Troisi's painting: “The dialogue between genres illuminates music”
A new job and a “new” line up, which in reality has always been there, but which is made official: the perfect circle drawn freehand by Eva Geist (Andrea Noce) and Donato Dozzy (Donato Scaramuzzi) becomes a triangle with the permanent entry of Pietro Micioni, who had already collaborated on the previous album and in the live performances of Il Quadro di Troisi, who releases “La Commedia”, the new album for 42 Records (here are the tour dates). “Pietro was the invisible hand on our first album, it was natural that he permanently entered the group, but this didn't change any dynamics – underlines Dozzy – the process of creating the new project, at the beginning, was remote. Eva was in Berlin and we sent each other several ideas. What has gradually emerged more and more is her great singing ability. This whole process also affected Pietro. Over time, Il Quadro di Troisi has found its balance. This album also marks a decisive step forward towards the song form and an even more authorial and personal musical language.”
You can understand it from the lyrics, but not only: a seductive and elegant music, which combines an electronic sound with references to a certain tradition of Italian song, which escapes definitions and, at the same time, embraces them all. “I have carved out a role for myself, a reputation in the world of techno, I have studied synthesizers for a long time, but I have never loved pigeonholing. I've always looked for a way to escape it. I believe that the dialogue between musical genres creates light, it is when this dialogue, between things and people, does not happen that problems and monsters are created – underlines Dozzy – I was eleven years old when the album 'La Voce del Padre' by Battiato, for me the point of reference has always been that. I strongly believe in the accessibility of music. It had always been a dream to make a wider-ranging album, I did it at the age of 53 (he smiles, ed.)”.
Everything changes and even the world is no longer the same as in 2020, when the first album of the same name was released: the global crisis, generated by wars and pandemics experienced as a mirror of individual problems and personal changes, even irreversible, has spanned the entire period of composing the new album, ending up influencing the writing. But despite everything, or perhaps also because of this, “La Commedia” wants to be a record where the crisis becomes opportunity and change becomes rebirth. Starting from the title, which takes inspiration from a line, later changed, of a song from the previous album which read: “We like comedy, that of a pylon in the sun”. Troisi's painting tries to investigate those aspects of humanity that oscillate between lightness and tragedy. A bit like in the Italian comedy of cinematic memory, where difficult situations become an opportunity to react and face them, even in an ironic way. “La Commedia” reiterates the relevance of Il Quadro di Troisi in the international musical panorama, already evident since the project's debut.
This is also demonstrated by the extremely important collaborations with which the album is populated: from Suzanne Ciani, in all respects a legend and a pioneer of a certain way of making music who has been the absolute protagonist of 50 years of history, to Aimée Portioli , better known as Grand River, Italian-Dutch musician, sound designer and composer but based in Berlin. And then the strings of Fiona Brice (violinist, composer and arranger who has collaborated with artists such as Placebo, Kanye West, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and many others), the eclectic violin of Francesca Colombo (in fact the fourth “corner” of Il Quadro di Troisi), the cultural agitator and icon of East Rome Stefano Di Trapani, aka Demented Burrocacao (Trapcoustic, System Hardware Abnormal, among many things), the maestro Daniele Di Gregorio (excellent musician, for thirty years alongside Paolo Conte) and Tommaso Cappellato (a drummer who to define only as such is reductive: he has played everywhere and with everyone starting from Rabih Beaini and Maurice Louca, with whom he has been collaborating for some time).
The album cover, as well as that of the singles that preceded it, is the work of Francesco Messina, Battiato's historical collaborator and co-author, cult musician, photographer and graphic designer, author of legendary covers. “All collaborations are the result of friendships and relationships created over time – concludes Dozzy – my intuitions on the arrangements have always been supported, all the names present on the album are the culmination of a journey”.