Fabio Cinti - Per un malandrino pazzo d'amore

Angelo Branduardi is certainly one of the shining lights of Italian singer-songwriter music. Fabio Cinti is a name well known to anyone who has followed Italian indie since the "2000s". What unites them is "Guardate com'è rossa la sua bocca", a tribute album born of a long-cultivated passion. Fabio belongs to that generation of singer-songwriters who came before the it-pop craze, anticipating its moves and generously paving the way. A generation that owes a great deal to Franco Battiato, to whom Cinti has in fact dedicated his "gentle adaptation" of the album "His Master's Voice", though he tends to broaden his gaze and keep it free of preconceptions.

A "classic" approach

You're a singer-songwriter who has built a career on very personal albums, both in the writing and in the conception of the arrangements. In "taking apart" Branduardi in order to make him your own, did you identify the elements that, in your view, define the appeal of such a great songwriter's writing?

Angelo Branduardi has a classical musical training, and you can sense and see that, as you say, when you "take apart" the songs to reduce them to an arrangement for solo piano. I think the charm of those compositions lies, as is often the case, in a careful blend of classicism – which we find more in the arrangements than in the underlying harmonies – of folk and of more mainstream pop music. Branduardi found a path that winds down the middle, occasionally veering into more overt daring. Then, of course, his voice, his timbre and his distinctive way of singing do the rest.

In your reinterpretations, first of Battiato, then of Branduardi, you carried out operations that in both cases seem to me closer to the work of a classical musician than to the interpretive dynamics of pop. First of all, I wanted to know if you recognize yourself in this definition, and then how you balanced the vocal element in this equation, which is the riskiest part, being particularly exposed and at the same time emotionally tied both to the original and to the new performer. Was it hard not to personalize it either too much or too little?

I'd say so, yes — my approach is essentially classical, both in the choice of elements that shape the adaptations and in the choice of instruments, as well as in a certain rigor, both aesthetic and in execution. In some cases we've even brought out certain more classical passages from the original compositions that often get cut or simplified when a song crosses over into pop. As for the vocal interpretation, I first tried to strip away all those beautiful rough edges typical of both Battiato and Branduardi, finding a clean, simple way of singing. This approach, though, exposed me to the risk of giving a flat interpretation. So it became necessary to seek out a kind of sacredness, entering every note on tiptoe, relying on timbre and intensity. And that's how I found a way to put myself at the service of the song without having to prove any particular talent and, above all, without having to display a personality. The aesthetic object is the song, not me, and you have to focus on its constituent elements, including the singing, which has to bring the listener an emotion without the singer getting in the way!

Listening to the record, a piano-and-voice Branduardi, which might seem unlikely on paper, gradually gains more and more depth. How did you work on the arrangements?

With Alessandro Russo we set ourselves just one goal: even with only one instrument and voice, the emotional response of the songs had to be the same as in the original versions. Bold, maybe even presumptuous, but certainly stimulating. So the search wasn't based on what was technically functional to keep or cut on the staff, but — with ears and heart wide open — on what we felt the urgency to keep or cut. Because when you base everything on emotion alone, the choice becomes inevitable. In many cases a piano melodic line is the result of several instruments combined, but in the end it's the one that brings back the emotion you feel listening to the original track.

From Battiato to Branduardi

Let's go back for a moment to your gentle adaptation of "His Master's Voice". How do you see your Targa Tenco win today? Which aspect of your work do you think most convinced the jury, and what has been most valued over time since that achievement?

Winning the Targa Tenco was a great surprise, because it was completely unexpected. And I still feel that astonishment today, when I think about it. I believe the jury appreciated the fact that, even though the adaptation was very far from the original — starting with the choice of instruments — there was at the same time, throughout the work, a sincere faithfulness aimed above all at preserving the atmosphere of the original, which is ultimately what triggers the emotion tied to those songs. In short, the adaptation is very different, yet at the same time very similar to the original. Over time, what has struck listeners most is the quality that makes the lyrics more intelligible, both because of the more restrained nature of the arrangements and because of what I said earlier about the voice, which is stripped of any personal flourishes.

Your passion for Battiato has been with you forever. How did you discover Branduardi, though?

My passion for the two singer-songwriters runs in parallel — I discovered both as a child, through family. With Battiato I found a bit more affinity also on the level of reconstructing certain personal life events. With Branduardi I've always loved the idea of immersing myself in those fairy-tale stories, of feeling like a participant inside those worlds.

Is there something that links Branduardi to Battiato? And with hindsight, is there an affinity you feel with both that might in some way give continuity to your work as a performer?

Branduardi and Battiato are similar in their approach to music, and in that bond with classical music dear to both of them. And, as far as I'm concerned, both shaped me in finding my own way of singing which, at first glance, might seem similar to one or the other, but on closer inspection (just listen to me and then to them, one after the other) is essentially a different way, even if a continuity is deliberately and clearly there.

In "Confessioni di un malandrino" it almost sounds like Battiato singing Branduardi, and the beauty of it is that the effect is genuinely striking. Was that a deliberate choice, a crossed tribute, or is it simply my impression?

The effect is there, but I think it's simply that dry, spare way of singing that recalls a bit the Battiato of "Fleurs". Where he, in the same way, interprets by taking a step back.

Beyond Fiera dell'Est

Unlike Battiato, who enjoyed uninterrupted love from a wide audience, Angelo Branduardi gradually became a more "niche" artist. His discography contains countless masterpiece albums, but it's as if commercial success had frozen a single possible perception of an artist who is actually very multifaceted and complex. Now that you've studied him so closely, how do you explain this phenomenon?

I know some very sensitive, culturally well-versed musicians who don't like Branduardi, and — aside from specific matters of taste — I think underneath it there's a trendy kind of misunderstanding. As if listening to Depeche Mode were somehow "cooler" than listening to Branduardi, because nursery-rhyme-like songs somehow belong to a world that, according to fashion, is thought not to make us look attractive. As if, again, going on a picnic with a basket full of sandwiches and fruit were somehow less "cutting-edge" than going out for drinks at whatever trendy spot is in vogue. Well, in my view Branduardi has been pigeonholed into this absurdity, because the subjects he deals with and the musicality he gives off lie outside a certain sphere recognized as influential from a stylistic point of view. But it's only an appearance, a kind of trap, a fashion indeed. I see no obstacle in listening to a 16th-century madrigal and then, right after, Iggy Pop, or in reading a Rodari fairy tale in the morning and a Céline novel in the evening.

“Guardate com'è rossa la sua bocca” track by track

Personally, I think this work could also deserve a Targa Tenco award, the result is truly remarkable. Did you follow any particular criteria in choosing the songs?

Thank you, first of all! Let's keep our fingers crossed! No, we didn't follow any rule in choosing the songs. We relied on instinct, and simply on what we liked most over time, without worrying about things like stylistic consistency, or whether a song belonged to one album rather than another.

I'd like to dwell on “Fou de Love”. First of all because I find it the most successful track on the album, then because it comes from an album like “Domenica e lunedì”, which is, in my opinion, one of the finest records of the Italian '90s, and finally because of Pasquale Panella's lyrics which, with their multilingual, cosmopolitan attitude that cuts across eras and traditions, reveal an unexpected modernity. Can you tell me about this choice and the creative process behind it?

When “Fou de love” came out I was seventeen. I remember that a couple of years later I went on a long seaside holiday with three other friends, and with one of them I shared an earbud from an old walkman that had this song playing on a loop. It became part of the soundtrack of that summer for us. So, so many years later, I couldn't not decide to sing it again, also because among other things I'd promised myself I would, regardless of this Branduardi project… I did it very much in the spirit of remembering that summer, with all the passions that run through that age, from love to friendship, tying it also to a more mature yearning for an unrequited love.

Didn't you feel like revisiting white-album Battisti now?

Very much so. You're not the first to suggest I do it, and I won't hide that there is indeed a project in the works, again with Alessandro Russo.

“Sotto il tiglio” and “La Luna”, on the other hand, bring us back to the Branduardi closest to the golden age of the Anglo-Scottish-Irish folk revival. Did you put something Mediterranean into them? It seems so to me, but I don't know if you agree.

When you rely on just two instruments, as in our case, it's clear that something deeply personal comes through here and there, however much you try to distance yourself from it, precisely because you're exposed, bare. Alessandro was born in Stuttgart but is actually Calabrian (laughs). I'm half Sardinian… that's the Mediterranean you can hear, and it really is there.

“Alla fiera dell'Est” for piano and voice is a real challenge. How did the idea for the vocal harmonies at the end of the track come about?

Reading Branduardi's fine autobiography written together with Fabio Zuffanti (“Confessioni di un malandrino”, Baldini & Castoldi), at one point there's a reference to the minstrel's closeness to Sardinian music. So, playing around a bit with the final section of “Alla fiera dell'Est” and trying to find a way to leave it intact while still staying faithful to the “piano and voice” rule, I told myself that a vocal overlay with a Sardinian flavor might solve the arrangement. I threw myself into it a bit until I found an atmosphere that felt right for the song while still being respectful.

A gentleman poet

You were close to Franco Battiato — what's your relationship like with Branduardi and his family? Have you met him? If so, what does he think of the work?

I've crossed paths with Branduardi several times, but I've only had dinner with him once: we talked about all sorts of things, also because he's a true gentleman, a wonderful person. We mostly talked about the English naval expeditions in search of the famous Northwest Passage. By chance, we had both read the same book around that time, and we found ourselves talking about this odd subject that we were both passionate about! That time I left him a handful of his own songs, the ones that became part of this project, on which he later had very positive things to say.

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