Paolo Conte
Reveries

THE REVIEW

Sometimes it happens that the sound of a voice warms more than a smile or a caress. There are moments, those suspended between the passage from one day to the next, when words skillfully used blend so well with certain shades of the night that they become almost a kind of breviary, a canvas where hopes and dreams of sleepless men lost in the blue nightmares of the blinding morning are written. In certain periods of time, a voice, a piano, and little else create the world, telling stories of real life with the lightness of someone observing from the outside and disguising reality in poetry without passing judgment, comprehending it sometimes even better.

Paolo Conte is this, a bard who builds a novel of music, words, and plots in three minutes, a sort of concept song so evocative and powerful that it creates theatrical scaffolding in the minds of listeners, so there you find yourself, in a ballroom dancing with a beautiful woman, feeling the sinuous curves of her body merging with yours, intoxicating your senses with the scent of her hair, wanting to move closer to kiss her, but at that moment, the rhythm accelerates, and she briefly slips away, held only by one hand, until you pull her back with a sudden move, and then you dive in and savor those red lips from another time and place, as the mustached gentleman observing the scene from his piano gives a knowing chuckle and continues to play. Pieces of theater run through the mind when listening to an artist like the chansonnier from Asti, and it's indeed easy to completely change the scene to find oneself on an airplane, gradually flying over a body of water, revealing a long black grand piano, of which, however, it's best not to trust, as it's known that "in some cases, a piano is a scream." The dream's lightness is inherent in those who use words as instruments akin to a sax or a guitar, but the true strength of works like "Reveries" lies in creating a different backdrop for the story without diminishing the beauty of its plot, so already splendid tracks like "Nord" or "Gioco d'azzardo" or, say, "Dancing" only change choreography, adding a bit more light, dusting off the furniture a bit more, adding some detail without changing the essence: the chills are still there, those sweet sensations of sensual melancholy clinging to the heart like images on film, always ready to awaken memories if there are any, or to invent desires. When one masters the living material of their art, they can do with it whatever they want, playing with melodies and arrangements without offending them in any way; on the contrary, they even collaborate, encouraging experimentation and the exploration of new paths, different but ultimately parallel, because the essence of the man remains and always permeates the composition: you cannot remove the Contian aspect from a Paolo Conte piece! He is always there, with his scrutinizing gaze and the pen that "works scissors" to find the perfect match between music and words, because the first always precedes the latter, which, as gentle and polite as well-bred girls, do not mind and let the more experienced, more communicative lady do the talking.

In this collection, the Astigiani artist does this: changes the furniture a bit, plays with the decor, and bends the poetic art to the musician’s whim, emerging as the absolute winner of the challenge. His own songs find new life in the different play of sounds imposed by their creator, all without losing the slightest narrative strength, but rather remaining faithful to their essence as part of a dream that involves different people and hopes, united only by the same director's voice: a charming and elegant gentleman, a former lawyer, whose craft is to create fantasies and offer stories, making even those too lazy to listen to their own hearts dream. Albums like "Reveries" are like black and white photos restored by an expert and passionate hand: they exalt the value of the craftsmanship behind them while more clearly revealing details that were previously less visible, all accompanied by great respect for the original work and the sensations it evokes. All we can do is collect everything in the personal album of our soul, clinging to these fragments of beauty to always remind ourselves, especially when the noise of the world becomes too loud, that to dream, you only need to listen to yourself inside.