Marco Parente
TrasParente

Despite the fact that the Italian scene has little to offer in its visible panorama, it is also true that, with a bit of will, it is possible to bring out of their semi-anonymity artists who truly deserve respect as creators of something spontaneous and particular.
Among these, I personally place Marco Parente and his TrasParente, the third album of an essential discography full of passion, intimacies, pure sentiments, and complete intellectual honesty. The Neapolitan origins of Parente seem almost to be eclipsed in front of and within his music, allowing melodies to be approached by much more "northern" influences, which extend into fields of guitars, and sweet and minimal piano parts designed among the clouds of a landscape that tends to be simil-British.

 Marco Parente stands before us, with his arms outstretched and hands open. He wants transparency and gives us his music with his direct and maddeningly profound thoughts. In their humble simplicity. He seems to stigmatize and praise his world, with an optimistic charge that plunges into atmospheres full of melancholy and despair. He seeks answers within himself and within his life, but by exploring the consciences of everyone and everything that surrounds him. And here he is suddenly opening his mind (“no, the world does not change if my world does not change”) or addressing objects, or object-men, as if to warn them of the evil shadow that follows and haunts them (“weapons of the world, stop and think. If beauty is a knife, it carves the violence that you hold in your hand”). Listening to pieces like Farfalla Pensante, at high volume, in your room is like embarking on a journey into Parente's thoughts. His maddeningly mature music spans from essential minimalism to complex orchestrations, from electronic imperfections to hypnotic wurlitzer piano carpets. The voice, sometimes whispered and sometimes supported and set, accompanies the lyrics that perfectly wrap and adorn the melodies. But Marco Parente is also something else: he is an ambitious project and, in my opinion, still very confused. That of the “open songs,” that is, as he explains on his website: “To make the sources of a track free, the pieces present or not used in the final mixing of a piece. Free to be manipulated and recontextualized.” Really very interesting, although everything still seems to be shrouded in a mysterious fog that certainly does not help to fully embrace the initiative.

In conclusion, going back to TrasParente, it is recommended for those who want to discover something truly valuable in the Italian scene. The entire album is wrapped in an irresistible charm, that gently brings us back to our land from England. A small gem that an Italian should proudly keep in their collection. It is not a dream, it is the Revolution of Marco Parente: the one with strokes of grace.