Cosmo: “In the new album I brought Alva Noto and Battisti together”
After a long flight, the white horse landed at the Source. On the tenth anniversary of “L’ultima festa”, the 2016 album whose tour exceeded ninety dates and a surprising number of sold outs, Cosmo regenerates itself with an album that marks a turning point in his discography. “La Fonte” comes out next Friday, April 17, two years after the previous “On the Wings of the White Horse” and is the second born from the collaboration with Not Waving, the stage name of Alessio Natalizia, an Italian producer and musician based in London with whom Cosmo had already worked at the time of Drink To Me: «After “Cosmotronic”, in 2018, I had a crisis. The anticipation surrounding my return, following the success of “The Last Party”, made me feel uncomfortable. With “The Third Summer of Love” I thought I had run out of ideas. Then Alessio got me out of a bind”, he explains. Which in the eleven songs that make up the album, the sixth as a soloist after the experience with Drink To Me, winks at the classic Italian song, “that verse and chorus”.
How did the turning point happen?
«Thanks to Alessio. I always mention him in interviews because I owe it to him: without him I wouldn’t be here musically now. Now the Cosmo project is to all intents and purposes a two-person project. He freed latent elements in my songs: “The strongest thing you have are the songs,” he told me. Before getting close to him again, I was delving deeper and deeper into the exploration of the clubbing world. He was the one who brought me back to the song. A paradox, because he doesn’t come from there, but from the world of electronics, which in this album is expressed in distorted, strange sounds. We sampled Alva Noto and mixed it with Baptist guitars.”
And in the middle there is also Fiordaliso: among the references of “Ciao” you mention the Italian pop of the 80s. The melody is a hint of that of “I don’t want the moon”. Do you confirm?
«In fact it reminded me of something classic. But I didn’t understand what. To me it seemed more like a reference to something by Ornella Vanoni or Patty Pravo. In any case, it is a melody that is part of my unconscious. I would never have said it.”
Compared to “The Third Summer of Love” and “On the Wings of the White Horse”, musically speaking, what kind of work did you do this time?
«We went to steal. Starting from a ballad, from a lighter, more melodic song, we looked for a way to make the sound stranger, if you look at it closely, but at the same time as less cluttered with stuff as possible. Thus we have arrived at a form of extreme simplicity. With Alessio we have this idea: the less stuff there is in the records in terms of sounds and sound layers, the easier it is to listen to the records. Even though this album comes after “On the Wings of the White Horse”, it is actually a prequel rather than a sequel. “The source” is a place where certain feelings originate which in the “white horse” were expressed in a more sharp way: here they are less agitated, stripped of certain sharp edges. Even in terms of sounds. We said to ourselves: “Let’s go straight, let’s do something pleasant”».
What are these feelings?
«In the songs I talk about pain, friendship, love for a brother or sister, emotional relationships».
The Cosmo of “When I met you” in 2018 would have sung: “How bourgeois all this is, I’m a little ashamed”.
«But already in “The Last Party” there were similar themes, perhaps in a less direct way than in “The Source”. I go at my own pace, I follow the flow of the moment.”
On the tenth anniversary of “L’ultima festa” does this album open a new phase in your career?
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll be a singer-songwriter from now on. This is a chapter that takes inspiration from songs like “Talponia” and “L’ombra” and develops that language there. It is the second chapter of a trilogy.”
The third?
“Maybe”.
Will this work on the song take you to Sanremo, which for you – except for the guest participation with the 2022 blitz alongside La Representative di Lista – remains a taboo?
“No. Right now I wouldn’t go there.”
