Dellera
Colonna Sonora Originale

THE REVIEW

“Colonna Sonora Originale” is the debut album of Roberto Dell’Era, known as Dellera, an Italian musician with a musical past that saw him as a member of various English groups but best known to most as the bassist of the current line-up of the Afterhours.

The artistic ties with the latter end here because the 11 tracks that make up the album are definitely far from the musical vision of Agnelli's band. The title “Colonna Sonora Originale” refers both to the fact that the album presents itself as a collection of songs written by Dell’Era over a long period and to the cinematic references of some tracks (“Il Motivo di Sima,” “Il tema di Tim e Tom”).

Produced by Dell’Era himself and Tommaso Colliva with a deliberately vintage attitude (comparable to the works of Danger Mouse) and played with the help of Italian and English musicians, the album consists of tracks closer to the Italian singer-songwriter tradition and others more akin to English songwriting, yet never in any way disjointed. It ranges from the beat of “Il Ragazzo in Motocicletta” to the Italian sixties in “Ami lei o ami me” and “Giorno dopo giorno,” from “Io e te” which revives John Fahey's fingerpicking in a modern key to “Oceano Pacifico Blu” halfway between Nick Drake's folk and the tragic death of Dennis Wilson, finally with glimpses of psychedelia in “Fine Bobina (La Memoria).”

All accompanied by lyrics always musically functional and at the same time evocative, but never an expression of poetic pretentiousness.