Tag Archive: Franco Battiato


FRANCO BATTIATO : EXPERIMENTS AND CLASSICS

Filed under: Italy, Music — Leave a comment
November 2, 2014

FRANCO BATTIATO + JOE PATTI’S EXPERIMENTAL GROUP : LIVE AT NUOVO TEATRO CARISPORT, CESENA 31st OCTOBER 2014

Franco Battiato at Cesena

Franco Battiato is an elder statesman of Italian popular music with a distinguished career spanning more than four decades. His standing and popularity remain high in spite of, or perhaps because of,  remaining slightly aloof from popular trends.

Many of his songs are commercial enough to appeal readily to mainstream tastes yet he always manages to be one step removed from the brash commercialism of pop or rock marketing.

This was the first time I had seen him in concert and while he has an image of being a serious even remote figure, on stage he exudes a warmth and refreshing lack of pretentiousness.

Battiato has the look of a priest although not one of the hellfire breed as he’s more likely to preach on the healing power of love than to lecture us about the sins of the flesh.

Italians call him ‘il Maestro’ (the teacher) reflecting the strong element of didacticism in songs which are steeped in the kind of mystic imagery of the kind you’d expect to find in spiritual texts. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Read More & Comment

SEPEDEH RAISSADET

Filed under: Italy, Movies — Leave a comment
December 29, 2008

Hers is not yet a well known name but I would stake what remains of my reputation on the fact that this time next year Sepedeh Raissadet will have found an audience well beyond her native Iran origins. She has contributed to three albums distributed in Iran but, not surprisingly, these are not the kind of releases that would be scrobbled on Last.FM.

Her website tells me that she was born in Tehran in 1980 and is currently studying musicology at Bologna University.

Her link with Italy explains how she comes to feature on Franco Battiato’s excellent new album Fleurs 2.  On the track ‘Il venait d’avoir 18 ans‘ she can be heard singing in Farsi (Persian) for just 45 seconds but this is enough to make an impact.

To say that it gives  an equivalent level of  goose bumps effect as hearing Antony Hegarty singing in Italian on ‘Del suo veloce volo‘ from the same album will give some measure of the impact. As with Antony, it’s a voice that carries an emotional weight which  is both fragile yet instantly mesmerising.

On her website you can download three tracks and see a you tube video featuring her but hopefully it will not be too long before a wider selection of her work is made available.

Tags: , , ,
Comment