interview by Jamila Campagna
The new album of the italian singer-songwriter Paola Turci Io sono[1] (Warner Music) is out from the 21st of April and has soon reached the Top 10 of the best selling albums in Italy. The first single, same titled, is currently in the Top 40 of the most listened songs on Spotify. A bright debut for an album which embraces hits from the past, now re-recorded, and unreleased songs, among electronic sound vibes and acustic instruments. The first step of the italian tour was last 5th of June and it will cross Italy for the whole summer.
1 – The voice, clear and neat, the minimal arrangement, the biological rhythm of percussions; everything tends to be essential, between a transcendent elevation and a visceral, viscous energy. Is Io sono a record between sky and earth?
If we talk about transcendent elevation and visceral energy, then I say that Io sono is in the middle of my soul, exactly between sky and earth, where the subconscious is alive and active.
2 – It’s also an anthological album, a path through your career and your life; you decided to record again some songs from your beginning, as Quel fondo di luce buona and Lettera d’amore d’inverno. Can we consider them as a gift you made for the audience that’s always followed you and, at the same time, for the younger followers so they can get to know your classics?
I wanted an anthological and essential album that also could look at some periods of my life which own a deep meaning both in the artistic and sentimental side. I’ve always loved those two songs – Lettera d’amore d’inverno and Quel fondo di luce buona – beginning from their titles. They are dense, deep, elegant and, in my opinion, timeless.
3 – The individual is a politic animal and you often faced this kind of topics in your lyrics; in Io sono tracklist, however, we find a lot of love songs. Is it because, at last, it’s always “the Love which moves the sun and the other stars“?
Love, in all shapes, – even if I prefer the social and cosmic one, my song Bambini is an example of it – is the most powerful and incisive theme of the world. Music is the instrument to spread it.
4 – Your famous hits newly recorded have now got an intimate and embracing dimension. Their tone is gentle and whispered, so close to whom is listening to. A dialog: we define ourselves meeting the other, identity is in the relationship. How has this transformation process developed?
With the help of Federico Dragogna, the producer, I’ve been able to render my past songs through the lightness and legibility that they hold – and still held. The work developed during the writing of my autobiography. Actually I worked on the album in the same way I worked on myself: knowing ourselves as we are, lighten and liberating our own nature from useless structures.
5 – We can say this album is your dress. In Quante vite viviamo, you sing “Dovrei provare a dire cosa non sono più, mettere da parte tutti i malintesi, tutte le ferite, le notti appese“[2]; these lines and the whole lyrics of Io sono evoke that you are measuring yourself between past and present, as you’d be a river, which is always the same but never the same.
In your questions, there are the answers, which are so beautiful as the river metaphora. Thank you.
6 – It’s me to thank you, your figure is very inspirational. Now, to say goodbye, I’d ask you to sing something for us, but we are on paper! So I ask you a line from a song you would sing now if we were on video or on air.
You just brought it to my mind: Noi siamo ancora qui, in quest’attesa che sa di infinito, siamo ancora qui, in questa stanza che è il nostro vestito, siamo ancora qui, tra la vita che aspetta impaziente, siamo ancora qui… Felici, sia pure un istante![3]
[1] The English translation of Io sono is I am
[2] “I should try to say what I am no more, lay away all the misunderstandings, all the wounds, the hanging nights”
[3] We are still here, in this wait that tastes of infinity, we are still here, in this room that is our dress, we are still here, among life which awaits impatient, we are still here… Happy, even just for an instant!
www.paolaturci.it
www.facebook.com/PaolaTurci
www.warnermusic.it
www.gibilterra.org
Photo credits: Ilaria Magliocchetti Lombi
