Area

If the Years of Lead were not a happy era for Italy, they certainly marked a phase of intense musical ferment. 1973, in particular, was a year of crucial importance on the international scene: many records came out driven by a strong idea, capable of sparking contrasting reactions – uproar, outrage, exaltation, astonishment – and which nonetheless rose to the status of milestones for later generations. It was also a pivotal year culturally, a year of demands, demonstrations and protests. Our own peninsula was not immune to this wave of innovation and change.

Placed within the progressive movement without ever fully belonging to it, except in certain respects (above all the will to move beyond the traditional song format), Area burst onto the Italian music scene with a peculiar, personal formula that would go on to be the object of sterile imitations in the years to come. Their debut is a bolt of lightning, above all for musical reasons, as well as for the more obvious political ones (my father even confessed to me that he'd bought the record mainly for the latter).

Thanks to the variety of experiences the band's members brought with them (Djivas, Fariselli, Busnello and Capiozzo from jazz, Demetrio Stratos from beat, Tofani from rock), "Arbeit Macht Frei" (released in 1973, but composed for the most part at the end of 1972) stands out for its successful blend of rock, free jazz, pop, electronic and avant-garde music, which can in some ways recall already established English experiences, such as that of Soft Machine and the bands of the Canterbury Scene. But beyond these essential reference points, the band's true strength lies in three elements: the presence of a political message, the blending of international musical elements with less predictable Mediterranean and Italian sonorities, and, above all, the incredible voice of the singer, Demetrio Stratos.

Stratos is already an extraordinarily gifted singer, even though his talent would later manifest itself in even more striking fashion: he would go on to develop an extraordinary vocal technique, which would come to include the use of diplophonia and vocal harmonics, as well as an almost unattainable range: the 7000 Hz he reached at his peak would place him among the all-time greats of singing. His musical background and cultural roots would lead to a fusion of Mediterranean-Middle Eastern inflections and avant-garde sensibilities. A unique legacy, one that Stratos would "forge" precisely within Area, in pursuit of an "internationalist fusion music", underscoring both the "total" nature of the band's sound and its strong political stance.

Starting from the title (inspired by the infamous motto of the Nazi extermination camps) and the artwork, created by Frankenstein, aka Gianni Sassi – who also wrote the cryptic lyrics – it's immediately clear that this is no ordinary album: the chained figurines holding the key are images of striking impact, alongside allusive, hermetic lyrics with a clear pro-Palestinian stance. On top of this, as a provocative gesture, a menacing cardboard pistol was included with the record upon its release.

Recorded in a farmhouse in the Po Valley, "Arbeit Macht Frei" opens with what would remain Area's most famous, and perhaps most memorable, track: "Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (Nero)". A spoken voice in Arabic (taken from a bootleg recording made in a museum in Cairo) provides the famous opening, followed by Stratos who, backed by the organ, declaims lyrics as heavy as boulders. The track contains pretty much all the typical elements of the band's sound: Arabic-tinged melodies, free-form improvisations, rapid tempo changes, harmonic progressions and a harsh, provocative text.

Next comes the title track, which emerges from a long intro courtesy of Giulio Capiozzo's drums and, amid whispers and assorted noises, flows into a jazz-rock-inflected fugue; the following verse is driven by a compelling bass-and-guitar riff, over which Busnello's sax executes solos that twist upon themselves beneath Stratos's vocals.

"Consapevolezza", the third track, seems to set off down progressive-leaning paths, before plunging into an Eastern-tinged arpeggio, enriched by Fariselli's experimentation, and ending in an alternation of quiet and loud jazz-inflected, progressive and rock passages, from which an organ also emerges recalling Santana's "Caravanserai". The lyrics urge rebellion and the dismantling of every value and demand of the "regime".

In "Le Labbra Del Tempo", one of the most accomplished tracks of the bunch, a beautiful vocal melody leads into the central section: a long jazz-rooted improvisation in which each member of the band seems to perform their own solo independently, without depriving the track of a clear identity of its own; the peak arrives at the end of the second sung section, precisely in the powerful, commanding "Io Ho!" delivered by Stratos. Spine-tingling stuff.

"250 Chilometri da Smirne", the album's only instrumental track, comes across instead as a rather conventional free-jazz romp, in which the instruments take turns performing solos.

The album closes with "L'Abbattimento dello Zeppelin", perhaps the most experimental and fascinating track: beyond the usual instrumental fugues, the core of the piece lies in the shadowy atmospheres that accompany Stratos's nervous, syncopated vocals, here more than ever skilled at interpreting the lyrics onomatopoeically.

"Arbeit Macht Frei" was, and still is today, an absolutely unique record in the history of Area and of rock as a whole. Critics would come to call it "radical music", for its tendency to push the fault lines of the musical fabric to their most extreme consequences.

The band would carry on with their career, at times leaning further into the more experimental, avant-garde side of things ("Caution Radiation Area", "Crac!"), at other times returning to a more conventional song form ("1978 Gli Dei Se Ne Vanno, Gli Arrabbiati Restano"), but never fully recapturing the magic, inventiveness and fire that had marked their debut.

The adventure would come to a tragic end in 1979, with the death of Demetrio Stratos, perhaps the most powerful, innovative and avant-garde voice our country's musical history has ever produced.

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20/08/2007