Hal

"This Anime salve is a record whose meaning derives from the etymology of the two words: it means 'lonely spirits.' It is a praise of solitude. I realize that not everyone can be alone. The elderly, the sick, politicians; a politician, on their own, is a fucked politician. However, I believe that for those who can afford it, it is better to live as much as possible in isolation, because one has a greater harmony with the surroundings, and the surroundings are not made only of our kind; they are made of trees, hills, seas..."

De André was a vampire because he drained the soul of his collaborators, and it seems that De Gregori suffered a bit from the collaboration with Faber for this album. Not by chance, De Gregori recorded "Canzone per l’estate" - changing the key of the chorus - in his latest album, saying "Now I feel it’s more mine." This record, despite the presence of "Amico Fragile" (by the way, "evaporato" not "evaporare in una nuvola rossa") and "Giugno 73," is the one I listen to the least; I find it a bit disorganized compared to other works by Faber, which have the flavor of a unifying thread. Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful work. As already mentioned elsewhere in these pages, "Amico fragile" and "Giugno 73" were written in Portobello di Gallura. The first one after a binge—of which Faber was fond until his father’s death—after a party in a seaside villa. Bye.

Some random curiosities... I seem to remember a black and white video of “Megu Megun” featuring Claudio Bisio. There is also a raw, unsettling, and cryptic video for “La domenica delle salme” from this album, just like the song itself, which leaves a strange sense of inner desolation. The phrase in Ottocento “di rubare in borsa, di stuprare in corsa” is by Francesco Baccini, a Genoese like Faber and his dear friend (they wrote “Genoa Blues” together).
I’ll stop otherwise I’ll never finish and I’ll go back on vacation. A few welcoming words for Grassopher, whose review I enjoyed, especially because the topic was complex. Just one note... in my opinion, it was a mistake to review all these Faber albums so closely together, mainly because it’s August and there are few of us. Anyway, the musical debate risks drying up in the face of an excess of reviews of the same artist in a short time. Sorry for the mess but I wrote in a hurry. Bye.

In the ethnic section, there is also a piece in Gallurese “Monti di mola.” The Monti di mola are an area of Sardinia better known as the Costa Smeralda, currently inhabited by strange and unsettling characters who wear bandanas and build faranoid amphitheaters on their properties... but let's not dwell on that, otherwise I'll get annoyed. Here, De Andrè doesn't sing about the colors of the sea and the pretentious, trendy atmospheres – from Smaila to Briatore – that have nothing to do with the island, but rather the legends and tales (Contos) of a land, managing to be perfectly in tune with its history and traditions. The use of words is also here spot on and well-measured, for instance, the use of onomatopoeic words (“sfraschende”) and the mention of the scents of Sardinia, among which myrtle stands out above all.

The weakness of the State is highlighted in Don Raffaè, which tells how a prison guard becomes a lackey for a mafia boss, hoping to obtain benefits that Don Raffaè can provide even from behind bars (“By the way, I have a brother who's been unemployed for fifteen years; he's taken fifty competitions, ninety applications, and two hundred appeals. You who give comfort and work, Eminence, I kiss you, I implore you, that one sleeps with his mother and with me, what cream from Arabia this café is”). In the ethnic aspects of the work (by the way, djd, De Andrè was fully aware of the scope and value of ethnic music, distinguishing it from folkloric music, the latter being, in his opinion, the music that the people make for the powerful, while the ethnic is what the people make for themselves. And then djd, De Andrè arrived at ethnic music well ahead of its time, trends, and even absurdities, when Real World - just to make an example - was merely an idea in the mind of God or... the devil. And in his being ahead of his time, I’m not only referring to “Creuza de ma,” but also to La Buona novella, see “Il ritorno di Giuseppe”).

Let's start with the album title, which originates from "the clouds" by Aristophanes and represents the powerful who overshadow the sun ("for a true one, a thousand are fake and they stand there between us and the sky"). It's just one of the thousand metaphors in this album, which is perhaps one of Faber's most complex in terms of content. Among all the images that De André constructs, I particularly love the one about capitalism: "Sing to me of this time the rancor and discontent of those who are downwind and do not want to smell the odor of this engine, which moves us forward ALMOST ALL OF US, males, females, and singers on a carpet of cash in the blue sky" (Ottocento). Then the most beautiful metaphors are found in "la domenica delle salme," a painful, hermetic song yet always relevant, introduced by a passage from “Le Stagioni” by Tchaikovsky. In this song, there's the fog of Milan ("from the bottle of orzata where Milan floats"), a metaphor for the strength of poetry ("a fighting robin"). Then there’s Sting ("you who have sung for the Amazon and for money"). There’s the fall of ideologies (“the amputation of Renato Curcio's leg, the carbonaro”). This song narrates the despair of those who suddenly realize they do not live in a democracy, even though they believed otherwise. And to think that Tangentopoli had yet to erupt...

Today I was in the mood for tranquility and I found it in this record. To me, it’s really nice, light. It's easy to listen to and it’s pleasant to hear that these guys have listened to and loved Simon & Garfunkel. If you choose someone to be inspired by, make sure it's someone important. That's roughly what they said in an interview in Repubblica today. In the same interview, they mentioned that in their free time they read many European newspapers to clarify their thoughts on how the world is doing, but they still don't understand how Italians could vote for Berlusconi... quite charming, really. It's likely that their music might tire me out after a while, but for now, it’s just fine.

This really is a great album! I've only listened to it a couple of times, but it's really grabbed me :) thx for the recommendation, bye

Being in the "overheating-psychologically-draini ng" condition, I tried to listen to it, but I have a feeling that the best solution is to stop by the greengrocer to buy three watermelons, three melons, a few peaches and apricots, and go for the first option :)

And now what do I do... to buy or not to buy, that is the dilemma. Is it more noble to burn in doubt? mmmmmmmm "Solve it!" I've already solved it. "Will you burn?" I will burn.