Chiello
Oceano Paradiso

THE REVIEW

Melancholy can take on various shapes; it is a protean being spread across space and time.

Certain religions, often cited by Borges in his works, said that men are the sensory organs through which God perceives the world.

Venosa is the birthplace of Horace, one of the first great "existentialists," the Latin poet of "Pulvis et umbra sumus," who lived two thousand years ago, born in 65 BCE, died in 27 BCE.

Venosa is the birthplace of this 23-year-old kid with a face (in certain expressions) like Fantantonio Cassano, born in 22 CE (where the C stands for Covid…), a former teenage trapper from YouTube, recently a guest on X Factor and very popular on Tik Tok, and I've said it all.

But he has talent.

And so you find yourself with the option, with that face, of giving him a (metaphorical) kick in the ass (aimed at the screen) and yelling at him to get a job, or listening to him.

That an explosively repressed melancholic sensitivity can translate, in certain social moments, by reaction, into an aesthetic of violence and social maladjustment, so banal and overused that it makes you want to vomit, can make sense in the end.

And even an album cover (in pure adolescent emo style) among the ugliest in music history can be forgiven, as long as that same melancholic sensitivity above gives you some songs like those in this debut work.

Like "Pietra di Luna," or "Crema di buccia."

Between the early Vasco Rossi, the early Grignani (a lot, in my opinion), Calcutta, the latest Verdena, Mina and Lucio Battisti, Iggy Pop (???), Enzo Carella and America (yes, indeed).

And also (speaking of another great talent that emerged strongly post-Covid) a Venerus (for the sounds) less syrupy, with more danceable pop and punk and less soul, more desperate, less stoned, and with fewer pills swallowed to open your mind, and instead a heart much more broken and saturated with immense emotion in music.

Some say he is a post-modern poet.

Let's not exaggerate, but it's not excluded that his famous fellow citizen would have liked him too, if he had lived a couple of millennia later.

Instead of dust, there is so much water and sea, but the shadows are still the same.