Federico Fiumani - Diaframma - A Proud Solitude

Diaframma are considered among the seminal bands of Italian-language rock. Still active today, after numerous line-up changes and a temporary breakup, they retain as their only original member Federico Fiumani, singer, guitarist and the band's true ideologue, who has always been its linchpin and lyricist.

The first incarnation of Diaframma took shape in a Florence steeped in new wave, the same musical context that would give rise to other important acts such as Litfiba, Punkow, Moda and Neon. Fiumani, strongly influenced by the musical scene developing across the Channel, formed C.F.S. (from the initials of the three boys) with high-school friends Gianni Cicchi (drums) and Salvatore Susini (bass), a band that juggled covers of punk-wave groups with sporadic original material, livening up school parties and evenings at small Florentine venues.

In 1980, after Susini was replaced on bass by Leandro Cicchi — Gianni's brother — the name was changed to Diaframma, inspired by a component of the camera. The style began to break free from punk, embracing the English wave of the most decadent dark-rock, taking on sonic and lyrical themes close to Cure and Joy Division.

In 1981 they met Nicola Vannini, immediately promoted to singer, and in 1982 they recorded their first single, "Pioggia", backed with the b-side "Illusione ottica", followed a year later by the second single "Circuito chiuso" and the EP Altrove, released by Contempo Records. The musical direction is clear from the very first lines “La vita / si spegne / tra le gocce di pioggia”: Fiumani's lyrics, dense with symbolist references, quickly pushed the band among the most highly rated on the Florentine scene.

In December 1983 comes the first twist: Nicola Vannini is pushed out, and the role of singer passes to Miro Sassolini. All this happens just before they begin recording what will become not only the first Diaframma album, not only their manifesto, but also the cornerstone record of the entire Italian darkwave scene: Siberia.

Released in 1984 by the independent label IRA (which was at the time also backing future pop stars Litfiba), Siberia is a bare, direct and essential album, steeped in dark, melancholic atmospheres with a clear post-punk pedigree, which achieved excellent commercial success for the fledgling label (at the time it managed to sell around 50,000 copies). The album's key tracks, which would go on to become classics of Italian independent rock, are "Amsterdam", "Neogrigio" and the title track.

In 1985 the EP Amsterdam features a new version of the track, recorded as a duet with Litfiba and sung together by Piero Pelù and Miro Sassolini. The EP also makes room for "Elena" and "Ultimo Boulevard", by Diaframma alone. Shortly afterwards the Cicchi brothers would leave the band, replaced by Leandro Braccini (bass) and Alessandro Raimondi (drums): with this line-up the tour in support of "Siberia" would be completed, and in April 1986 "Io ho in mente te", a cover of the famous Equipe 84 song, would be recorded.

In October of that same year, as new wave was wrapping up its golden age, Tre Volte Lacrime came out, moving closer to sunnier, more eclectic melodies compared to the gloomy tones of the previous album. Miro Sassolini's powerful voice is the standout feature of one of Fiumani's most successful compositions, "Marisa Allasio", later covered by the Neapolitan band Argine. Live performance, though, remained the natural dimension for Diaframma, who by then were much loved even outside Florence and undisputed leaders of the Italian underground circuit of the period.

In 1988 Boxe, entirely self-produced through Diaframma Records, failed to match the hoped-for commercial success, a disappointment that led Fiumani and Sassolini to decide, in December of that same year, to disband the group.

The following year, however, Fiumani recruited two new members, Massimo Bandinelli (bass) and Fabio Provazza (drums), taking on the role of singer himself, and in 1989 released the EP Gennaio, featuring the title track that would become another all-time classic for the Tuscan band.

At that point Ricordi decided to sign the new incarnation of Diaframma, who in 1990 released In perfetta solitudine, produced by Vince Tempera, who was responsible for steering the band away from its rock roots towards a more "commercial" trajectory.

In perfetta solitudine contains interesting tracks such as "Beato me", "Io amo lei" and "Verde", but Ricordi saw in the "redeemed" Diaframma a solid singer-songwriter rock act, and — counting on Fiumani's lyrics — repeatedly tried to push the band onto the stage of the Sanremo Festival. Federico always turned down the offer, and disagreements with the label's management soon led him to end the contract.

In 1991 the band released the semi-anthological compilation Da Siberia al prossimo week-end, which, in addition to the Gennaio EP, includes new versions of historic tracks such as "Siberia" and "Tre volte lacrime", plus a couple of unreleased songs. 1992 marked Diaframma's return to the independent circuit with Anni luce, a bare, rough-edged work that continued the style launched three years earlier with "Gennaio". Throughout the 90s the band would follow a path quite far removed from their early dark-punk sound, operating within the underground circuit with mixed fortunes.

Il ritorno dei desideri, released in 1994, marked a return to the Contempo roster. Produced by Gianni Maroccolo, the album features lyrics that sharpen the band's bitter, passionate character.

The project also involved Francesco Magnelli (already present on the Siberia sessions), Mara Redeghieri of Ustmamò, and Pino Gulli (later of Csi). 1994 also saw the release of Federico Fiumani's first solo album, Confidenziale, a moving document of a series of acoustic concerts performed in complete solitude, just voice and guitar.

The following Non è tardi (Abraxas – 1995) continued along the same expressive path, lyrical and sharp-edged, authoritative and evocative, enlightened and always true to itself. Alongside harsh, angry tracks like "Ma finitela" and "Fantasmi di giorno" are gentler, more intimate moments such as "Fiore non sentirti sola" and "Paternità". The record is intense, lively, mature, and in 1995 earned Diaframma the Premio Ciampi, the definitive consecration of Fiumani's songwriting.

In 1996 Sesso e Violenza marked the move to the Flying Records label. It's a record suspended between punk ("Endorfina", "Tachicardico"), classic rock ("Metti in moto la macchina") and tender ballads ("Valzer", "Bella"), followed by the more subdued Scenari immaginari (1998) and Coraggio da vendere (1999).

After the release of the bootleg Live al Rototom and the collection of unreleased material Canzoni perdute, in 2001 with Il futuro sorride a quelli come noi Fiumani found his inspiration again, reviving certain wave atmospheres from the mid-80s. A brief reunion with Sassolini followed, resulting in the release of the compilation Sassolini sul fondo del fiume and an impromptu concert at the Tenax in Florence.

At the turn of the millennium, Self reissued the band's early works, by then hard to find, and gathered on Albori the feelings that had led to the band's formation. But the best work from that period is undoubtedly the raw and direct I giorni dell'IRA. After the inconclusive Volume 13 (Self, 2004), the slow rediscovery of Diaframma began, and the band once again became a cult act, helped also by widespread exposure on the web.

To keep the new wave going, 2005 saw the release of Passato, presente, featuring unreleased versions and remixes of classic tracks reinterpreted by, among others, Subsonica, Madaski and Cristina Donà. It was followed in 2008 by Il dono, a tribute album featuring songs reinterpreted by — among others — Le Luci della Centrale Elettrica, Dente, Marlene Kuntz, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti and Zen Circus. In the meantime, Fiumani found time to release his second solo work: Donne mie (2006).

This second youth reached its peak in 2007 with the irreverent, cutting Camminando sul lato selvaggio, and two years later with Hard to find, in which Fiumani shows off another fine piece of rock songwriting, tinged with conventionality and easy-going pop, but also with unexpected light jazz-like detours, with the rhythm section handled by Lorenzo Alderighi (bass) and Lorenzo Moretto (drums).

The best dishes on the menu are served up by the irresistible instrumental openings of "Dolce insonnia" and "Il sogno di te", as well as the short, concise "Intro" and "Outro". The songs deal with sex, desire, missed opportunities, the greyness of life, friends who fall in line with the system, and time passing with relentless indifference. When the band raises the stakes, as on the finale of "Dura madre", they can still be as thrilling as in their golden days — those days sealed in the reissue of Live & Unreleased, a successful compendium of live tracks and rarities.

This renewed form drew many young fans to the band, and the many dates Diaframma lined up during this period showed a following that had never been so large or so varied. It was the right moment to release — in 2011 — their first-ever fully live album, Live 09-04-2011, a snapshot of an evening held at the Viper in Florence. Fiumani and co. played on home turf, hosting for the occasion their friends Miro Sassolini, Andrea Chimenti and Marcello Michelotti of Neon.

The live album strikes a constant balance between classic tracks and recent compositions: it's undeniable, though, that the level of catharsis rises exponentially whenever the old classics are revisited. By this point Diaframma essentially function as a vehicle for Federico Fiumani's solo career — not for nothing does the cover feature a photo of him alone. A career rightly celebrated on these grooves, which have become truly transgenerational.

In September of that same year, Diaframma were back in the studio writing and recording the twelve tracks that would make up Nothing serious, released in January 2012, one of the most successful works of their more recent artistic path. Nothing serious contains new entries into the great Diaframma canon, winning strikes titled "Entropia" and "Madre superiora", which deserve a place alongside the band's biggest songs. Musically the album is flawless, the fruit of the compositional work of a now seasoned, tight-knit group: Federico sings and plays guitar with renewed bite, flanked by an excellent rhythm section made up of Luca Cantasano on bass and Lorenzo Moretto on drums, joined by a special guest appearance from Gianluca De Rubertis of Il Genio on keyboards.

Many choices here seek out pathos on an album that surprises with its aggression and energy ("La botta di energia del rock", the title track), and everywhere there emerges great attention to detail and a constant stream of passionate ideas, such as the Giulio Cercato solo that closes out "Nilsson". Forever poised between new wave and modernity, Federico Fiumani confirms himself as a songwriter out of time, out of fashion, one of the most original and sincere composers in our country — a figure who, while retaining an ultra-loyal following, would have deserved (and still deserves) far bigger audiences. From the rounder, more hummable tracks ("Vivo così", "Carta carbone", "Un orologio rotto") to the more structured ones (the over six minutes of "Grande come l'oceano", with its long instrumental coda), down to the more intimate ones ("Absurdo Metalvox", "Tempesta nel mio cuore", "Anime morte"), Nothing serious proves it has all the ingredients needed to justify its prestigious win at the 2012 PIMI Award, where it took the prize for Best Self-Produced Album.

In 2013 a double reissue was released, Demos 1982 – Live 1983, containing demos and tracks recorded live back in the band's early days.

Come September, it would be time to dust off the band's great classic par excellence: the deluxe edition of Siberia was released.

Federico Fiumani's period of great creativity found further confirmation in Caught in the whirlwind, released in October 2013. Compared to its predecessor, it stands out for a greater variety of styles and subject matter, and above all for a more aggressive sound. Besides love and sex, Federico also sings here about dreams, memories, music, the sounds he loved in his youth, and friends. One of them gets a heartfelt tribute: "Ottovolante" is a song for Piero Pelù, another key figure of the Florentine scene of the 1980s. The roster of guests widens further, with a notable appearance from Enrico Gabrielli, on sax on a couple of tracks, and on piano and keyboards elsewhere.

Equally notable are the appearances of Gianluca de Rubertiis (piano and keyboards), the voices of Marcello Michelotti and Alex Spalck (two old friends who had fronted Neon and Pankow respectively many years before), and a cameo from Max Collini of Offlaga Disco Pax on "Ho fondato un gruppo". In the core line-up, alongside Federico, Luca Cantasano (bass) and Lorenzo Moretto (drums) are confirmed, with the addition of Edoardo Daldone on second guitar. Despite his sheer prolificacy, Fiumani still manages to find new and unprecedented ideas for a gutsy, raw, visceral album, filling it with perfectly judged collaborations and interesting hooks, including at least one track good enough to earn a place on a hypothetical Diaframma greatest hits: "Infelicità".

At the end of 2015 came the track "Buchi nell'acqua", written and performed together with Piero Pelù.

On 24 September 2016 a new version of Diaframma's masterpiece was released, retitled for the occasion Siberia Reloaded. The eight tracks of the original album were re-recorded and sung anew by Federico Fiumani. To these were added a few unreleased songs, written with the hindsight of today, plus some short instrumental tracks composed and performed by Gianni Maroccolo. It laid the groundwork for a new round of concerts built around the material from the famous 1984 album.

At the end of 2017 a retrospective was compiled covering the best of the band's output from 1998 to 2017. The Self Years, across fifteen tracks, traces Diaframma's recent career, including the unreleased "Giorni", with arrangements by King Of The Opera.

In February 2018 came Il primato dell'immaginazione, the result of a close collaboration between Fiumani and Pankow singer Alex Spalck. The album contains nine unreleased tracks, plus a highly personal cover of Television's "Marquee Moon".

On December 7, 2018, L'abisso is released, the twentieth studio album by Diaframma, arriving just as Federico is about to cross the threshold into his sixties. The image of the abyss is the perfect way to represent the darkness beyond the line marking that significant milestone in his life, while at the same time capturing the difficult juncture the Western world was going through, amid never-ending economic crises, Brexit and the Trump era. To climb out of the abyss, Fiumani turns to music: he picks up his trusty old Telecaster, shunning any hint of resignation and banishing every shadow of inner darkness. Far from subdued, he seeks out light and electricity. Two tracks in particular give real punch to the tracklist, penned by an eternal kid with an undiminished urge to tear the world apart: "L'impero del male" and "I ragazzi stanno bene", the songs on L'abisso most deserving to be remembered, alternating with the more melodic bent of "Così delicata" and "Figa Power" and the bursts of genuine light-heartedness found in "Luce del giorno".

For the rest, Diaframma keep moving along the same musical coordinates we've grown used to over the years: without adding much to their well-established recipe, they still know how to keep the attention of their long-standing fans. Four decades into their career and with twenty albums under their belt, they remain confirmed as an institution of that "other" Italian rock, the kind that proudly goes its own way, with no need to chart or show up on TV. On the brink of a major personal milestone, Federico Fiumani has no intention of letting up: an example for younger generations, who all too often burn out badly within the space of a handful of songs.

Then the pandemic arrives, bringing with it every kind of restriction and the impossibility of promoting new work live. Federico chooses to release new songs only when the time is right, when he would have the proper space to promote them. That moment is "Ora", eight new tracks released in April 2022, some of them written with his mother's recent passing in mind, which led the songwriter to put down on paper a series of reflections on family dynamics. Ora is unquestionably a Federico record, but it's also very much a Diaframma record, given the space afforded to the whole band, who turn in sumptuous performances on "Coperte tumorali" and "Ora", tracks with a distinct alt-rock drive.

Lyrically, we find ourselves in the presence of Fiumani at his purest, constantly balanced between restless poetry and rock introspection, free and independent, with a few deliberately "lighter" and more carefree detours ("Volenteroso"). Two of these tracks had been kept in a drawer for some time, waiting for their final shape: the confidentially angry "I giorni belli" (enriched by a fine solo in the finale) and the statement of intent "Mite sarò". True to his unmistakable Tuscan character, Federico repeatedly makes no secret of his proverbial "obsession" with sex, even going so far as to imagine himself "Nella testa di un attore porno", in what stands out as the musically boldest moment of the whole record.

The long-awaited moment has arrived, live shows are back, and Diaframma, brazen and lovable as ever, will once again be present wherever there's an audience ready to listen to their songs, a slice of the best independent Italian rock.

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