Per Paolo Enrico Archetti Maestri degli Yo Yo Mundi arriva il primo album da solista: Amorabilia.
After a 35-year career as the lead singer of Yo Yo Mundi, celebrated with concerts and an exhibition entitled ‘Canzoni di fuga e speranza’ (Songs of Escape and Hope), which traces the history of the band from Acqui Terme, Paolo Enrico Archetti Maestri has released his first solo album. Amorabilia is a term coined by the author, born from the combination of the words Amore (Love) and Memorabilia. The album cover features a close-up photo of the musician as a boy, suggesting that this is probably a very personal and intimate album, where acoustic tones prevail.
The most “authorial” episodes of Amorabilia
Four songs played as a trio with Susanna Roncallo on guitar and Simona Colonna on cello stand out: Baionetta, an intense anti-war song; Iaio e Fausto, a beautiful, delicate and intense memory, written for the theatre show of the same name that recalls the murder of the two Milanese militants; Stelle nere, written for a band from Puglia, where the stars forced to leave the place where until recently they shone, illuminating the world, are a magnificent and “illuminating” metaphor for humanity forced to emigrate against its will; La canzone delle distanze, an acoustic ballad with Simona Colonna on cello and vocals and Susanna Roncallo on guitar, which closes the album with a glimmer of hope (“I heard everything, I didn’t understand the meaning / I saw everything, I didn’t look at anything / I forgot everything, but I remember you”).
Acoustic sounds also predominate in L’ennesima canzone sul tempo, a classic singer-songwriter song, with Cecilia Lasagno as guest vocalist and harpist and the prematurely deceased drummer Alan Brunetta. These are episodes in which Archetti Maestri’s remarkable lyrical ability emerges, highlighted even more by the choice of acoustic sounds. But the songs where the string arrangements underline the intensity of the Acqui singer-songwriter’s words are also very convincing, such as in the slow Il cigno e la Rosa, a seemingly light song but with a profound meaning (” This small life in the paradise of toil”) or in the beautiful L’amore trova sempre la sua strada, where a compelling melody that opens with the entrance of the strings paints almost a hymn dedicated to the power of love, which ultimately overcomes all barriers.
The electric moments are reminiscent of Yo Yo Mundi
However, there is no shortage of more electric tracks where the typical sounds of Yo Yo Mundi emerge, present in full in Estate in piscina (another title that comes from a previous show, Storie sul filo dell’acqua), or with a more pop feel, such as the cheerful rhythm of I cani sognano di noi, which opens the album (here the YoYo rhythm section is present). Dreams are also recounted in La bimba che sognava Maradona, another compelling melody, in which the strings are replaced by the wind section, with the invaluable help of Paolo Bonfanti‘s guitar. Amidst this variety of sounds and guests, there is also room for the almost pop nursery rhyme Curcuma Zenzero, a combination of colours and ethnic sounds (featuring Simone Lombardo on bagpipes, Maurizio Camardi on duduk, Laura Merione on violin and Elisa Testa on vocals) to describe the flavours of ethnic cuisines, which become ethical and supportive.
Amorabilia is not only the solo album of a singer-songwriter who, with his band, has written important pages in Italian music, but it is also a courageous project in its own way, adding a booklet with eleven poetic compositions to the eleven tracks, and even allowing itself the luxury of mixing in Dolby Atmos (something not to be taken for granted in the Italian indie scene), thanks to the trusted hands of Dario Mecca Aleina.
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