Alice
Il sole nella pioggia

"And the course of life walks slowly, the message is in silence, in sobriety" 

from "Time without Time" 

"Park Hotel", '86, has definitively opened a new path. Music increasingly directed towards the world, accompanied by a refined and suspended lyricism and made concrete by a group of unique musicians, Phil Manzanera, Tony Levin, and Jerry Marotta. "Park Hotel" is almost a masterpiece, but "Il sole nella pioggia" is Alice's definitive affirmation as an artist who is now breaking the boundaries of her past experiences to enrich herself with new sounds, aided again by invaluable collaborators. In '89 comes the first of three perfect musical chapters; refined and sophisticated, they now outline the main traits of a mature artist who manages to assert herself beyond national boundaries with her music that has abandoned the splendid and captivating turmoils of the first half of the decade to reach an elegant and unique class.

Already in "Park Hotel", Juri Camisasca had written some lyrics like "Nomadi"; in this work, the lyrics are almost all his and reflect his experience lived in total isolation for at least a decade. "Il sole nella pioggia" is a record in which Alice sings of slow rhythms, of a harmonious perception of one’s self. Nature, time, space, everything is perceived as a fundamental element of one’s life. One must seek balance in the small things, and then this will naturally reflect in the immensity. One is faced with an album that has incredible richness, the songs blend naturally into one another; thus, a pleasant experience of peace and calm is lived, in contrast three years later "Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi" will focus more on the urban becoming, a source of chaos and dispersion. Alice is assisted in this work by musicians of notable caliber, the ex-Japan Barbieri and Jansen, Paolo Fresu, Dave Gregory, and Peter Hammill to name just the most well-known. Not simple session men but true co-authors with their own personality and experience as part of the soul of this album. Steve Jansen brings his unmistakable drumming to the service of beautiful tracks, right from the first notes of the title track and then enhances "Visioni", "Cieli Del Nord", "Le Baccanti". For Alice, this begins a collaboration with what is still her drummer in concerts today. The songs each have their own musical identity, small frescoes of poetry in which even the catchiness makes everything very fluid and accessible to everyone, "Visioni when the fog has vanished the light in memory, the dawn inside the evening. Ever less you know." Dave Gregory, his guitar skill for "L'era del Mito" and "Anìn a grìs", the latter a traditional Friulian song (the adopted land of Carla Bissi) very beautiful in its slow romantic pace, "let's go to crickets, tonight, among grass and earth near the Tagliamento. Let's get lost in the darkness between bushes and sky". From Finardi, Alice borrows "Le ragazze di Osaka". Now it is slower, a light atmosphere, Jansen outlines the rhythmic line, Barbieri adds the keyboards, the song perhaps acquires its definitive form, harmonizing with the rest of the songs, to call it a cover is reductive. To close the album, "Now And Forever" sung with Hammill, an effective and engaging duet.

Today "Il sole nella pioggia" is one of the most beautiful works in music in recent years, rarely does one have the sensation of truly listening to something really perfect, its successor is also something wonderful. Some time ago, I read a comment on this album written by an American music critic, who was left breathless and wondered why it was not universally known and Alice considered one of the greatest female artists in the world. The answer? If she had been born as a native English speaker who knows... but her name is known and being on everyone’s lips is not always a source of pride.