Juri Camisasca’s latest album is an indirect homage to Teilhard de Chardin. An unconventional and unique artist on the Italian scene, he wanted to call “Cristogenesi”, his latest record.
A career on the sidelines
The artistic history of Camisasca is not well known. In fact, it is her reluctance towards the trivializing commercialization of music that goes against the current, while her religious pop is unique and original, where Gregorian blends with sacred minimalism, lapping the sounds of mystic music.
Camisasca can afford it. In his decades-long spiritual research, a long monastic experience, the study of theology, meditation, icon painting, eremitical silence find space. Without his retirement from the stage for almost fifteen years, shortly after the recording of «The window inside»(1974), would be much better known.
He was known, and a lot, to progressive rock lovers. But few know that he is behind some of the songs by Alice, Milva and Giuni Russo. Among the most famous pieces of him there is certainly “Nomads“, Later interpreted by various authors, but also”Independence day», Brought to the San Remo festival by Alice. About her and Franco Battiato is «We will come back again», The last piece signed by the Sicilian artist.
Gregorian, mystic, electronic
Camisasca has left a significant footprint in the history of Italian music, despite having lived much of his life away from the record industry. It is enough to remember that after a very long hiatus he returned to music only in 1988.
It was in that year that he recorded “Te Deum»Reworking the Gregorian sounds with electronics. In 1991 you then published «The Carmel of Echt», Dedicated to Edith Stein, inserting passages such as«The waters of Siloe“Inspired by a volume by Thomas Merton, and”First engine», In which he recounts his experiences with meditation. The disc also featured a piece that is still current today: “Revolution now», In which a profound reform of hearts was called for against injustices, desires and the superficiality of human relationships.
After this record, however, again years of distance from the musical scenes, interrupted only in 1999 by “Arcane enigma”, to which Bluvertigo contributed. In it there are passages such as “The evidence of a Love” or “Don’t look for yourself outside“. Spiritually, the disc echoes Augustinian atmospheres, revealed by an explicit title: «St. Augustine“. If there are undoubtedly few artists who can allow themselves to sing these themes, it is noteworthy that the album also dedicates a song to vegetarianism: “Vegetarian song“.
After the warm welcome received by this record, it amazes, and even stuns, the seventeen years that Camisasca spent before recording, in 2016, “SpiritualityTogether with Rosario di Bella. Music and spirituality come together in this record, as evidenced by the homage to Indian culture expressed with «Light of India“And mysticism”Supreme identity“. In 2019, “Laudes“, Album in which the Gregorian returns, with”Exultet“, And the homage to a boundless spiritual wisdom such as”Impermanence“.
«Cristogenesi», dismissed by the Paulines last November, is the latest work by this artist from Melegnano. The title alludes to rebirth in the world of light, to Christ the Lord of the universe and of history, the only one who can give an answer to the questions of fullness, completeness and answer and fullness of man.
Completeness, fullness and response
There are many answers that Camisasca’s artistic maturity offers to his listeners. Bare, rough truths, counter-current like the Gospel they are inspired by. Starting from the pillars on which Christogenesis is founded, immediately built up in the song that opens the album, “All in the fragment»: Creation, Evolution, Incarnation and Prayer. The unknowable that with an explosion of love becomes present even in the smallest sign: seeing the sky in a seed all in the fragment.
“Christogenesis»Alternates original unpublished songs with modern reworkings of traditional songs. Among the former, the enthralling “Love is the Angel»Wisely constructed with a trend that restores intact the naive utopia of the flower children. The melody is irresistibly enthralling with an ending that makes one regret the possibilities wasted by deaf and sentimental blind men. In this piece, love is a guardian angel of the freedom and humanity of every living thing:
“Live your dream, you will find your dimension live in your soul, you will find peace and freedom”sings the vocalist Floriana Pappa to which the choir replies, almost enraptured: “Love is the angel of the world Love is the angel of the world “.
From the secret casket of his inspiration Juri Camisasca also extracts «Silent lives», Dedicated to Etty Hillesum, a delicate and faithful witness of humanity in Westerbork and Auschwitz. It is inevitable to compare this song, from which a video clip was also taken, to the similar fate of Edith Stein, of which she had already sung many years before. Two women who consciously shared the destiny of their people by countering the cold of human madness with the warmth of wisdom and love that burned and burned more with each “slice of freedom abandoned”.
“When you pray for someone you give them some of your strength, lighten their wings. […] alone like a wounded angel, with a voice full of life I can still hear you shouting: I just need to be, I just need to live, I just need a few things. It is enough for me to be, it is enough for me to live, between silent lives ».
Among the gems torn away from the sky of tradition we point out the powerful and hypnotic gait of the «Sanctus“By Henri Du Mont all permeated by the longing for the coming of the Lord and”O filii et filiae», A Gregorian who in Camisasca’s version is a dispersion of boundless joy that spans distances of 900 years and kidnaps the singer, recognizes his talent and faith, demands his voice.
Genesis of the human
Juri Camisasca’s voice did not lose pathos over the decades, but it has acquired meaning, measure, control and amazement. Sometimes angelic, others vigorous, always touched by grace. A clear voice of intact power, which gives vigor to the lyrics and brightness to the music, supported by the musicians Carlo and Alfredo Longo, Peppe Di Mauro, Giovanni Valastro, Dario Scimone, the soprano Loredana Toro and the Cantus Novo choir.
“Christogenesis»Is music recommended to defeat the disturbing thoughts of our burning times, to give rest to distressed minds, to restore revolutionary hopes to our spirits struck down by too many bad news.
Because Camisasca flies away from the plain safety of the notes we are used to. He presses us with praise, moves us with pity against any war, instills us with trust in the God of men, shows us the path of incessant research. If Christ is true man, this record sings the Genesis of man in Christ.
