Alice

The man of providence, but also too cumbersome a shadow not to shake off sooner or later. This, for Alice, was Franco Battiato, the man who launched her at the dawn of the 80s, handing her guaranteed hits (from "Il vento caldo dell'estate" and "Per Elisa" onward) and propelling her into the pantheon of Italian singer-songwriter pop.

The girl, however, had the mettle and the stubborn determination to prove it on her own. Not just any Sibilla, in other words (remember "Oppio"?).

So, after three exhilarating years and heartfelt tributes to the master (the covers on "Gioielli Rubati"), Alice branches out on her own, though she remains in excellent company. First and foremost, there's Francesco Messina, musician, author and designer, long part of Battiato's entourage, who would go on to become the deus ex machina of all of Miss Bissi's productions, and to whom she would also be tied by a solid romantic relationship. But that's not all. Because by now Alice had achieved international standing, built up over years of success in Germany and other European countries, courted by America's Capitol Records and even releasing an album in Japan. This is how the idea came about of turning to musicians of great worldwide renown to build with them a new sound, one that would shed the pop artifice of the 80s and head down the new ethno-world highways opened up in that period by gurus like Peter Gabriel, David Byrne and David Sylvian.

The first supercast (Gabriel's two protégés, Tony Levin and Jerry Marotta, plus ex-Roxy Music man Phil Manzanera) came together at the "Park Hotel" in 1986. The result was an elegant, ambitious record, carried by a gem like "Nomadi", a gracious tribute from another longtime Battiato collaborator, Juri Camisasca. But it would be three years later that this path and these intuitions would reach their definitive fulfillment.

In 1989, in fact, came "Il sole nella pioggia", the album that would definitively establish the "new" Alice. Of course, the collaborations helped, and considerably, given the names involved: Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri (that is, half of Japan), two extraordinary trumpet players in Jon Hassell and Paolo Fresu, Dave Gregory of Xtc on guitar, Jan Maidman (Penguin Cafe Orchestra) on bass, Turkish musician Kudsi Erguner on ney flute, and, last but not least, Peter Hammill (Van der Graaf Generator). On top of that, there's the hand of Juri Camisasca, who this time wrote almost all of the (beautiful) lyrics.

A gathering of stars who certainly don't settle for playing bit parts, as the sound makes clear. And yet the record manages to avert the most predictable risk: that of coming across as merely a luxurious exercise in style, the result of simply stacking multiple personalities and languages on top of one another. There's a soul here, in other words, a strong identity that admirably binds together this babel of sounds.

Camisasca's lyrics – close in spirit to Battiato's work of the same period – offer an original Italian variant on the ethnic mysticism of Peter Gabriel & co. And the sound strikes a perfect balance, with the ethereal tones of the synths blending with the dry timbres of the trumpets and Jansen's incomparable, deep drumming. Above it all soars Alice's powerful voice, taking flight over ever bolder and more complex arrangements.

Between oases of light and oceans of silence unfold songs marked by incisive writing and impeccable arrangements. The single "Visioni" doesn't give up its pop streak in the chorus, but lets it glide over a sweeping expanse of keyboards, ideally soundtracking the endless wandering of desert anchorites. The title track (inspired by a Zen concept that invites us to seek the reality of life beyond appearances) is an elegy suspended among clouds of synth, yet propelled by an incessant rhythm evoking African tribal rituals.

The whole record is a slow ascent from the small things of everyday life towards eternity: "E cammina lento il corso della vita/ il messaggio è nel silenzio nella sobrietà" is the teaching of "Il tempo senza tempo", a jewel of rarefied elegance in which Alice's contralto has never sounded so deep, before stretching out and rising in pitch, sketching a shadowy melody that would not have been out of place among the "secrets of the beehive" of her mentor David Sylvian. And another moving leg of the journey unfolds at the foot of the "lost continent" in "L'era del mito": Gregory's striking guitar intro paves the way for a spectacular ballad, punctuated by guitars and sent soaring by a tabla solo spiced with the Orient, as Alice's singing grows ever darker and more fatalistic.

It's a continual struggle between the corruption of the world and the purity of immensity: even "Le baccanti", who wash their "shimmering hair" while nuclear submarines sink into the depths, become an epitome of ancestral purity.

Broadening the range even further are three more "eccentric" tracks: "Anìn a grìs", a lullaby reworking a traditional song from Friuli (Alice's "adoptive" region), the medieval litany of "Orléans", already covered by David Crosby on "If I Could Only Remember My Name" and rendered here a cappella, and the "stretched-out" cover of Eugenio Finardi's "Le Ragazze di Osaka". "I cieli del Nord", meanwhile, is a new recording of "Le Scogliere di Dover", previously released on the Japanese compilation "Kusamakura" in 1988.

These are original, precious songs, rooted in Italian songwriting tradition yet carrying a universal breadth almost entirely unheard of in Italian productions. It's no surprise, then, that the album closes with a duet (in English) between Alice and none other than Peter Hammill ("Now And Forever").

Alice would continue down this path, pursuing an unconventional musical and literary quest and adding further prestigious collaborations to her résumé. But "Il sole nella pioggia" remains the pinnacle of a precious, thoroughly prestigious career for Italy, even if it has often been more appreciated beyond its own borders.

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05/10/2008