AA.VV.
Materiale Resistente 1945 - 1995

THE REVIEW

1995. It was a time when our freedoms seemed once again undermined… at the foundations. A new reactionary wave seemed to be blowing with ever-increasing force across all the lands of Wise Europe. Slowly but surely, the wind gained in intensity and pushed southward until, almost turning into a storm, it unleashed all its fury over the territories battered and afflicted by chronic self-pity in the south of the Old Continent. And once again, it finds fertile ground and proselytism in Italy. A handful of die-hard human resistance fighters try to oppose with thought, art, movement, and music the growing media invasion of butts, breasts, and "everything is fine" that had engulfed us.

Director Giulio Chiesa, in collaboration with the Independent Producers Consortium/I Dischi Del Mulo, was commissioned by the partisan town of Correggio (Reggio Emilia) to create a documentary for the fiftieth anniversary of the Liberation of Italy. The images of this film unfold through the streets of the town with a series of war veterans recounting their personal stories, interspersed with footage of the concert held on April 25. The groups participating performed themed songs, some drawing from the popular culture of partisan chants, giving them a new sonic outfit and a new life, others writing new protest songs. This CD contains their studio-recorded versions.
Listening intensely to the words of these songs, it will become clear how history teaches nothing to those who do not want to learn… or more simply, to those who are unable to do so.

To conclude, I rely on the prophetic words of Bosnian poet Nedzad Maksumic, who in the booklet introduces us to the idea of listening:

“It was a fertile year for wheat as never before, everything was in abundance… Those who were chronically ill and so longed for death finally surrendered their souls to God with a smile. On the days of great storms, the sky was red. The rain carried with it the dust of deserts from beyond the sea, the old people said: there will be a war! No one gave credit to their words. And no one did anything. Because, what could be done against the prophecy! We just sang for entire days until we had no voice left, to consume the old songs, so that none would remain to be tarnished by time.”