Niccolò Fabi
Libertà negli occhi

"I am in the pause between understanding and changing"

After 6 years since Tradizione e tradimento, Niccolò Fabi is back. And so am I, to talk about it. Let's not kid ourselves, in 6 years, Niccolò Fabi has changed even more. I have changed. The world has changed. In 6 years, this young guy who wrote about Italian albums on a website, as a pure hobby, became a man, a man who has lived in a world that in 6 years has seen it all: a pandemic, a possible war, idiots in power becoming increasingly more foolish. In 6 years, many have left us (especially Enrico "Erriquez" Greppi and Francesco Nuti, two artists without whom I'd be utterly lost at this point, and who even in death had bad luck, simply because neither got to see a world without Berlusconi), and others have arrived. And what has Niccolò Fabi taken from these 6 years? Simply that, at this point, he doesn't have much more to say. At 57, one's life experiences become so vast that channeling it all into art is no longer enough. But despite this, he still managed to release an album in the doomed 2025. How did it happen? Essentially: by letting go. Letting go of society, expectations, duty as an artist, dedicating 10 days of isolation with other artists and musicians to conceive a work removed from reality. Returning to the origin of humanity. Music. Sky. 10 words. 4 minutes. The dawn.

"But is there a future"

The journey has already begun, the flow runs like a raging river. Love happens and decapitates, you lose your head and are at the mercy of a creative and destructive relationship. Sex as ibuprofen for our insecurities, a love complicit in a past that drags us and blocks us. But for Fabi, it all seems to be in the past: the relationship between music and mind in the first half, where the music was light and the lyrics seemingly closed and pessimistic, in the second half reality returns, and it's all over, the music gains rhythm, the grit of reality comes out, the new pushes forward. There's no need to think about the past, because the future is in front of us, it exists, and we fight to have it.

"Or maybe it’s too late..."

Man can still be saved, but the world? Hypotheses of salvation, theories of creation. Nothing matters, what matters is the strength that the world releases in its essence. In the running water, the rising sun, the rising smoke, and the falling apple. This is what needs saving. If we focus on small things, we can continue to live. The alternative is an asteroid, and we start from scratch.

"One cannot heal from oneself"

Men, the world, and finally... Man. Our greatest enemy, the cause of all our ills. Something inside us that kills us. But is it really an enemy? Are we fighting against something tangible or against the mirror? We might even try to fight it, but it's useless: we can't win against ourselves. It is a fold of the same substance, and it cannot be undone. And when you realize it, here comes a guitar in the mild electronic groove: it's time to take a step back and reconnect with one's essence. Feel the warmth. Perceive the calm. And go beyond.

"Things change, homes change, the only choice I have is to live them"

The battles are over. The confrontations remain. Another love, a new love. A young girl and a middle-aged man. Two different people: she still in her prime, full of vitality and essentially free and without the heaviness that her partner has; she is sunny, energetic, he loves solitude, is nostalgic, pays attention to his health, yet he can grow flowers. In the end, he is serene, despite all his quirks, because he knows well that everything is evolving, and the only thing a person can do is live the moment. But between understanding and changing lies everything else, silently building.

"An emotion that escapes memory"

Art is not a pose, but a white lady. For an artist, art is a lifelong companion and eternal rival. You might even try to capture it and fill that sheet, but you know well that it will escape just when you have it in hand. No one will ever know you better than her, she is your only true love and nothing else can ever surpass it. It’s an innocence that survives the blows of time.

"Between the smell of mold and the splendor of history"

Another confrontation. The modernists and the sad nostalgics. The novelty that risks sweeping away what was there before and the fire that risks oppressing all the air there is and making the world stagnant. A life spent between two extremes, between tradition and betrayal. Being the keeper of the fire and following the wind of progress. Generations change, new ideas are added, new art, new music: and this novelty must be lived and integrated with the knowledge already acquired. Finding the balance between positive and negative magnetic poles. Separate and unite. Create and destroy. Preserve and abandon.

"Life goes where your gaze goes"

There is a time that will never return. We go back to 6 years ago. For me. When I was still a kid when I was still in high school when I wrote the first reviews on Debaser. And I, like Fabi, look at the past from a window, and I see myself again. Freedom, moments of joy that are fuel for me at this moment. Freedom, looking with happiness at what we were, when the future was still an undecided thing but we didn’t care: there is still a whole life ahead, and life follows your gaze. Your ideas and your ambitions will lead you on a path, because when you have everything to gain and everything to lose, when everything is still an open game, you follow a fixed point. You overcome the curves and obstacles and have an idea of where to go. Freedom on the horizon, freedom in the future. Freedom in the eyes.

"I can only obey"

One last look at the past. The sweet new style, the seed of all that is Fabi’s career. The university, the connection with a twenty-year-old not yet a songwriter. A return to the ABC of human existence: love. Love will always return to gentle souls and will become the engine of one’s existence. Experiencing love becomes something otherworldly: it becomes a miraculous apparition. And one cannot but obey and fulfill its will.

And so the journey ends. With the desire only to start it again and discover unexplored corners, nuances lost on the first listen. And with a sense of enrichment that few things can give you as much as an album by Niccolò Fabi. Thank you for everything.