No Strange - A Psych Revival

Since the 1980s, No Strange have been an essential band for anyone wanting to dig deeper into Italian psychedelia. Compared to many other outfits that emerged in the 1980s during the so-called garage and neo-psychedelic revival, the Turin group has undoubtedly proven to have greater depth. No Strange started out in the early 1970s as RA-GEBEL, a band that already featured Ursus and Alberto Ezzu. Ursus also took part in the emerging punk movement. They then formed No-Strani, which later became No Strange. Today they are still very active and have recently released a new album titled “…E continuerò ad esistere”, put out by Area Pirata and Psych Out for now only on a vinyl edition limited to 500 copies. From the psychedelic cover artwork, drawn by Ursus, you can already step into the lysergic atmosphere of this record. Alberto Ezzu has always been the true musical soul of No Strange (while the legendary Salvatore “Ursus” D'Urso handles the graphics and the philosophical side of the project). On the occasion of the new album's release, we put a few questions to Ezzu to get his take on the band.

Can you tell us about the early days of No Strange?

No Strange started out as No Strani, that is, me and Ursus with a strong urge to play, to bounce ideas off each other along with friends and schoolmates, even though back then the technical resources were minimal. I managed to buy a Teac 4-track, and that's when the first recorded music began: ambient and classical electronics, with plenty of forays into what was then the emerging krautrock scene. Meanwhile, in those years Ursus was hanging around the punk scene, and somehow, without me — since I was less interested — he recorded a track on cassette. Then came the shift to No Strange. Recordings done “the rough way” on 4-track: Toast Records liked it and transferred it straight onto Lp.

Over the years, your albums for Toast have become genuine cult objects. Unfortunately, it seems your former label has decided they will no longer be reissued, either on Lp or CD. How did those legendary records come about, which — despite being hampered by less-than-stellar recording quality — are still highly sought after by collectors today?

In 1985 the self-titled debut Lp came out, on a brightly colored transparent sleeve, and it was a hit. Lots of people liked it. Two years later, in 1987, with a couple of additions to the lineup, and again recorded in my home studio — which I'd started calling Music Garden since by then I had begun producing music for theatre and documentaries — came out “L'Universo”, the second Lp. In the meantime, the rather niche success of No Strange started to feel limiting to me, and, also pushed by an urgent need to earn some money, I left the band and devoted myself to solo projects, or to working alongside my colleague at the time, Gilberto Richiero. No Strange, under Ursus's direction, began a live career with a different lineup, the same one that would shortly afterwards record (although the Toast release would be delayed until 1991) “Flora di Romi”, again recorded in my home studio, almost live and with quite a few contributions from me. Either way, this record barely reflects my vision of No Strange at all — it's more a product of Ursus's mind, albeit assisted by the musicians of the time, the same ones who would later be brought into the projects from 2011 onward.

At a certain point it seemed like the No Strange project had been frozen. The times no longer seemed as favorable for Italian psychedelia as they had been in the '80s and '90s. What events brought the band back to life?

A concert in 2008, organized as a thank-you for successfully overcoming an illness, brought No Strange back together for the occasion. The journalists present were convinced the band was working on a new record, even though in reality it had genuinely just been a chance, improvised show. Ursus, however, got in touch with me to ask if we could re-form. My only request was that in the project, Ursus and I would be the sole credited members: past experiences had made me wary of bands with too many cooks. Ursus agreed. In 2011, “Cristalli Sognanti” was finally ready, an Lp and CD released through the two labels that have put out every one of our new works ever since, Area Pirata and Psychout. The record also included compositions or ideas from the Molinari brothers and from Tony, Ursus's brother. Although a bit removed from my own tastes, I still arranged these tracks so they'd fit rightfully within the No Strange sound that Ursus and I wanted.

You mentioned “Cristalli sognanti,” which is in some ways the symbol of your rebirth. But with the following albums, like “Armonia vivente,” “Universes and Transparencies” and “Il sentiero delle tartarughe,” it seems to me that you refined your musical approach compared to your beginnings, while still keeping a common thread with your early output. Can you tell us about these works, which in my view are musically more refined and better produced than your early records?

With the following album, 2014's “Armonia vivente,” a double LP/CD, we also included live tracks plus some old pieces that had come out on cassette back in 1983/'84. During this period Ursus was going through a difficult time health-wise, so the choice to make greater use of Rosalba Guastella's voice, who had already appeared on the previous record anyway, was a natural and winning one. Some internal friction within the group meant that the departure of Tony, of the Molinari brothers, of Paolo Avataneo and of Rosalba was already in the air. Indeed, the following record, 2015's “Universes and Transparencies,” an EP with five covers created to celebrate the band's thirtieth anniversary, was born in that climate; so, apart from Rosalba's voice, which nonetheless fit well into the project, the other musicians' involvement was really minimal, if not purely nominal. In 2017 the next record, “Il Sentiero delle Tartarughe,” saw the lineup return to the original duo, joined by a student of mine in overtone singing, Matteo Martino – son of the poet Daniele, who contributed a long poem to the book I wrote together with Fabrizio Della Porta, “No Strange e Sogni correlati” – Area Pirata Editore – along with some occasional contributions from singer Paola Scatena. The record is a tribute to beat poet Gianni Milano, one of whose old poems, from the period when he used to spend time with Allen Ginsberg and Fernanda Pivano, is also performed on the album.

Then in 2019 came “Mutter der Erde,” an album that was also meant to feature a collaboration with Jutta Nienhaus, former singer of Analogy and a collaborator of Franco Battiato. Unfortunately Nienhaus passed away before she could take part in the record. It's a distinctive work in which your music is less expansive than usual. What can you tell us about “Mutter der Erde” and how it came together?

2019 was the year of collaborations. “Mutter der Erde” has a German title precisely because at that time Ursus was in contact with Jutta Nienhaus, the singer known, as you say, for being part of the group Analogy and for having taken part in Franco Battiato's album “Sulle Corde di Aries.” Unfortunately, death caught up with her before the collaboration could actually take shape. All the ideas for sung and spoken vocals in German that were supposed to appear on the record remained on paper. The album still benefited from her emotional drive, even though it had to do without her voice, her expertise, her extreme kindness and generosity: however, other prominent musical figures did contribute to the record: Simona Colonna, singer and cellist who took part in the last two editions of the Premio Tenco, here featured as a flautist; Stefania Priotti, a vielle player specialized in reinterpreting troubadour music, of which she is a great expert; and finally Rita Tekeyan, a Lebanese singer of Armenian descent, with whom we shared a love for the music of her homeland and a shared hatred of war in general, absurd and unjust, never justified by anything. On the record we decided to perform a historic piece by Armenian composer Komitas.

Finally, in 2021 came “…e continuerò ad esistere,” an album that in my opinion is very profound, and one that I found close to the spirit of your early work. I found it at times very moving and spiritual, almost like a withdrawing into yourselves after a particularly difficult period (think of the Covid pandemic). Do you agree with this reading of mine?

Certainly influenced by the ill-fated period that Italy and the whole world went through because of a disastrous handling of the containment measures born out of the Covid pandemic, the record probably found its highest points in its moments of intimacy. Although we returned, in almost the entirety of the work, to the song form, I've noticed, in the reviews that appeared in magazines and online, a greater difficulty compared to previous records in grasping some of its underlying reasons and its subtler influences. Personally, I believe that with this LP No Strange reached their highest, most sincere, most inspired form. I doubt we'll manage to surpass this level without somehow changing course.

In these past few days the CD “Quaderno delle poesie elettroniche ultraterrene” is coming out, a solo electronic music work of mine, and I'm also collaborating on a project of very distinctive songs with cellist, flautist and singer Simona Colonna; in any case, it seems that the No Strange world has somehow come back to life through these new releases and collaborations of mine, and this very change I mentioned earlier is starting to take shape. Keep your ears open!

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