I'm not used to reviewing CDs, but in these times of liquid music enjoyed everywhere, of fast-food songs and musical overabundance of all kinds, find something that you want to listen and re-listen, even deepen, that intrigues you so much as to search for bibliographic sources that inspired it, that above all makes you think and rethink ... I'll make an exception.
Vinicio Capossela, not new to mythological musical exploits (think of the visionary journey of sailors, prophets and whales), has managed, with his latest fresh record Ballate per Uomini e bestie, to masterfully represent human existence once again, in its miseries, contradictions and heroic leaps, thanks to a series of brilliant metaphors and allegories.
Ballads for men and beasts: today's human condition according to Vinicio Capossela
The human condition is represented starting from the concept of the album itself, where animals not only represent the most instinctive parts of man, but also vices and virtues such as slowness (the snail), innocent lightness (the giraffe), transformation and opportunism (the werewolf), submission (the trained bear). Aesop's fairy tales come to mind where the characterizations of the animals conveyed messages of wisdom, but also Bruno Lauzi's wonderful children's songs (La tartaruga), even if the level of expression both in text and arrangements is still higher than the best Italian singer-songwriter tradition. Unconventional songs as far as the structure is concerned, absolutely far from commercial logic, very long of six to seven minutes, like musical short films, which our artist has told us he has composed in seven years and recorded in one year (very long times for the current musical production rhythms, but the difference can be felt...). A complexity that you can enjoy without heaviness, songs that keep you with your ear glued to the box from beginning to end, highly disturbing.
The opening of the disc Ballate per uomini e bestie is with Uro (which became my daughter's favorite song, five and a half years old, and which is now my sound condemnation during car journeys), a rock animal from the Lascaux caves twenty thousand years ago.
The new plague: internet addiction and other evils of today
Then comes The New Plague, the first metaphor in my opinion very strong, of the net and the web as a pandemic. Artaud talked about the "wonderful plague" that does not look anyone in the face and that creates that panic situation of "save who can". Vinicio Capossela seems to be a man of the past (starting from the look), but as an intelligent person like that, he doesn't criticize in an obscurantist way the internet, but points his finger at its indiscriminate use, without rules, which can hurt anyone with complete impunity, also thanks to the perverse and viral tool of the "screenshot". So, using also a bit of irony (Let's tweet again...), she arrives to denounce the phenomenon of the revenge-porn of which Tiziana Cantone was (not only) victim, to whom the song is dedicated. In the song Ballate per uomini e bestie, there are also references to new monarchs (Zuckemberg and Compagnia bella?, certain influencers?), which cynically speculate on the epidemic. The topic is more topical than ever because recently there's a lot of talk about internet addiction and some studies have shown how students from American colleges can spend up to six or eight hours a day in front of the smartphone or computer. Our absolute ability is to recover the myth, the timeless story and make it current, modernize it so that it becomes an opportunity for collective reflection. Also, because certain evils that afflict man change in form but not in content, even if each era has its prevailing evil (in our certainly prevails the difficulty to set acceptable limits, compared to the frustration in the face of the prohibitions of the last century).
The extinction of compassion and empathy in Ballades for men and beasts
In this operation Vinicio Capossela recovers, for example, a fairy tale-like The Bremen Musicians of the Brothers Grimm, whose protagonists can be moved into our world of exodus and precariousness, with a subtle criticism of the consumerist system of disposable, where those who are thrown, marginalized, can only do solidarity by forming a band!
An important reflection also deserves the risk of extinction from our world of important feelings such as compassion, which is mentioned in the song The Poor Christ (from which was taken a beautiful video shot in Riace). The song on the album Dances for men and beasts describes a disconsolate Christ perhaps because the motto "love your neighbor as yourself" was replaced by "first yourself", then possibly others (when it's okay ...). Also in the spiritual sphere, there is room for the temptations of St. Anthony and for the speech on the Perfect Letizia of St. Francis (the Saint who spoke to animals) set to music. The head of the sacred (even if well compensated by the right amount of profane) is authentic, spiritual, far from other instrumental uses of the crucifix that unfortunately we had to see in recent months.
There is also a beautiful quote from Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Prison, which has to do with the need to destroy the things we love.
Vinicio Capossela is not only a musician or a singer-songwriter but a musical anthropologist who uses the song as a research tool. A lot of stuff...chapeau Vinicio!