Italian musician and composer Federico Albanese has released a new album called Blackbirds and the Sun of October which is out now via XXIM Records. It is the fifth studio album for the Berlin based artist; a work inspired – and entirely written and recorded – in Monferrato. Listen below and check our chat with the artist who explains the story behind the new full-lenght.
You have released the new album “Blackbirds and the Sun of October” . What are the first vivid memories of this album and what was the main focus when you started to think to this album?
The first vivid memory is definitely the days I arrived in Monferrato, in the northern Italian countryside. I sort of immediately felt overwhelmed by the tranquillity and peace of mind that this place conveys. Initially it was hard to conceive an album where you have so much beauty around. It seems a contrast but trust me that if you want to craft beauty in some form, it’s quite dif icult initially to do so if the beauty is already all around. It was a process, then ultimately I realized that that marvel all over was the true inspiration, everything was already there for me to grasp and translate into music.
You said “I can feel the freedom in this music and there is more positivity in it. I feel like it is something dif erent than before”. I am very interested to know more about this concept of freedom, can you explain it?
Well, simple things, for the first time I have composed and produced an album entirely in my homeland. After many many years abroad that gives you a new sense of freedom. In the end, when you live and work abroad it’s sort of as if you never truly feel yourself. You put a mask on, somehow. I guess it is a form of protection to dive and communicate in a world that does not fully belongs to you.
You can imagine from Berlin, going back to a very rural Italian simple place, the small talks, the espresso at the bar, reading “La Gazzetta”..The simplicity that is still alive in this small communities and a bit lost in the big cities..
The music of this album has a powerful aesthetics which i can compare to the same feeling when you saw the beauty of the nature. What was the most challenging part for the composition of this work? How much important was the aesthetic research of the sound and what is your concept of aesthetics in music?
This is a big one my friend, the concept of aesthetics in Music is very broad and not simple to decipher at once. By definition Art is a form of mimesis of nature and your experience in general. In the past I’ve always found inspiration in the inner space, memories, imaginary
places, frames of time and space.. Conceptual album where the core was sort of never the “here and now” but rather somewhere else. This is the first time where I didn’t look away. I lived and created music in the present which is very unusual to me. The reason is that I
found the aesthetic that I was looking for right in front of me and did not need to dive elsewhere. Everything in this album, the production, the sound, the imperfections, the proximity little cracks on the piano, it’s all part of the environment where the music was recorded. If you listen carefully you might hear a baby talking, dog barging, a tractor passing by, rain, wind..That’s the aesthetic, the beauty of having some kind of three dimensional sound that is not “only” music but everything else as well. It gives me a sense of immersion and it amplifies the story I want to tell.
Track such as “The Prince And The Emperor” and “Adelasia” are inspired and based on the story of the knight Aleramo and the 10th century AD emperor Ottone I. What impressed you most about this story?
It’s just very beautiful, an entire album or film should be dedicated to that. It’s a story of freedom, love, and most of all is the story – half legend half truth of how the Monferrato region was created.
You are Italian but you live in Berlin. This album is inspired by Monferrato area. I’m really interested in the connection between the places we live over the years, our roots and the art. How do you feel these theme connected to your music, your way to think music? What are your favorite places which inspired the most?
My life was splitted for a while between these two realities. One, Berlin, is in constant change, evolving with incredible pace, for the good or bad I don’t know..The other it’s framed in time, it’s like nothing is really happening nor changing, you see and feel echoes of an ancient world still vibrant and present, the slow living, the passing of the seasons. All things that af ect the way you live. The empathy between people for instance, which is one of the themes of the album, is something I re-discovered there. How we treat our environment, and ourselves, and how we interact with each-other, with care and love. I think the big cities do not give you that anymore, but they give you other things, the drive, a vibrant scene, the culture..
Ultimately is all about trying to find your own universe, which is what this album is about. I feel I have discovered something unique and new to me, and I was eager to celebrate that.
How would you like to introduce this album on the stage? Are there specific live plans?
Unfortunately I cannot play the album in full but I will perform 6/7 songs. I’m touring solo at the moment and certain pieces are simply impossible to play, we would need a whole band and string quartet and big stages. It will happen eventually I hope! But the set as it is is quite fluid and I love mixing up new material with old material, I always feel the evolution and the connection between what I did in the past and now. It’s refreshing.
Ritual question. Have you seen or heard anything good recently?
Adolescence, a series on Netflix, fenomenal.
