MARLENE KUNTZ - Karma Clima

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(from “La fuga”)

Having produced ten albums and several EPs, toured the length and breadth of the country dozens of times, and been recognized as spokespeople for a generation, Marlene Kuntz now feel the urge to put out new music only when they have an important message to deliver, a strong, distinctive idea to share. Six years on from the energetic “Long wait”, 2022 brings what will be remembered as their concept album, the result of roughly three years of work distilled into nine tracks tackling climate change and environmental sustainability — issues the world's major governments have yet to agree on tackling together, and which are already inflicting irreparable damage on the entire ecosystem.

The subject (one that many musicians seem to feel keenly, having also been tackled, albeit from a different angle, by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on their new "Cool It Down") becomes a cry of alarm meant to shake off indifference, tackled with boundless poetry in the lyrics of Cristiano Godano, who this time shared the musical decisions with Riccardo Tesio, Luca "Lagash" Saporiti and Davide Arneodo. For the first time Luca Bergia did not take part in the recordings, replaced behind the drums by Sergio Carnevale, rounding out the core quintet, supported on production duties by Taketo Gohara and enriched by arrangements performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

The search for purity, silence and sacredness needed to confront the subject at hand was carried out by Marlene by retreating to the hills of Piedmont, where "Karma Clima" was conceived, developed and recorded across three different residencies. The record displays a fresh energy, less shouted and more introspective, matched by the band's usual extreme attention to every single detail; for once the guitars stay in the background, making way for pianos, analog synths and orchestration: what emerges is the personality of Davide Arneodo, who brings a distinct Berlin flavor to the arrangements, absorbed during his time living in the German capital.

One need only listen to "L'aria era l'anima" to grasp the decisive shift in sonic perspective, but fresh instrumental solutions drawing on "played electronics" also surface in the ironic "Vita su Marte" and in "Scusami", where beat and groove take center stage, or in "Acqua e vento", where it's not hard to spot a tribute to Radiohead's "Karma Police" — recently covered by the band and clearly the inspiration behind the album's title.

The more "classic" Marlene resurface instead in the imperious, chorus-less crescendo of "La fuga", the track that opens the album with an invective against mass control, in the breathless catalog of natural imagery in "Lacrima", and in the gentle descent to the center of the Earth described in "Tutto tace".

Recurring references to intergenerational relationships—father and son, grandson and grandfather—relationships that haven't always gone the way they could have, help underscore the inevitable passing of time. There's also room for a yearning for redemption ("Laica preghiera", with an angelic contribution from Elisa) and a portrait of love in the age of environmental disaster ("Bastasse"). The protagonists become aware of the issues surrounding land regeneration and sustainability, but the lyrics never overreach into claiming to offer solutions, instead simply capturing a situation that has by now become inescapable. The result is a record "old-fashioned" in its approach yet thoroughly modern in its solutions, a serious and well-structured project that also spawned a documentary and a limited-edition craft beer, born from a collaboration with the local Baladin brewery.

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07/10/2022