| $15.29
back in stock as of
july 21st, 2008
first in stock on
december 11th, 2006
threads:
psych-prog
analogue-synth
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| | | water (usa) #water 168 cd franco battiato “fetus” compact disc - fetus (2:39)
- una cellula (2:55)
- cariocinesi (1:59)
- energia (4:31)
- fenomenologia (3:51)
- meccanica (6:11)
- anafase (5:36)
- mutazione (2:58)
| | click the play button to hear an excerpt of "anafase" |
| | franco battiato has one of the more curious histories of higher echelon music cult stars. he started unassumingly in the 60's as a sicilian-born acoustic guitar toting singersongwriter in milan, under the name francesco battiato, releasing eight 7" singles until he changed his name to franco battiato around 1970. with this change in moniker would come a striking shift in style. battiato became part of what many now see as a golden age in italian progressive and experimental music. the groups featured their singers more so than their international counterparts in the uk, germany and elsewhere: lucio battisti, wwhose sidemen would become premiata formeria marconi, area with demetrios stratos, and stormy six who for a while contained claudio rocchi. one of the artists closest stylistically to battiato. these innovators, amongst others, could be found on great labels such as l'orchestra and cramps, which promised creative freedom and experimentation. figuring prominently were the politically-left leaning lyrics which posited this as protest music, and which still has strong resonance amongst music fans in italy today. stratos in particular, who sadly died in 1979, is revered for his powerful words.
into this fray, battiato's arrival seems more as a mystic than as politician, and it was as this mythic creature that i first knew him. my own personal history with battiato's music opened a door into new~ ways of hearing music and new ways of understanding people hearing the music with me. my good friend christoph heemann, in, of all places, aachen, germany first opened my ears to this world. at this time, around the latter 80's, there was a flowering of renewed interest in this music in a small circle of friends that centered around nearby koln. despite the relative ignorance of the words, the melancholy of the music came through so strong you could taste the air. the pictures on the sleeves conjured images of a lost time that you could nonetheless see in the shadows of the ugly contemporary world that had trampled it. the back sleeve picture of the album pollution held the essence of some kind of prog-rock dandyism, their attitude, stance, and especially battiato's fluffy red coat collar suspended a spectre of menace that was the salt on the cake. many of us sat around in living rooms, maybe unconsciously taking the same poses, listening in casual intensity. it was the flavor of the music, that nostalgia for a time and place, that for us, was only but a myth, yet the music had a tangible link to this place we dreamed about. this lost land was incomplete without giusto pio's motore immobile, claudio rocchi's il vola magiao no.1, roberto cacciapaglia's bel note in logioa, and especially battiato's own café table music, which may have been his crowning achievement in influencing us all.
this music seeped into our bloodstreams and transfused us. much of the music of the next decade was secretly informed by battiato and his closest stylistic contemporaries. the simple, but evocative, single line pianos (which i also personally linked with the melancholic minimalism that came from the les disques du crepuscule label in the 80's, such as wim mertens' masterpiece maximizing the audlence), a preference for the ems-synthi over any other synthesizers tone, and the collage of the nostalgic over the cold reality of the present sneaked it's way into all of our music, which then in part bled over into other's music. in the early 90's a series of cheap import blabla cd reissues were snatched up by musicians everywhere, and his influence, although underneath the surface, was soon part of bloodstream of so many creators everywhere. this was only my own personal path, but i could hear in the music of later 90's that there had been similar little groups everywhere in the world, circles of friends. who sat in hushed tones in reverence to this seer, and learning the lessons he taught with such an incredible light touch.
battiato's cult status outside of italy has generally focused, understandably, on his music, not so much the words he had sung, but with fetus, these words still held an important part in his music. the cover displays the titular foetus, and a look at the lyrics show that the theme of life and death runs through the album. battiato, in a particularly personal approach, seems to question the inexplicable ability to understand how it is at all possible to even exist in the immensity of things. the words have only enhanced the deep seated ambiguity of the music, the passion for an answer, and the defining of existence through asking those questions that i heard in the, for me, wordless music i heard so long ago, and that has forever continued to pulse through my friends and my own bloodstream.
it wouldn't be until 1973's sulle corde dl aries that words started to acquiese their place to the completely instrumental music that began with 1975's m.elle le gladiator for a stretch of four albums that has most secured battiato's cult status as an avatar of the definitive sound of italian experimental melancholy.
stranger still, after 1978, battiato changed his sound again, tapping at first into the sound of new wave, and became a superstar, later becoming an elder stateman who revisited his early days through orchestral suites and multimedia productions. it is quite a journey, but as this record attests, near the beginning, there was a modest seed planted, one that h,as sprouted many limbs, and this fruit is forever edible.
jim o'rourke |
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