Alice Visconti
Cosa Resta... Un Fiore

THE REVIEW

"create a world with pencil-drawn fingers if you feel like it, let your life enter 
and color your age, make your age beautiful "

"World in pencil"

"What remains... a flower" (1978) is the second album by Alice Visconti. That is, it is the second LP by Carla Bissi, known as Alice Visconti... practically before she became simply Alice and somewhat changed the female music scene in Europe.

The first two albums recorded by Carla Bissi see her simply as a singer and pianist. She was under contract with CBS and under producer Giancarlo Lucariello, the same of Pooh. Over the years, these two works have somewhat been disowned by Alice and in Italy they were never reissued on CD, becoming very rare and expensive pieces. Listening to this second period of the artist from Forlì's career (the first was in the early '70s when she still used her real name), one understands why the musician deliberately forgot them. She didn't write a single word nor composed a note, everything was entrusted to the duo Luigi Lopez-Carla Vistarini, with the addition of Riccardo Fogli and Stefano D'Orazio (!).

These are naïve songs far from the personality of the performer, they exemplify a certain approach to songwriting as pure melodicity with lyrics reminiscent of almost adolescent love. Light songs, "An island", "A flower", "A simple story of mine" that make one blush if associated with the sophisticated author who would explode in '80. The albums had decent success but Carla Bissi was something else, she couldn't remain imprisoned in a sort of watered-down Carole King, unable to truly express herself. In this album, one appreciates her already beautiful voice, yet it's not fully exploited, the sound of the piano, some melodies, and little else.

Once the contract with CBS ended in '79 the meeting with Franco Battiato, listening to the songs composed by Alice dazzled him and he managed to get her signed with EMI. Thus begins one of the most interesting and high-quality careers in the music world; in '80, a song without a chorus with a hypnotic melody, "Il vento caldo dell'estate", would hit the radio, bringing Alice's first gem to the charts. "Capo Nord" breaks the mold of Italian female songs, a courageous new wave with lyrics teetering between irony and sarcasm, captivating music seasoned with synthesizer sounds. Alice Visconti is no more; she has given way to Alice.