BTOMIC was an iconic underground club that opened in 2011 in La Spezia, a small Italian coastal town located midway between Genoa and Pisa, run by a group of friends. It hosted live performances by a range of Italian and international musicians, but was forced to close in 2015 due to lack of money. Jacopo Benassi, one of the clubs organisers, photographed the audiences that appeared there night after night. The people in attendance are diverse young and old, women and men, dressed in leather boots or sneakers, shorts or suits, T-shirts or floral dresses and the moments he captures in these candid, black-and-white scenes seem to have a timeless, placeless quality.

When the Music's over.

No art is and acts as directly as music. None. Recordings can be good, but experiencing great musicians live is something quite different - at least it can be. The climate, the actual mood, the artist's living situation, everything becomes part of the performance, no matter how often a piece has already been played before. And rarely, but sometimes, there is this short circuit and the audience becomes part of the performance. Artists and listeners build a connection that can create meaning and understanding beyond the words sung and the notes played.

In the BTOMIC, a small underground club near Genova, it must have been like that many times. Otherwise Jacopo Benassi, who organized the club together with his friends from 2011 to 2015, and presented on stage musicians like Julia Kent, Mary Ocher, Lydia Lunch, Eugene Chadbourne, Tav Falco and many others, would not have been able to take these pictures. His Black and White photographs of the listeners - younger and older, men and women, in leather pants, shorts or suit, Barbie shirt or floral dress. They all hear and FEEL and it is very nice to see that.

When the Music's over?

In the BTOMIC the lights have been turned out, but the music continues.