So, Levante. What do I think of Levante? It's difficult for me to express a precise opinion about the Sicilian-Turin singer. I love and hate and love and hate her.
To me, Levante has great potential, especially in her lyric writing: she knows how to combine a keen eye on emotions and the surrounding reality with an innate ability in choosing the right words. It's a pity that, especially musically, all her works have always seemed incomplete to me, as if something is always missing.
But let's move on to "Magmamemoria." The singer describes the neologism that gives the project its title as follows:
"Magmamemoria is the name I knew how to give to my nostalgia. It is the memory that burns inside. So much of what has passed becomes Magmamemoria which, although a result of the past, develops in the present and finds fulfillment in the future."
The entire album revolves around this very powerful concept in my opinion. And the first track, which gives the album its title, sets things clear from a musical point of view: guitar, voice, and strings. "Magmamemoria" is a track with an ancestral flavor, evoking the sound of the sea, the warmth of fire, and all those things that essentially bring us back to our human dimension.
Magma
It's the music. An enveloping flow of mostly analog sounds, with splashes of electronic sounds that make it very contemporary. The atmospheres are simple, yet majestic (in this sense, the strings play a fundamental role - listen to the coda of "Antonio" to understand). It ranges from the pop-rock of "Reali" to the light electronic sound of "Andrà tutto bene" through a sea of magma-ballads such as "Questa è l'ultima volta che ti dimentico," "Se non ti vedo non esisti," and "Il giorno prima dell'inizio non ha mai avuto fine," pearls set between past and future, between nostalgia and the desire to live in the present. "Magmamemoria" and "Lo stretto necessario" (a duet with Carmen Consoli, necessary in this track like underwear on a raunchy date) are the tracks that form the nerve center of the entire work and contribute to making the entire atmosphere blurred, between memory and reality. The Sicilian singer's voice scratches, reminiscent in my opinion (for the intensity, not the range) a bit of that of Mia Martini and cradles us through these 14 compositions steeped in nostalgia, memories, life snippets, and a desire to seize the future with bare hands.
Memoria
The memory is the lyrics, little gems of pure nostalgia. A crystal-clear example of everything that is magmamemoria are the final lines of the eponymous song: "Ho più ricordi che giorni di vita//Sei tu il passato che non è mai andato via e mai mi lascerà." "Lo stretto necessario" speaks in images and brings back childhood and the essentiality of the few things that return us to our human dimension (and which have made us who we are, deep down): "Le facciate mai finite// Le madonne chiuse in una teca// Le tende spiegate//Casa mia sembra una nave//Lo stretto necessario." Most of the songs talk about life stories where past, present, and future meet, those moments when everything changes, when the present becomes the past and the past a memory that will influence the future ("A non rivederci Roma// Rinunciamoci// Via il tuo nome, via ogni traccia di te // Non mi ritroverai più qui // Non c'è più niente ormai qui // Sei di ieri// E ieri eri di sempre" from "Rancore"). These are the breaking moments when everything changes that make us realize that time passes quickly and you can't go back.
"Magmamemoria" is a work that speaks of a woman in the middle of her life's journey, who, perhaps for the first time, feels the weight of the past on her and realizes how it is always there to influence the present and future. And with this album, the singer-songwriter takes everything that is her artistic past and elevates it, reaching a level of composition and interpretation that few in Italy can currently claim to have.
Tracklist
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