Grazia Di Michele
Respiro

The single from this album sparked some controversy upon its release: "Habi", indeed, this is the title, is sadly known for blowing herself up in a shopping mall in Galilee, ending her existence along with that of many innocents. The song's lyrics are written in the first person and reflect the mindset of a young Kamikaze, whose mission on Earth is to sacrifice her own life and that of others, blindly convinced that she "can have another world in exchange for her dreams and beauty." Habi has "no questions nor fears in this certainty" and will proceed "confidently towards her inevitable destiny" of death "for faith, for anger, for faith in anger."

Grazia Di Michele's song is raw, both in words and in music, a rare energetic rock in her repertoire, it leaves no room for hope and tells a geographically very close reality to us, before which we cannot turn a blind eye. The suicide-homicide choice can only be understood rationally, and this is what the singer-songwriter attempts to do, given our inability for even the most infinitesimal empathy and the strong emotional impact such an event can generate in us. Surely a courageous song that acts as a forerunner to her latest album, "Respiro", focused especially on emotions and the desire to narrate fragments of life.

The second track, "Cammineremo sulle acque", introduces the theme of death (and one might think that this theme will pervade the entire album), but it does so in a veiled manner and through rarefied, almost celestial music: "if a blade of grass is tied to the earth and will not break/a small flame gives life to the darkness/I will not let you go away", "if there is poetry in the universe, it will return/on your parched lips, it will be drawn/within a smile, and we will breathe again/undoing these tight bonds over the heart/and hand in hand, we will discover together/that we will no longer need words/we will walk on water".

The third track is a bossanova, "Le donne d'autunno", penned by Bungaro: it seems the natural evolution of "Le ragazze di Gauguin", a portrait, an instant photograph looking into the hidden folds: "untouched landscapes/in the eyes of a man/to let them pass as they are/within love/you seek them in summer/you lose them in winter..."

"L'ultimo no", the next track, describes resignation, the passage from a firm and secure position to another that "will make me fly and will make me fall/and curse the name I don't know/and will make me sing and will make me silent/with the last no in my throat". Then we encounter "La storia di Irene", somewhat Grazia's autobiography, enriched by Irish-flavored music, the amazement at the discovery of music, and the struggles over the years: "It's the story of Irene/a good girl/and of no one who stopped her/maybe it was a moment the blue of the firmament/and a voice that enchanted her/ Don't go dibidibidandan/too great is my sorrow/don't go dibidibidandan/you're playing with my heart".

After such a playful track comes "Emanuele", the tender portrait of her son in the snippets of everyday life; then "Come mi penserai", a piece full of melancholy and nostalgia: "Of all these fears/of all these resolutions/of these dawns in your name/of these wounded hugs/of these stupid torments/of all these naked worries/of these evanescent notes/How you think of me/How you will think of me". Following is the album's duet: "Volubile", "love that migrates whenever it wants/from one heart to another without pity", sung with Pietra Montecorvino, with her rough and harsh Neapolitan voice. "Mutable like this sky/stubborn amid every breath/this always on your skin and mine", "And fly fly fly and the paloma flies/on a heart that consumes itself at night/and fly fly fly on a blank page/kissing rhymes and rhymes and never tires". The chorus evidently refers to traditional sound, Italian popular tradition, especially from Abruzzo, and the wordplay between "vola vola vola" and "volubile", a word that actually never appears in the text.

Particularly intense is the song "Un po' di verità", which unfolds over the contrast between passionate stories and those that couldn't express even "a bit of truth", but only "love that no longer believes in miracles/that looks ahead with philosophy/and the sad wisdom of those who no longer have/heart and soul/love with its useless rituals/and its empty shells of words".
"La coscienza" is the album's ironic track, in which Grazia is intent on searching for the causes of a romantic failure, with regrets always emerging after the "incident". The verses are sung in a staccato fashion almost in a cabaret style: "I should have understood it from your conditionals/from the music you listened to/from the things you laughed about/from the party you voted for/from my sudden attacks of narcolepsy".

The last gem is "Amore di passaggio", a poetic moment dedicated to those stories that are born and die in one night, without a future but within which a pure sentiment is concentrated. The theme is the same as the misunderstood song "Gli amori diversi" which was at the center of a discussion years ago for its alleged homosexual theme brought to Sanremo, and among both songs, it is hard to choose which is more beautiful and moving. "What am I doing here in the midst of your life/among your things, among your fingers/what am I doing here without a bit of dismay/my heart beating at your same time." "Passing love/love like a ray/love like a ray within me/Border love/an evening love/love without a name and without a reason"

To come to the end, why this album title? "Il respiro" is a natural act, bringing air inside is like capturing the silences of the soul, and thus the songs are born. This is more or less the explanation reported on the album's booklet. To "tickle the strings of the soul", "Respiro" contains the most suitable music for this purpose.