Discoverland, Cortese and Angelini with Fabi: a concept about life

Once upon a time there were two friends: they have been playing together for a lifetime, and at a certain point they decide to have fun with covers. A third friend joins them, with whom they play just as often. Discoverland, the project by Pier Cortese and Roberto Angelini, was born like this, with the pure passion for music, reinterpreting in an unconventional way Bjork, Bob Marley, Ben Harper, Fabrizio De André, with the help of Niccolò Fabi. Two albums, one in 2012 and one in 2016 – now the return with “Ero”, the first work of original songs.

“It was simply time,” says Pier Cortese. “We let time bring new life and enthusiasm in an organic and natural way, and here we are again. “We wanted to play together again and ‘Discoverland’ seemed like the right excuse,” confirms Angelini. “So we met a few times looking for a starting point, but the ground for covers was no longer fertile. Over the years, mashups and in general playing with other people’s songs had become too widespread.”

From covers to originals

The choice to move from covers to originals, the two say, is a re-entry into the game: “Each of us, in our individual careers, has always had and has a certain confidence with writing, but doing it together has a completely different flavor. Sometimes in the similarities, other times in the differences, today we can say that it was our added value”, with a sound that is in line with the previous albums, between acoustic instruments and electronics: “The meeting between the lapsteel and the weissenborn with iPad synth, the interweaving of acoustic guitars and the texture of our voices”, explains Angelini.

“Ero”, explains Pier Cortese, “is a concept about life, or rather about some phases of life, reflections, mystical thoughts, beliefs, fears, here and there. There is no precise method in writing, it is very free. Sometimes the inspiration can be a sound idea, other times a harmonic turn, other times the urgency to tell something that touches us”. “To write we took a week in a house in the countryside in August 2023 where everyone brought ideas, sounds and words. From there was born the backbone of the songs on which we continued to work throughout the year, a bit in my studio, a bit in Leo Pari’s studio, recording, singing and writing collectively”, explains Angelini. “Nic also joined these sessions and I am sure that it was good for all of us, accustomed to more intimate and individual paths, to share this creative phase”.

“My relationship with Roberto Angelini and Pier Cortese has been going on for more than twenty years,” says Fabi. “In this period we have shared the stage hundreds of times. They have followed me in many projects, supporting me, playing and enriching my songs with their sensitivity. Last but not least, they also produced the album ‘Tradizione e tradimento’ with me, so let’s say they have taken care of my music many times. When they told me about the ‘Discoverland’ project, especially about wanting to make an album of unreleased songs, it seemed natural to go and visit them in the studio to listen, to participate even simply as a friend”.

“In this case, being friends makes it easier to want to be together and share the journey, whatever it is,” adds Pier Cortese. “We have always taken care of his songs, trying, both as musicians and producers, to make the best of them. Now it is Nic who reciprocates with the same care and enthusiasm.”

The Roman School

Variable musical geometries are a constant in what was once the Roman school of singer-songwriters: Pier Cortese and Angelini playing with Niccolò Fabi, Fabi playing for them, as with Gazzé and Silvestri, just to name a few. Does this “scene” still exist? “Times have changed a lot, but especially the spaces. The risk is that the squares, the clubs and the meeting points that led to the birth of those “schools” in previous generations, may have been definitively replaced by the glass of cell phones, by social media, and that the interaction that brought certain sparks is profoundly different”, reflects Pier Cortese. “The schools were created around clubs. Today I don’t think there is a meeting point with a personality similar to Folkstudio or Il Locale. There are good singer-songwriters with interesting pens, that’s for sure”, according to Angelini.

The tour

The tour starts on October 3rd, from Milan (with Fabi in the lineup): “On stage each of us will have an acoustic and an electronic station.

Between guitars, basses, synths, samplers and loopers we will try to propose the album again, allowing ourselves to breathe more freely where possible. You won’t see any laptops because we believe that a computer on stage could ruin the magic between musician and listener by creating a veil of distrust. And in any case the first part of the concert will be dedicated to this album while in the second we will retrace some old discoveries”, says Angelini. Fabi will also be on stage: “During these sessions we thought about enriching our relationship with a new nuance, also starting from the fact that I could give back, as a musician, what they have given to my songs over the years. And also to experience a tour together, totally de-responsibilizing, without having to worry about anything, free to participate in a super fun way in the concert, without having to carry the pressure, the load of my repertoire on my shoulders. I hope that my music and my experience can enrich their show. So let’s say that there is more than one reason to push me to work with Discoverland.”

The album tracklist

MOMENT BY MOMENT
SINGING
I WAS
GANGES
THIRD AGE
KARMATANGO
SIRENS
BEYOND

These are the dates