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Rating: After discussing Aktuala, I want to talk about another figure closely linked to Franco Battiato, namely his album cover designer and musician in his own right, Francesco Messina.
Like Franco, Messina was also born in Sicily but moved to Milan, the city of alternative Italian music, to make a living. In those years, the labels Bla Bla and Cramps had many characters and points in common, so much so that Francesco's first album, in cooperation with Raul Lovisoni, would be produced in 1979 by Gianni Sassi's record label, which closed its doors a year later. And the producer, for the occasion, would be none other than Battiato.
The debut work by Lovisoni-Messina has a long title that conceals curiosity: Prati bagnati del Monte Analogo.
The inspiration, as well as the motivation, is to complete an unfinished work, more precisely the novel Il monte analogo by René Daumal, dating back to 1944.
The writing is about a group of mountaineers who, starting from Paris, want to climb the highest peak in the world, which in the novel is the "Monte analogo," located on an island that even constitutes a continent unto itself.
The three very long compositions aim to recreate the atmospheres of this place with rather strange customs and habits.
Raul Lovisoni, in the inner sleeve of the LP, explains how music is the means for contemplation and to convey the idea of wet meadows once the base camp is reached.
The entire side A is occupied by the title-track, a very long composition, 23 minutes and 35 seconds, with few variations, which cannot help but remind of Come un incensiere all'alba di un villaggio deserto or even more of L'Egitto prima delle sabbie, released the year before. Here the music "de-musics," until it reaches the peak of the mountain, or the contemplation of the Absolute.
Side B, instead, is composed by Raul Lovisoni and includes two compositions, Hula Om, which is the highest point of concentration in Hinduism, and Amon Ra, the ancient Egyptian deity representing the king of gods.
Noteworthy, besides the musicians who authored the tracks, are the harp by Patti Tassini, the piano by Michele Fedrigotti, and the voice of Juri Camisasca.
Lastly, notable is the cover, which with its oriental palms directly recalls L'era del cinghiale bianco, released in the same year.
Francesco, after an audiobook dedicated to a squirrel, would compose Medio Occidente in 1983, a "traditional" album where, when talking about artists like Messina, Pio, and Battiato, quotation marks are obligatory.
Recently, the magazine Rolling Stone dedicated a lengthy article to it, which I recommend reading.
Tracklist
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