensation of sonic, physical, and emotional intensity that you experience especially during your first concerts (or DJ sets) with a proper system that completely immerses you.

It also speaks to how important those figures are who made those experiences possible.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

Going back to what I said in the first question, Arthur Russell was the last great artist to impact me in a way that felt similar to how I used to listen to music when I was younger. The way he plays the cello, combined with his voice, is unique.

The same goes for his ability to experiment with different instruments and musical genres.

His compilation Corn is one of my favorites.



Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

As I mentioned before, depending on the song, Arthur's cello can trigger a wide range of strong emotional responses.

In particular, I love a feeling that I would describe as a "joyful melancholy," which is something I deeply resonate with.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

I'm not sure I would use concepts like "well-being" or "health" to describe the importance of sound and music in society. An increasing number of studies and research suggest that "musical skills," such as a sense of rhythm, are archaic human traits—some of which are even shared with other animals.

Music likely came before speech, and in this sense, it's crucial to reflect on how sounds affect human life on various levels: conscious, unconscious, and cultural. If this weren't the case, it would be hard to explain the pervasiveness of music in advertising, shops, streets, offices, on hold during phone calls, etc.

The unfortunate part is that the power and ability of music to alter emotional states is weaponized for commercial purposes, emptying music of its meaning and role for the sake of consumption. Meanwhile, the venues where music is created and fully experienced are shrinking and closing down. Another example is the level of compression in modern music, which is designed for devices like smartphones or cheap headphones. This completely wipes out the dynamic range, making sounds feel "less natural."

In this regard, I'd say that analyzing how sound and music circulate in society reveals the underlying political and economic logic of the world we live in, rather than the "state of health" of society itself.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

I work from home, so I listen to a lot of music during the day. In that sense, I could agree with Glenn Gould.

However, considering the scenario I just described—where we are constantly surrounded by music designed to drive consumption—it could easily become a worst nightmare rather than the "ultimate delight." For instance, it really irritates me to hear those "trust and hope" playlists when I walk into a bank.

In a context with so much background noise, silence becomes a fundamental form of resistance, even though it is mostly an urban condition. In less urbanized or completely rural settings, animals and weather events are always part of the soundscape, so you experience a different kind of “silence”.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

One of the most curious experiences happened when I went to see a DJ set by Oltrefuturo in a very special place called Nano Verde. It's on the Tuscan coast, nestled inside a nature reserve right by the sea during the day. 



It was summer, and the sound of crickets and cicadas was constant. At one point, it started to drizzle while the sun kept beating down—it was an experience that felt naturally psychedelic.