Andrea Franchi
Il Navigante

The album "Il Navigante" has sounds influenced by the use of particular instruments: the Greek bouzouki, the baglamas, the bansuri, the accordion. This gives it a rather Mediterranean imprint. It almost seems like a concept album, at least in the first half. The vicissitudes of life at sea as a metaphor for existence. The Navigator and his navigating, precisely. In the second part, it returns to songs that follow the more conventional canons of singer-songwriter music.

It starts with the track "L'attesa", with ancient sounds and flavors in the winds and percussion. The bouzouki is played in an unconventional way, with riffs rooted in rock music and interesting rhythmic intersections. "L'attesa" seems like a restless search for a more spiritual dimension of life. A dimension, however, for which concrete signs are awaited even in the present day.

There is thus a turning of the gaze towards more distant horizons but with a sense of anger that demands the urgency of reducing the distances between elsewhere and the here and now. When and if it will happen, will it be a meeting within the subjective consciousness of the individual or a concrete revelation in the objective social life? It is not known....

The second track is titled "Voci dal Mediterraneo". It's a very sparse instrumental track, acoustic guitar, bouzouki, baglamas, bansuri, and percussion. The voice is present only in the chorus part. If you listen to it with closed eyes, you'll find yourself navigating in some part of our sea, heading towards Greece. The use of winds with the bansuri is very beautiful. The choruses have a taste of something that gets lost among the waves.

The third track, which also gives the entire album its title, is "Il navigante". The fingerpicking on the acoustic guitar on which the whole song rests is very beautiful. The accordion is splendidly played by Francesco Di Cristofaro, a multi-instrumentalist from Campania. The accompaniment is full of expressiveness and strength. The sounds are rather dark and the rhythmic progression is tight. "Il Navigante" seems like a metaphor for existence where moments of calm wind alternate with periods of stormy sea. The wanderer is at sea but could just as well be in the middle of the desert surrounded by the "lions that go hunting", to quote a part of the song's lyrics. Some recalls, in some moments of rhythmic accompaniment with the bouzouki, to Irish folk music.

The next is "Babilonia". It begins with the sax playing an Arabesque note phrase solo. Then the guitar enters in accompaniment and subsequently the accordion. The electric guitar adds notes in Marc Ribot's style.

The following track is titled "La fortuna" and is one of the most interesting. The lyrics evoke images, Mediterranean coasts, dreams, and forbidden thoughts. The desire is for the land as a destination and end of the journey. But what will become of the navigator once they have reached it? The arrangement is very beautiful, with double bass and percussion for the rhythmic part and acoustic guitar and bouzouki weaving the melodic and harmonic threads. The variation in tonality from major to minor in the transition from the two verses to the two instrumental refrains is beautiful, highlighted particularly expressively by the bouzouki. The final cello solo is splendid, very expressive and with a vaguely psychedelic flavor. A worthy end of the journey, or a new departure?

The sixth track is titled "La danza dei dannati". It's a very captivating track regarding the rhythmic part, with a clear reference to Capossela's "Ballo di San Vito" and Pino Daniele's "Je sò pazzo". Evidently simple and not very sophisticated at a harmonic and compositional level. The dominant part is played by the rhythm and the lyrics: an invective against the rampant corruption in certain areas of Italy, the cynicism of the powerful, the opportunism of politicians, the struggle of the weaker, the last, the marginalized. Who, for their part, are not saints either. Many indeed dream of redemption where, however, the values often coincide with those of the people who have subjugated them. And so they too dominate as they can, in their small way, venting their frustration in the family, with their wives, or in gambling. No one is saved in this dance of the damned.

And here ends Andrea Franchi's "concept album". The remaining three songs have a more classic singer-songwriter music structure: "Un'altra estate" has the piano as the leading instrument played in a vaguely jazzy style, while "Don Chisciotte" has a folk singer-songwriter structure with the classic accompaniment of the acoustic guitar and the charango and accordion for the solo parts. A well-crafted text. A particular note for the final track "Cieli lontani", sparse arrangement but with a beautiful melody and a particular and evocative text. There are references to Vincent Van Gogh, rarefied images, and colors in barely hinted notes of bansuri that fit into a delicate sound carpet built on guitar and cello. A very intimate song.

The album sounds "real" and is worth listening to