Parole Liberate: prisoners write lyrics, artists write music
“Liberated Words” it's a musical, cultural and social project that starts with a call, created by the social promotion association of the same name and issued by the Ministry of Justice: prisoners are asked to write a text that becomes a song thanks to the contribution of important artists on the Italian music scene.
The project materializes with an album entitled “Parole Liberate volume 2” which has been published from Shack & Puppets in CD version and will be distributed digitally by the Orchard.
It is a collective album that includes musicians from the Baracca & Burattini label and has expanded with the participation of national and international artists who took care of the musical part of the project.
The initiative is not limited to the recording sector but sees the participation of many artists, both from volume 1 and volume 2, in the presentations and concerts taking place inside and outside prisons.
Even if it is not published in version vinyl, the album is characterized by an A side and a B side which identify two different “sides” of this musical proposal.
The A side starts with the girl band Viadellriamo with a song produced by Cesarean, guitarist of Elio e le Storie Tese. We continue with a new duo composed of Andrea Chimenti and Giorgio Baldi and the subsequent traces see there Bandabardòi NewNormalthe street band Magicaboola Brass Band (with Fabrizio Pocci) And Max Bianchi. Side A closes with “Sbagliato”, a song by NuovoNormale already published in volume 1, adapted by The Mastelottos. It is a band made up of Pat Mastelotto (drummer of King Crimson) and his wife Deborah Carter, with a song curiously performed in Italian as was in use, decades ago, in the Sanremo performances of international artists.
The B side opens with Morgan followed by Synaesthesia, a group from Livorno made up of musicians who are little more than 18 years old. Those who have experience are Flavius Giuratoa cult artist who set to music and interpreted (together with Nicola Distaso) a text from the juvenile prison of Bari. We continue with Pivioauthor of over 200 soundtracks and with Marco Machera and Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, John Lennon and many others). Finally i PASE and Alessandra Donati they conclude the album with the same lyrics with which side A began but with a different musical part.
These artists are joined by several musicians who collaborated on the recordings such as Xabier Iriondo (Afterhours) with Synaesthesia, Eugene with The Mastelottos and Marco Machera as well as Annie Whitehead (Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Robert Wyatt) and Silvia Ottanà (Emis Killa, Marco Mengoni , Last) in Machera's piece. There are also some plots and collaborations; Pat Mastelotto plays in the song by Marco Machera and Tony Levin while Machera himself and Andrea Imberciadori (NuovoNormale) participate in the song by The Mastelottos.
Tracklist
1) Viadellriamo Dance step (Dance King)
2) Andrea Chimenti & Giorgio Baldi sing to me
3) Bandabardò And the thought flies.
4) NewNormal A man's promise
5) Magicaboola Brass Band & Fabrizio Pocci The dance of the Maccabees
6) Max Bianchi I review my steps.
7) The Mastelottos Wrong
8) Morgan A rose on the calendar
9) Synaesthesia Excuse me
10) Flavius Giurato featuring Nicola Distaso Baby
11) Pivio Poetry Iran 2022
12 Marco Machera and Tony Levin Time
13) Pase & Alessandra Donati Dance.
The previous album “Parole Liberate volume 1”created with the same characteristics, was published again by the Baracca & Burattini label in 2022. The cover image of that first volume is the work of Oliviero Toscani and the graphic project was created by Olivierotoscanistudio.
The initiative was presented on 8 March 2022 in the press room of the Chamber of Deputies and in the Gonfalone room of the Lombardy region.
That institutional presentation was followed by a series of meetings and shows in some Italian prisons and in external places which saw the participation of the artists involved, sector operators and some inmates.
The album won the Premio Lunezia 2022 and came second at the Targhe Tenco 2022.
The project
The project was born in 2014, thanks to the Social Promotion Association 'Parole liberate: beyond the prison wall'.
Among the various initiatives, the inmates were asked to write a text that would become a song thanks to the collaboration of musicians and exponents of songwriting and/or pop music (in the broad sense).
It all ended with the proclamation of a winning text and with an event at Palazzo Marino (in the municipality of Milan) made possible by the mayors Pisapia and Sala. In addition to the mayor and/or councilors, the associations that deal with prisons, the winning prisoner and the musician who performed the chosen piece took part in this ceremony.
The arrival of the pandemic prevented the holding of some editions but all this led to a redefinition of the project which combines the prize itself with the publication of an album (and various traveling events) to present the initiative to a wider audience, even outside the prison population. Through the Baracca & Burattini label (which is back in business with this project) some artists were contacted who chose, among the proposals of the latest and previous editions, the text that they would prefer to adapt to their song form.
