Milva
Milva E Dintorni

"And suddenly February came
  it was cold in that house
  you kept telling me: you know that in Winter you live well 
  like in Spring yes yes just like that"

  Alexander Platz

An entire work written by Franco Battiato and Giusto Pio for the voice of Milva, or rather a series of songs composed by the two that revolve around the magnetic and strong personality of the panther of Goro. "Milva E Dintorni" came to light in 1982 and is a record that, in my opinion, cannot be missing in a well-rounded and varied record collection. You find yourself holding a work that, behind a great production effort, features a very inspired Franco Battiato and Pio; the atmospheres are of a very rarefied and subtle world, where marginal stories emerge, told with great musical brio. Side A opens with "Alexander Platz", one of the most famous and well-known songs in Europe. An initially joyful music suddenly halts to give way to the suspension leading to the start of the sung part; this is a very intense track with a central reprise that showcases Milva's absolute dramatic interpretative moment, "Alexander Platz auf Wiedersehen/ c'era la neve/ faccio quattro passi a piedi/ fino alla frontiera con te". Battiato of the period is also a musician who loves to play with sounds, hence the second track, "L'Aeroplano", is a small masterpiece of meaning and catchiness with its refrain "Austrian Canadian Bergamasc Air Lines/ Iran air TWA Pan America" sung by the choir of madrigalists from Milan, often called upon by the Sicilian artist in the early '80s.
With "Poggibonsi" Milva sings another very catchy song that refers to a certain war and revolutionary strand of Battiato in "L'arca Di Noé", with a generally very beautiful arrangement featuring subtle electric guitar cuts to reprise the very successful main theme. From easier tracks, it shifts to more complex interpretations, "Non Sono Butterfly", the splendid "A Cosa Pensi", the delicate refrain of "Le Donne Di Un Tempo" up to a concrete tribute by the authors to Milva, "La Passione Secondo Milva".

"Milva E Dintorni" in the end is not a Battiato record sung by Milva; it is a work tailored for the singer and her voice which has a very particular range that frequently touches the lower notes; there are indeed some similarities with Battiato from that period, but the tones in this LP lean towards a catchy yet higher-level form of song compared to "La Voce Del Padrone" for an immediate comparison.

A work that at the time sold very well in Europe also came out in German and French. A very beautiful and unique album for a great voice.