Oh, if in 1994 I had been seventeen as I am now, I would have cried at the first listen. An orphan of CCCP, listening to this marvel. "Ko De Mondo" is one of the most accomplished CDs by Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, from the graphics to the music, not to mention one of the best Italian CDs of the last twenty years.
Two tormented, restless, infinite eyes fixate impenetrably on an unspecified point beyond the hands holding the cover. Just for this cover, the CD would deserve a 10. We are faced with an innovation; Giovanni and Massimo, united with some former Litfiba members, are a rare explosive mix to imitate. In the booklet, photographs of both disturbing and serene Breton farmhouses mix with pure Ferrettian lyrics. The good old Giovanni knows how to make every place he visits a pen, a specific metric, an intonation. Every place in him lives and flows into the Zambonian guitars, the Magnellophonic sounds of Maestro Magnelli, in Maroccolo's bass, in Giorgio Canali's disturbed sounds, Gulli's drums, Gerby's percussion, and the rare choirs of Ginevra Di Marco (a wonderful voice in "La Lune du Prajou" and "Home Sweet Home", who from now on will begin to have an increasingly important role in the group).
What to say, a bit of pro-Soviet punk survives despite everything, especially in tracks like "A tratti", "Celluloide", "Home Sweet Home", and "Finestère"; for the rest, we are faced with a nearly unclassifiable and innovative alternative experimentation. It goes from Ferretti's melodious recitative in "Palpitazione Tenue" (a piece dedicated to the Pietà and the drama of constantly changing and maturing) to unique and precious tracks like "Del Mondo", almost an epitaph to the world, where graters, Magnellophones, guitars, Marco Parente's percussions, and Ferretti's voice create a masterpiece, or like "Intimisto", which as the title suggests, mixes an unprecedented harmony for the group that seems to revert to a perfection of CCCP pieces like Annarella and Madre, alla intimità umana.
The I, with a double Ferrettian voice, slow, caressed, light, and harmonious, opens to its own mystery, to sensations, and touches everything the listener has inside. Tracks like "Occidente", between folk music and rock, betray a bit of the old Resistant soul of CCCP, but improved, optimized, with more refined, particularized lyrics and logically a less scratchy and more "veiled" melody.
This CD also presents genius tracks that have made the group's history like "Memorie di Una Testa Tagliata" and "In Viaggio". The former is a long reflection of a severed head, which recalls the guillotine in thought, and which caresses all the moods of a replay of a severed head on a wonderful melody that gets lost under a "southern Slavic sky not without grace", all interrupted here and there by cybernetic interferences that recall the Battiato of "La Cura". The latter track is a look at all those who, in search of something, travel. From the losers "more suited to change" to "His Holiness", the journey, one of the few things that brings us all closer. Tracks like "Le Lune De Parjou" seem like interludes to facilitate dreams and reflections. Entirely instrumental track "disturbed" exclusively by the splendid voice of Ginevra di Marco. "Fuochi Nella Notte", the lightest and most acoustic of the tracks on the entire CD, is also one of their best songs ever.
In short, Brittany seems to inspire the group, impregnating it like a sort of holy spirit, benefiting every aspect: from music to lyrics. A unique album, to have, for lovers and not of the genre. Forgive the length, but CSI, like CCCP and PGR, are groups that need to be narrated, not just reviewed. Folkloric-indigenous soul and melody are a wonderful synergy in "Ko De Mondo"
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Del mondo (04:41)
E' stato un tempo il mondo giovane e forte,
odorante di sangue fertile,
rigoglioso di lotte, moltitudini,
splendeva pretendeva molto...
Famiglie donne incinte, sfregamenti,
facce gambe pance braccia...
Dimora della carne, riserva di calore,
sapore e familiare odore...
E' cavità di donna che crea il mondo,
veglia sul tempo lo protegge...
Contiene membro d'uomo che s'alza e spinge,
insoddisfatto poi distrugge...
Il nostro mondo è adesso debole e vecchio,
puzza il sangue versato è infetto...
E' stato un tempo il mondo giovane e forte,
odorante di sangue fertile...
Dimora della carne, riserva di calore,
sapore e familiare odore...
Il nostro mondo è adesso debole e vecchio,
puzza il sangue versato è infetto...
Povertà magnanima, mala ventura,
concedi compassione ai figli tuoi...
Glorifichi la vita, e gloria sia,
glorifichi la vita e gloria è...
E' stato un tempo il mondo giovane e forte,
odorante di sangue fertile...
Famiglie donne incinte, sfregamenti,
facce gambe pance braccia...
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Other reviews
By Kurz
"Del Mondo," perhaps the most beautiful track ever written by the group, features a text of great beauty over a small and elegant melody.
"Ko De Mondo" is a definitely important album, a new language, decidedly characterized in the arrangements, very original and perhaps detestable to some, but not to your reviewer: hats off!
By hypnosphere boy1
"Ko De Mondo records spiritually the seismic shocks of the contemporary world, with extreme sensitivity."
"Beauty will save the World. Who knows. For now, we can say that these are the CSI. And that is not at all insignificant."
By Viparita Karani
Ko de Mondo is a magma of renewal with strong influences from C.C.C.P., yet here poetry prevails.
Thank you, Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, for this masterpiece of the timeless old millennium, yet full of magic.