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Rating:
7 years of experimenting, of finding new sonic outlets for music that is absolutely unconventional, the consequent disintegration of the song form with quick, cultured, complex, and predominantly electronic visions, then the definitive breakthrough.
The great Sicilian artist won the "L'Egitto prima delle sabbie" award named after Karl Heinz Stockhausen, one of his main inspirations, and decided that the best way to reach complete compositional maturity was to inaugurate a refined, essential, and lyrical style which, on one hand, continued to have nuanced references to his avant-garde season, while on the other hand involved a continuous search for a Pop taste that is not akin and universal. A process that finds its perfect snapshot in "L'Era del Cinghiale Bianco," which, aided by violinist and collaborator Giusto Pio, shapes 7 movements of surprising intensity for a mystical journey into the absolute knowledge of the White Boar.
The title-track paints exotic scenarios evoking Tunisian hotels, Turkish cigarettes, evening air fragrances, and students from Damascus, with the classical whirl of violins, shadows of keyboards, a sharp guitar, and Franco’s almost modest singing. "Magic Shop" denounces the most absurd consumerism with cynical and serenely wicked tones while "the Scythe no longer makes you think of wheat, the Buddhas go on the bedside tables, the Pyramids of Egypt are cute, Supermarkets with sacred sections selling Dior incense, pages open on the Pope's hair...". "Strade dell'Est" is a powerful Rock supported by the magnificent guitar of Alberto Radius and the unstoppable percussion of Tullio De Piscopo, while Battiato still conveys images of the East.
After the interesting instrumental "Luna Indiana", one of the artist's absolute jewels awaits us: "Il Re del Mondo" enchants with its magical, nocturnal, and evocative progress like a fairy tale, the initial bass riff immediately prints itself in memory and the long instrumental waits show a deep spiritual ecstasy, before "the more everything becomes useless, the more you believe it's true, and on doomsday, English won't be of any use to you". "Pasqua Etiope" is a very sweet symphony for a chamber ensemble, with Battiato declaiming a prayer in Latin and Greek in his usual meditative register. And finally, the poignant reminiscence of youth emerging in "Stranizza d'Amuri", rigorously sung in Sicilian dialect alongside a xylophone that breaks the initial tension, delightful choruses, and violins of dreamy composure.
The masterpiece of an avant-garde artist who, just two years later, would thrill critics and audiences with the legendary "La Voce del Padrone."
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