Paolo Benvegnù
Le Labbra

“You are not to be saved  
you are to be lifted  
to be left breathless  
to be speechless 

You are vengeance
the power of the sword
redemption
you are humility and silence”

 It is a heart, as red as red can be, that is glimpsed already from the cover of this new work by Paolo Benvegnù, perhaps among the best musicians of the current Italian scene. This red is also suggested by the title of the CD, “Le Labbra”.

 A small great man, who mixes soft atmospheres with hard atmospheres, rock in the true sense of the word, as if we were still hearing a hypothetical new album by the now defunct Scisma. His is a kind of roar, capable of biting but at the same time not hurting, thanks to the support of well-played melodies, considering the band Paolo has acquired.

 If “Piccoli Fragilissimi Film” was a nice electric shock that awakened the slumber of our man, too shaken after the breakup of the main band, this “Le Labbra” doubles everything, staying on very high levels, like a new road to take, which had already been anticipated by the good EP “14-19” released a year ago. For me, it's a kind of sequel to that mini concept-album which was indeed that EP (concept-album… a technique that nowadays in Italy is tackled by few compared to the past, see “Da Questa Parte Del Mare” by Gianmaria Testa).

 It's not easy to describe the sensations that arise from listening to this. It can be described as a kind of journey into the soul of various people, without exaggeration. Paolo himself chronicles a hypothetical couple who love each other in a violent and sweet way at the same time, perhaps masochistic (“La Schiena” and “Amore Santo e Blasfemo”, then continuing with “La Peste” and “Il Nemico”), but unexpectedly decide to separate (“La Distanza”). And it is precisely in knowing how to unite heavy and light sounds at the same time that gives us the idea, makes us spectators of everything, and it feels like watching a movie.

 “We are distant
Distant
So what you have left is the distance”

 That distance, however, has strange effects. “Interno Notte” well conveys the idea of how the now seduced but not entirely abandoned person according to Benvegnù feels, who slightly apostrophizes her with a “Everything is part of you”. But the woman in question feels, over time, something that depresses her, saddens her, shakes her, just that “Ultimo Assalto” that follows.

 At a certain point… silence. We are faced with a very sensitive character endowed with a vivid imagination, named “Jeremy” (perhaps the male protagonist of the album?) who at a certain point finds himself reflecting on what surrounds him (“Sintesi Di Un Modello Matematico”) and feeling ashamed of what is happening (“and then they want to save the sea while they are already aiming at the sun, and then they say they want to save the sea while they are destroying the sea”… this point somewhat recalls Lucio Dalla in his golden years). He doesn't like the world; it frightens him.

 But it's a matter of time… “Five seconds”… that “Jeremy” seems to want to reunite with his woman to find a meaning to his existence, to understand his mistakes… After those “Five seconds”… silence again. What could have happened? Simple, everything took place in “1784”. The two love each other again. The story concludes here. The “minstrel” Paolo has illustrated all this for us.

 This man has shown once again that it can be done. You can talk about love without using the stereotypes of “sun-heart-love”, you can listen to music and at the same time imagine yourself as if inside a movie, you can be yourself. Without fooling yourself. And maybe this is not a CD for everyone. Perhaps it is only for those who have remained (or have always been) “suggestible”. But even those who have never listened to the Scisma or the previous record should give at least one listen in their life to this “Le Labbra”. They would only benefit from it. Because each of us has within (or has had) a story similar to the one our man describes.

 Milestone.