Daniele Bicego
The Year of the Snake

In Italy, unknown fermentations are brewing. Leaving the electric undergrowth to its worthy secret, moving away from any kind of musical experimentation and temporarily abandoning the excellent songwriters like Bob Corn, we can see, with the aid of a glassy and gigantic eyeglass, that the music of traditions is still being carried forward by young and talented musicians, hidden and ignored, yet courageous and ingenious.

Daniele Bicego was, as chronicles tell, a promising horn player: graduated from the conservatory in 1995, a member of the RAI Symphony Orchestra, of the Teatro alla Scala, and so forth, in a paroxysmal crescendo of big names. However, later, the unfortunate hand of a deceitful friend handed him a record by the Bothy Band, the abnormal Irish supergroup, the leviathan destined to overturn his conception of music. I like to believe that the metamorphosis was complete and terrifying. One day the gentle mother happily watches the child divide his time between studies and the noble music of classicism. Night passes, and hell arrives. The nurse has to admit that Paddy Keenan has taken possession of the son, with all the abominations of the case: excessive drinking, concerts in the remotest places, clashes with the antiliquor law that governs our roads. But, above all, the mother must learn to live with the sound of the Uilleann Pipes, Whistles, and the Irish flute.

The Uilleann Pipes are, in the wrong hands, a true weapon of death and devastation. I have heard the tales of numerous villagers whose houses have been razed to the ground, whose herds have undergone emasculation or sudden masculinity, whose wives have generated six-headed and twenty-six-legged creatures, at the sound of such an instrument. I have seen hordes of bloggers emerge like earthworms from their putrid online burrows, gather around improvised fires, and lament pain at their eardrums. I have seen...

Daniele Bicego masters perfectly the instrument symbol of the Irish tradition, probably one of the most complex in existence: the air necessary for sound production is emitted from a bag filled with the aid of a bellows. The notes are modulated thanks to a wooden chanter, to which several drones are added, assigned to accompaniment, and some regulators, needed to complete the melody with a series of chords.

The nine tracks of "The Year Of The Snake" leave no room for experimentation: the first set, "Stura - the Girl of the House - Miss Monaghan - the Ravelled Hank of Yarn," is one of those that at concerts makes you swear like crazy to get rid of the brutal excitement and lousy food intoxication (German Beer, sardines, and bread, as the Aga Khan teaches in his manual "Eat with less than one petrodollar"). After the instrumental run for Uilleann Pipes, guitar, and cittern in "O'Rourke's - the Glass of Beer - Farewell to Erin", the Irish flute appears, discreetly accompanied by Filippo Gambetta's accordion and Vincenzo Zitello's harp, introducing "Limerick Lamentation", a fitting prelude to the song "Hard Times" by Stephen C. Foster, written in 1854. Here emerges Bicego's entire instinctive art as an arranger: "Hard Times" could have degenerated into a sickly and melodramatic version like De Dannan's, but it is instead interpreted with a sober and austere voice and adorned with a discreet flute that doesn't hide its charm under unnecessary superstructures. "The Year Of The Snake" flows like a boiling river or one of those fetid streams that form like waterfalls when you spill the Russian aperitif (Vodka, strawberry juice, and ginger - though I'm not sure about the latter) on the barrel that serves as a table at the Merlo. The serene set "Con Cassidy's Highland - Dark Haired Lass - Casey's Pig" for Whistle, cittern, and guitar is followed by a version of "Mr. Bojangles" woven by a light Hammond and Daniele's inventive flute (the version sung by Homer Simpson as the hobo remains unmatched and perhaps unsurpassable).

One of the best Irish music albums ever released in Italy. Almost raw in recording (and that's a merit), sincere, passionate, and played by a handful of virtuosos: Daniele Bicego (Uilleann Pipes, Whistles. By the way, Daniele is also a luthier, specializing in the building of Uilleann Pipes and other bagpipes, as well as a member of numerous Italian and Irish folk music groups), Ivan Berto (Bodhràn), Claudio de Angeli (Guitar, Vocals), Stefano Denti - his version on this album of "Out On the Ocean" is stunning (Cittern, vocals), Luigi Fazzo (Guitar), Filippo Gambetta (accordion), Paolo Malusardi (Hammond organ), Tommaso Tornielli (flute), Vincenzo Zitello (Harp).

"The Year of the Snake" conceals a snakelike fiery universe, rebellious and joyful, and for my part, a damn to this black world of shit.