ALESSANDRO FIORI - Cascata

Surprisingly, the former voice of Mariposa and mastermind behind Love, Alessandro Fiori returns not long after “This Sweet Museum” with “Cascata”, an album that's at times urgent, built on more distinctly musical ideas.

“Volevo Solo Farle un Caffè” isn't just a song of apathy but rather a Frankenstein's monster stitched together from the melancholy of Fabrizio De André and a Gregorian chant; likewise, the orchestration pairs electronic glaciation with friendly pizzicato strings. “Senza Sporcare” tries to push this further by draining vocal expressiveness even more, bordering on synthetic voice messages. The vacuous hybrid of honky tonk and vaudeville on “Un Misterioso Caso” is redeemed by traces of Tom Waits-ian primitivism. “Dei Nei la Mappa Precisa” sounds like a Lucio Dalla ballad with an exasperated electronic streak.

The 8 minutes of “Big Fish”, a chamber-folk foray into Middle Eastern sounds with a stream of consciousness set into its rhythmic textures, recalling the Franco Battiato of “Sulle Corde di Aries”, is the most ambitious thing he's attempted since the Mariposa days, but the result, besides being confused, sounds wildly out of place.

This forcibly experimental side instead finds better expression in two more modest tracks. Almost diametrically opposed to “Big Fish” is “Un Occhio Chiuso”, an extremely concise piece that, with keyboards alone, manages to bring together and clash a Francesco De Gregori-style elegy with clownish outbursts. Even though its lyrics amount to little more than what the title says, “Il Suono del Cratere Centrale” is a welcome return - set to a dizzying rhythm - to the dadaism of his earlier bands.

Written and recorded on the fly, a working method that suits the artist, this is a record with no grand connections drawn between music and words, but one that nonetheless weighs singing and arrangement on their own separate merits. That's no small thing - in many ways, it's the true start of his solo career. Lyrics with one word recurring here and there: "cagna"; not enough to make it a concept album. Available only on vinyl, a flagship release in Viceversa Records' "In Vinile" series.

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17/11/2013