Marco Parente
L'Attuale Giungla

Another missed opportunity by the triumphant mediocrity of pop "music", certainly not the most favorable, to finally overcome the resistance of quality "Songs."

(An anonymous representative from Marco Parente's press office)

I want to ask you an "off-topic" question.

Who is your favorite writer (or writer) today?

Mine, until a few years ago, was Alessandro Baricco.

I liked him because his writing was poetic, full of imagery, evocative, existentialist. And at the same time, all things considered, "accessible."

He made you think and reflect without making you "tired" too much.

Now I struggle (and am no longer enthusiastic) to read Baricco, not because he has become more "complex" but because today I can recognize that many of his works are nothing more than quotes, albeit gorgeous, from true Masters of Italian and world literature (see Céline, Dylan Thomas, but also Conrad, Melville, and others).

And I prefer to go to the sources.

These days, however, I am rediscovering Baricco, and I will explain shortly why by talking (and returning "to the topic") about this live album by Marco (my) Parente (as joked by some of my friends a few days ago, who completely ignored his existence).

Let's start with the "dominant" form of the album, well exemplified by the unreleased track "Inseguimento Geniale":

"Quivering voice jams in a triumph of brass with a taste of jazz orchestra, with a splash of 20th-century rock modernism".

That's all, and sorry if it's not much.

As for the content (or detailed form, if you like), I'll speak of just two tracks.

• The first to be listened to from land
• The second on the open sea

In "Il Mare si è Fermato" (a most evocative title) with a "Tenchiano" flavor, almost a younger brother of "Un giorno dopo l'altro," you stand ashore, watching this unique phenomenon, the sea momentarily still, definitive, as the sea usually never is, as life usually never is, whether fortunately or unfortunately depends on taste.

The key turns in the water, the ships return to port

In "Adam ha Salvato Molly", the setting changes completely, you are in the open sea, free, undefined, unpredictable, as life usually is, whether unfortunately or fortunately depends on taste.

A bit in the company of the cannibal from "Moby Dick" who teaches De André "his distance from the stars," or of the abominable and crazy Adams (is the name similarity coincidental?) from "Oceano Mare" (there's Baricco again) who "saves" small Dira from her fear of life for good.

"What's the problem? Don't you know how to go on water?"

Anyone who has seen (I hope many of you) the cinematic adaptation of "Novecento" (here's Baricco again) made by Tornatore in "The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean" will understand me when I say that the final part of this track could have replaced, given its great "dynamism" and how much the 1950s American Jazz/Swing style fits the film, Morricone's soundtrack in the scene of the four-hand piano concert amidst the ocean waves.

At this point, I'll stop rather abruptly, because I don't know what else to add besides the fact that the live "versions" of "La mia Rivoluzione" (he truly is the words he sings, I noticed at one of his latest concerts) and "Farfalla Pensante" are truly successful.

Anyone who does not consider Parente just a whine, who does not consider him "twisted like a Corinthian capital," or "a man of shit" (someone judges him this way on this site, and maybe they have their reasons), can take my suggestion into account.

The beauty of music is only in the ears of those who listen to it.

Everything else is meaningless words, or, as gastone.Joyce.lomazzi would say:

"La svelbia si tesfra nel torgolo, forse"...