Diaframma
Il dono

"Il dono," the new album by Diaframma, is a self-celebratory tribute album: Federico Fiumani (leader of Diaframma and essentially the act itself), commissioned a handful of musicians he is acquainted with to record a cover of his group.
The following notes are intended for those who have already listened to the album and are familiar with Diaframma. In any case, I would advise those wishing to approach Diaframma not to start with this album.
The words that follow are not a review; they simply aim to highlight four different ways of approaching "Il dono."

 1. You can listen to it as if it were a Diaframma album. From this perspective, Federico Fiumani's electrifying writing ability is confirmed. He narrates life directly, without shortcuts, without fear of falling into banality; in fact, it is through banal stories that Fiumani manages to open sudden and unexpected windows of truth. Many aesthetes of our times, masters of technique, dream and will dream between a synecdoche and an alliteration of conceiving even just one of these moments. However, it must be remembered that, listened to this way, the album doesn't add anything to what has already been heard in the previous works of our artist;

2. At the same time, "Il Dono" works as a "remix" compilation: the covers that most disrupt the pieces (such as those by N.A.N.O., O.B.O., or Samuel Katarro...) indeed reveal new colors in tracks we were used to hearing in quite a different way. For example, Katarro brings "Diamante grezzo" into a phantom era where Battisti, the free air of the '70s, blues, and the 2000s meet, revealing a link between Diaframma and a certain (?) Italian songwriting tradition. Moreover, if these new colors initially unsettle, gradually they come to sound as authentic and inherent to the original piece. The result is that by re-listening to Fiumani's original versions, in light of these reinterpretations, even those gain new light.. thanks to the uncertain voice of Elena Stancarelli I have literally rediscovered Amsterdam;

3. You can also listen to the album as a compilation aimed at promoting more or less emerging groups, all (or almost all) with something to say. From this perspective too, the album seems to work: I can't wait to listen to something by Il Genio as well as Nano or The Niro. For other groups and singers (Grazian, Le luci della centrale elettrica, Marlene Kuntz..), at least for me, the listening translated into a pleasant reaffirmation.

4. Finally, there is another way to listen to this "Il dono," namely by considering it as a (self)celebratory and emotional journey of Diaframma. The various tracks thus work as skewed snapshots of the Florentine group's past. Halfway through the album, Le luci della centrale elettrica, with its medley, manages to encapsulate Fiumani's entire career in a punk scream made of strangled voice and jagged guitars. But from this perspective, it is the final ghost track - which hosts the ironic and brotherly homage of Bobo Rondelli - that reserves the greatest emotions. He, imitating Marcello Mastroianni, engages in a sly version for voice and guitar of "Grazie davvero." Every time I listen to this magnificent and moving closure, I imagine entering a room and finding these two "old" masters of human imperfection, laughing in the face of us young people and their past. At the same time, however, the two feel a breath of melancholy for what has been, as well as a loving envy (like that of a father towards his son) for these new groups trying to write the music of the future, celebrating here the "past" one of Diaframma.
The splendid finale of La dolce vita comes to mind: Marcello Mastroianni is on a beach, near the mouth of a small river. On the other side of the river mouth, a young girl tries in vain to talk to him, while the wind makes all communication impossible.
Yet she tries..

TRACKLIST:

Alessandro Grazian - "Fiore non sentirti sola"
Altro - "Altrove"
Dente - "Verde"
Elena Stancanelli featuring The niro e Fiumani - "Amsterdam"
Il Genio - "Il telefono"
Le luci della centrale elettrica - "Un giorno balordo" (in realtà è un medley)
Magnolia - "L'amore segue i passi di un cane vagabondo"
Marlene kuntz - "Siberia"
N. a. n. o. - "Una stagione nel cuore"
OBO (Oshinoko Bunker Orchestra) - "Pasqua"
Roberta carrieri - "Labbra blu"
Samuel katarro - "Diamante grezzo"
Santo Niente - "Lode ai tuoi amici"
Superpartner - "L'odore delle rose"
The niro - "Io amo lei"
The zen circus & Brian Ritchie featuring Fiumani - "I giorni dell'ira" (live)
Tre allegri ragazzi morti - "Gennaio"
+ ghost track (Bobo Rondelli nella parte di Marcello Mastroianni, grazie davvero + inedito, presumibilmente di Rondelli)

PS: demerit note to Tre allegri ragazzi morti: their version of January is shit, sorry.
PS2: I wrote these notes rather spontaneously, but today I'm okay with that.