Cranchi
Non Canto Per Cantare

A group that originates on the banks of the Po River and takes its name from the founder, Massimiliano Cranchi, who, despite his role as leader and the main songwriter, loves to live and share his music with the rest of the band, an open and flexible formation with several key members, including Marco Degli Esposti, formerly with The Great Northern X and La Notte Delle Streghe, who shares with Cranchi vocals and songwriting.

The sound and voice of Cranchi is precisely the fusion of the two voices, harmonies that evoke the Italian tradition as well as the folk music of the areas between Emilia, Lombardy, and Veneto.

“Non Canto Per Cantare” is at the same time a modern and contemporary album, rock and sometimes even world music, with an attitude that might remind one of the Gang of “Le Radici E Le Ali,” but without copying their form in any way.

“Il Cantico” opens the album and is a wave of emotions, a song like this would not be out of place in the repertoire of De Gregori or Guccini and it is not an exaggeration to say that they haven't written anything like it in years.

However, the album does not stop there; the journey continues in a more challenging and less complacent manner with “11 Settembre 1973” which talks about the Chilean coup where President Salvador Allende was overthrown and murdered, a historical and also critical narration of American politics of that time, but done with sounds that show a love for roots traditions, following the legacy of Massimo Bubola in his collaboration with De Andrè.

There are many political moments or simply instances of civic engagement by the band, and at times it may seem disorienting to hear a band barely over thirty tackling subjects that were once addressed by artists like Stormy Six, stories of another world, another era, and a different country.

This is not the only aspect of Cranchi’s poetics, and perhaps they are at their best in the more intimate and personal moments when they shed the minstrel's costume to narrate their own era, the contemporary.

“Dove Sei E Dove Vai” brings back the carefree university years, a love that is no more, as touching as “Giulia” and “Mia Madre E Mio Padre.”

One becomes fond of Massimiliano Cranchi’s hissing 's', to his accent from the lowlands that makes no effort to hide it, to a voice not trained, not that of a singer, like that of Claudio Lolli, yet alive and engaging, and thanks to the word, the weaknesses turn into a strength.

There is then a direct tribute to Victor Jara, Chilean singer-songwriter, also a victim of Pinochet's violence, covered with “Mariposa,” in a moving adaptation in Italian. In an era like this where even simple Italian pop with stories of eternal students stuck in their courses and two chords taken from the songbook of Rino Gaetano, two from that of Lucio Battisti, an album like this, with both more accessible songs and others entirely anti-commercial, is something rare and precious.