Everyone sings and celebrates beat. But nobody does it like Alice. It was 1980 when Battiato, who already had two records of great popular success behind him such as L’era del fuoco bianco and Patriots (and shortly thereafter he would ship La voce del maestro to stores, a million copies sold thanks to hits such as Cuccurucucù and Centro di Gravità Permanente), Carla Bissi (this is Alice’s real name) took under her protective wing after a few 45 laps that hadn’t achieved the hoped-for success and made the singer from Forlì a pop star, first with Il vento caldo dell’ summer and then with Per Elisa. It was only the beginning of one of the most special partnerships in Italian music, carried forward over the years and culminated in 2016 with a joint tour that sold out everywhere.
Enrico Lo Verso to Carsulae for the tribute to Battiato: «I’m going back to the city that made me discover the Viparo and the story of San Valentino»
A year and a half after the Sicilian singer-songwriter’s death, while books, films and other projects dedicated to the artist continue to come out, after having been his muse and female alter-ego for a lifetime, Alice becomes an «instrument of Battiato’s music and of what he conveyed”. By recording a disc, Eri con me, which has just come out, which sees her reinterpret some pieces from Battiato’s repertoire together with the pianist Carlo Guaitoli and the Italian Philharmonic Solists: Alice presents it today at 6 pm at the Feltrinelli in via Appia.
What exactly does it mean to become an instrument of Battiato’s music?
«I don’t sing or interpret Battiato: I live it. For my part, there is almost total adherence to what Franco has transmitted and conveyed: it is a precious asset that must be nurtured and kept alive».
From East to West, Praise to the inviolate, Who am I?, Farewell, On the gardens of pre-existence: how did you choose the songs?
«There is a thread that links the various pieces of the disc and that represents the concept, if it can be defined as such, of the project: I have chosen songs that are linked to the spirituality sung by Battiato».
In his texts he alluded to Tibetan Buddhism, but also to the apocryphal gospels: how complicated was his spirituality?
«More than complicated, I would say fluid. She was looking for answers. In the last unedited work, We will come back again, she wrote: There are many ways, but only one that leads to the truth. Until we’re free, we’ll be back again. It could not be missing, in such an album».
There is no poisons, which Battiato wrote for her when Fazio invited her to participate in Sanremo in 2014, but in the end rejected her. Because?
«It belongs to an important project, the album you recorded that year. There are few light pieces here».
Not even Per Elisa is there. Did you make peace with that song?
«Today in concerts I sing it, but there was a period in which I was saturated with it. I didn’t want to sing it anymore. Once on the occasion of a European tour I did in 1996, I set out to rearrange it. With Robby Aceto, Ben Coleman, Mick Karn and Steve Jansen, the musicians who accompanied me on stage, we remade it in a very progressive version. I let Battiato hear it».
And did he like it?
Not at all. She didn’t get to the fourth line: Stop! ‘, she shouted (laughs) ».
“The cure” it is perhaps Battiato’s most enigmatic and misunderstood song. A prayer for oneself, a promise of love: what interpretation did you give it?
«The one Franco gave: it spoke of the highest earthly love. Franco has transmitted love at various levels throughout his life, especially at a higher level, without mentioning the word love except in very rare cases”.
La Feltrinelli, via Appia Nuova 427. Today, 6 pm.
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
Alice: «Beating? He is in me and now I sing his spirituality »