Record of the day: Ivano Fossati, “Lindbergh”

Ivano Fossati, “Lindbergh” (Cd Sony/Epic EPC 471496-2)

«And the clearest voice is no longer | than a patter of rain on the curtains | a last sound frond on these swamps of sleep | sometimes runs from a dream.” The same desperate, shattered and at the same time full of human pity look of the young soldier Vittorio Sereni, prisoner in Algeria, is found as a recurring leitmotif among the songs of this beautiful album.

The letters written by Fossati are declared to have been written “from above the rain”, but under those same clouds the thunder of fighting is constant. Songs different from each other yet tied together by the thread of anxiety, crossed by the shadow of an always imminent danger, even if never fully revealed. “Sigonella”, the version of “Il Disertore” by Boris Vian, “Poca Voglia di Fare il Soldato” are songs that outline this state of mind, alternating with stories that talk about people out of place, without a place. The exploited workers of “The rosewood boat”, the stranger of “My brother who looks at the world”, who «looks at the sky and the sky doesn’t look at you», the characters bruised and plagued by loneliness in “Nocturne of the Three “, the exalted and useless collective effort of the participants in the religious procession of “The Black Madonna”, the disappointment felt by Lindbergh, who left «without a greeting» to discover that in the middle of the sky there is nothing at all, revealing the void of one’s existence spent following the astral trajectory “until the exact point at which it switches off”.

A humanity apparently in disarray, which nevertheless lives “against the wind”; yet Fossati (whose typically Ligurian pessimism would probably have been greatly appreciated by Montale) never gives in to nihilism, he always leaves open the possibility of redemption, be it through the strength of collective singing which becomes a single voice (in the famous “), or in the awareness that even «under a sky that does not absolve» a hope, even if feeble, «a good reason» can exist (in “There will be”).

The intensity of Fossati’s words is in turn embodied in some of the most beautiful music that the Genoese musician has composed; played exquisitely by a first-rate group, these songs do not give answers, but continue to make echoes of eternally unsolved questions resonate within them with each listen.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.