Colloquio
Io E L'Altro (K7)

The Emiliano Gianni Pedretti is certainly one of the most atypical and underrated songwriters in the Italian music scene of the last fifteen years. I say this knowing his discography quite well, which consists of some unofficial albums released in a transversal way and two official CDs. A discography that highlights the background of an artist who is anything but snobbish despite an apparently misanthropic and elitist approach, made of chiaroscuro, presence-absence and a sophisticated style that floats between decadence, Gozzano, apocalyptic-folk and minimalist electronic incursions.

Colloquio - this is the name of Pedretti's project/alter ego - certainly gave its best in 1995 with the album "Io e l'altro", on whose cover the same author appears with a featureless face. Just a whitish blank face, in the darkness, disturbing and questioning. The perfect icon of a journey of inner and creative exploration that delves into an oneiric magma full of doubts and questions that are difficult to answer (except by digging into the subconscious). Intersecting acoustic and electronic sounds, Colloquio transforms the idea of the song form into a kind of pretext for reciting his lyrics, exploiting the "brianenian" concept that repetition is a form of change. And thus approaching at times the atmospheres of Death in June, at times a dark revisitation of Paolo Conte, distorting poetic emotion with voice filtering that seems like alien messages.

The elaboration of the voice, moreover, is a peculiarity of Colloquio, who has often sung with his warm tone of a metaphysical crooner by manipulating the low tones, slowing down double-speed recordings, achieving fascinating effects that escape any standard. Just listen to the title track "Io e l'altro" or the marvelous "Lui è dentro", punctuated by a catatonic rhythm that could mark the evolution of a Faust'O after the year 2000. Truly evocative tracks with an extraordinary lyrical texture, vaguely inspired by films like "Riflessi sulla pelle" by P. Ridley, which narrate surreal situations and characters and interpret personal nuances in a disillusioned way.

Intense moments also "L'attesa" and "Volo anch'io", which gather the legacy of previous albums refining their instrumental execution and opening truly unexpected horizons for an era when Italian music was beginning to regress. Gianni Pedretti, sufficiently brave and brilliant to independently oversee his projects, followed his path thirteen years ago and became a withdrawn singer of solitude and visions, without ever being enchanted by easier and sunnier attempts.

Probably, the original edition released on tape is untraceable; well-packaged and with remarkable audio quality, but unfortunately disseminated in a very underground form.