Pacifico
Musica leggera

Ah, this light music

Like the air when spring returns

If someone touches it

It goes from mouth to mouth

The silly song

from „Musica leggera“

Naples, February 2003. I step out, head to Feltrinelli to buy this CD, a bit unsure. At the time, I only listened to rock, female singer-songwriters (Amos, Mitchell, Fiona Apple, to be clear) and other things that, while I genuinely liked them (so much so that I still listen to them today, and they are my cornerstones), they also let me bask in my feeling of being alternative and gave me the impression of overcoming insecurity and making a statement. But that evening, I felt the urge to buy this album, an artist recently appeared at Sanremo, despite a friend of mine from back then (I hope she’s still alive) kept telling me, “But do you really like this music? It’s not your kind of music!” At that time, I probably didn’t even know who I was, and it took a thousand vicissitudes to open my eyes to a lot of things. And perhaps even this album, so delicate, with the piano almost always at the forefront and a fragile voice (which can become tiresome in the long run, but it fits perfectly in this work like cheese on macaroni) was a part of my journey. Refined pieces, many ballads like “La Fuga,” “Sangue fiume caldo,” “Solo un sogno,” “Liberi gli occhi” (the best track) interspersed with more pop songs like “A poche ore,” “Come un fuoco lento” or “Musica leggera.” In the end, it’s indeed light music, the right counterbalance to the heaviness of existence. The most successful pieces are blankets that wrap around you and tell you, “everything’s okay, breathe.” Life goes on anyways, sometimes in unexpected ways. If in 2003, in Naples, someone had told me everything that would happen, that I would change everything, even leave Italy, I wouldn’t have believed it. Just as incredulous was that friend of mine when I told her that I liked Pacifico after all (I had to make a statement somehow).

Berlin, April 2020. A lot of water has flowed under the bridges. As I decide what to listen to, scanning with interest the stack of my CDs, sacredly ordered alphabetically, I spot this album and immediately return to that winter evening, to when I went out to buy this album, to my concerns at the time (exams, attempts at courtship, the wait for true love, roommates, and other trivialities). I put the album back in the player, and the music starts. Wow, I absolutely didn’t remember how beautiful some tracks were. On “Liberi gli Occhi,” an ode to tears, I feel the instinct to shed a tear, which my body eventually doesn’t do. And I didn’t even realize how quickly time has passed. There, a bit of light music was all it took to traverse miles and years. And I must say, this album has aged well, even excellently. I’ll spin it again in my player when I feel the desire for a new space-time journey. Because that’s usually what light music like this is for.

“Movement in the legs, the firmament on the head

The sea and the wind stir behind me“

From “La fuga“

Best Tracks: “Liberi gli occhi“, “Per non rimanere”, “La fuga”, “Ricomincio ogni giorno”