Well, good Zynthianers, now it is time to introduce you the most unusual, transversal and trailblazing Italian musical personality of the last half-century: Franco Battiato.
Some of you may have had some casual acquaintances with this ingenious master of music, since he has been occasionally promoted abroad by EMI, through Spanish and English albums with translated lyrics.
Stockhausen protege during the 70s (recipient of one of the first EMS VCS3 ever, from Zinovieff himself), daring art-rock/pop crossover herald in the 80s (among the very first worldwide adopters of the CMI Fairlight and PPG Wave), spiritual researcher in music across the 90s and 2000s (composer of four complex operas, a Latin mass, an electronic ballet and various soundtracks), eventually director of three prized movies and also writer and painter.
Had this remarkable inventor of a cosmopolitan retro-futuristic and pseudo-Mesopotamian fictional Middle-East been an English speaker/singer, he certainly would have been at least as influential as Peter Gabriel or the Pink Floyd.
He sadly passed away in 2021, rather early for his notoriously sober lifestyle, probably by self-decision and out of uncontrolled curiosity about the nature of the otherworld.
"It is true that roses bloom thrice on the Black Sea?
It is true that Doric columns crumble there,
and one can hear speaking of distances,
to reach Alexandria in Egypt?
Glory of old Europe…
The smell of gunpowder
scattered through neighbourhoods,
while a band accompanies the Saint’s relics:
religious impulses of the West: accident!
Troops lined up in front,
at an order the rifles fire,
the first rows fall as rain;
the smoke thickens with sweat.
(the left side of Baku
looking at the port…)
The smell of gunpowder
scattered through neighbourhoods,
while a band accompanies the Saint’s relics:
religious impulses of the West: accident!
The left side of Baku,
looking at the port.
It’s the lookout…"
"Tell me about the existence of very distant worlds,
of lost civilisations, of continents adrift;
Tell me about the love that is made among men,
of extraordinary travelers in mystical territories;
much more…
We instinctively followed the trails of comets,
like vanguards from another solar system.
No Time, no Space
another race of vibrations,
the sea of the simulation;
keep your feelings in memory,
I love you, especially tonight.
Space traffic controllers ready for take-off,
gigantic telescopes to follow the stars,
sailing, sailing through space;
much more…
We instinctively followed the trails of comets,
like vanguards from another solar system.
No Time, no Space…"
Translations: Aethermind
reminds me of my first band
to carry coals to Newcastle
!
Happy 
)
… 20 years ?!
like this French song about a special kind of them:
