Fabio Ilacqua and the song-artifacts, beyond synthetic music
An ambitious album, but above all free and against the grain: Fabio Ilacqua, lyricist, composer and musician who over the years has worked with some of the most important names in Italian music, from Francesco Guccini to Ornella Vanoni, has decided to publish a work of his own.
It is titled “Passo_01″ and is composed of nine original songs of extremely rare instrumental richness. A large group of musicians involved (from strings to woodwinds, from brass to marimbas, to vibraphones, up to the glockenspiel), a meticulous work in the studio where sounds and words coexist in an often surprising balance. «An exciting and extremely tiring job that kept us in the studio for months until two in the morning», says Ilacqua. «Guccini» (with whom he collaborated on two albums) «was among the first to hear the auditions. His enthusiastic opinion gave me a strong motivation to continue.” An album that was born more from the need to tell than from an urgency: «Dino Stewart» (General manager of BMG) had been toying with the idea of an album of my own for some time. He left me complete freedom, something that rarely happens and for which I will always be grateful.”
The songs were written over the last seven years, produced with Stefano Giungato (and recorded and mixed by Stefano Giungato at Indiehub Studios) and today contained in what can be defined as a concept album, in digital and vinyl versions.
«Passo_01 refers to slow motion, or rather the cinematographic technique which consists in photographing an object moved with each change of position, so that the sequential projection of images gives the illusion of movement».
Starting from a frame, the lyrics of each song are an exploration of man, his emotions, time, loss and personal growth, in close dialogue with a musical texture that acts as a counterpoint to the emotions and thoughts of the characters.
«When I entered the studio I knew what I wanted but I also let myself be carried away by sensations, by instinct, following randomness which is always capable of surprising and suggesting new paths. The musicians have brought, with their experiences, personal connotations and interpretations and this is certainly an added value. I followed a line that went beyond the canonical vision of the song form, that went beyond the watertight compartments of “verse, bridge, chorus” and I approached each song as a virgin space in which to build freely and without constraints, moving between harmonic changes, instrumental digressions and fluctuations of time, in order to evoke an image, an emotion, a gesture. I made use of a wide palette of timbres to outline an atmosphere, a concept, a thought, in the hope of creating something that could be “seen” as well as heard. We even had 196 tracks open for a song, but for me it was essential that every detail could recreate what I had in my head.”
Like the distant voices that open the album, the tinkle of falling coins, the sounds of everyday objects and other tiny details:
«Some songs were built, dismembered and reassembled, removing and adding until a point of balance was reached», says the musician to explain the complexity and care of the work.
«At the center of this journey is the importance of the music played, of the man behind the instrument, of the song understood as an “artefact”. Today we are moving more and more towards synthetic music, where the vague concept of “modernity” often seems to be synonymous with “overcoming the past”, as if the past were a shame to be erased. In this sense, outside the logic of the market, there are highly respectable works, let’s be clear. Personally, however, I believe our roots are fundamental, and the interaction and dialogue between different expressive languages is a richness. Sticking only to the official language would be like saying that dialects have lost their poetic and synthetic power.”
In the lyrics he turns his eyes to contemporary society and the vulnerability of man. The launch single, “L’uomo bi-dimensional”, is inspired by the reflections of Pier Paolo Pasolini who denounced an increasingly standardized society in desires and behaviors, «man’s inability today to rebel against an oppressive system, now so technologically perfected that you no longer even realize you are experiencing it or undergoing it”, explains Ilacqua.
Is it a political album?
«We start from the assumption that everything is politics. Even if we are not interested in politics, politics, the apparatus is interested in us and it is necessary to acquire the means to defend and oppose ourselves. I do it with music and words. In any case, in this album politics is a piece, a frame among others, not a red thread. These songs are essentially a journey to explore myself and the world around me.”
Born in Varese in 1975 where he still lives, Fabio Ilacqua has written or produced songs with some of the most important names in Italian music: Francesco Guccini, Ornella Vanoni, Massimo Ranieri, Francesco Gabbani (with whom he won the Festival for two consecutive years of Sanremo), Marco Mengoni, Loredana Berté, Mina, Adriano Celentano, Davide Van De Sfroos, Simona Molinari. «When I write for others I always try to find a connection between their world and mine, trying to tailor for them the dress that best represents them», he says.
Music has always been part of his life. In 2007 he won the Musicultura prize with the song “La città garden” and recorded his first album “Ballata del Dopocena”. He doesn’t like performing in public, so much so that no tour is planned for the next few months: «I don’t feel the need to do it, I don’t like performing live. As with my paintings, when I finish a piece I feel that my effort ends there and it is time to give it to others.”
Tracklist:
Wine and snakes
The hips
A dog day
The two-dimensional man
The part
One less love
Black butterfly
A beautiful death
A road worker’s dream
