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Paolo Enrico Archetti Maestri: recensione di Amorabilia

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by Luca Paisiello – rockshock.it

The singer and guitarist of Yo Yo Mundi makes his solo debut. Amorabilia by Paolo Enrico Archetti Maestri is a testament to the sensitivity of an artist who is always positive and who, in recent years, has encouraged people to fight for their dreams.

It seems a little strange to describe Paolo Enrico Archetti Maestri as a “newcomer,” given that after 35 years of recording and performing with Yo Yo Mundi, he is now making his solo debut with his first release, Amorabilia. Singer, guitarist, and founder of the famous band from Acqui Terme, Paolo has been writing since he was the 8-year-old boy pictured on the cover and has composed 11 songs combining stories linked by memories and the wonder of rediscovering authentic beauty.

It is an album that does not stray at all from the melodies we have heard on Yo Yo Mundi’s albums, who have not broken up at all and here the band members participate in some sessions on this album, such as on the radiant L’Estate in Piscina. Many songs should have ended up on their next studio album, but the band from Monferrato intends to experiment with new sounds and so Paolo wanted to make some of those songs his own.

Yo Yo Mundi, in an expanded line-up with Michele Pracca on cello, Luca Garino on trumpet, Maurizio Castagna on tenor sax and Donatella Figus on backing vocals, accompany Paolo on I Cani Sognano Di Noi, a lovely song about freedom and ‘a thousand corners to smell, a hundred chains to break’. La Bambina che Sognava Maradona (The Girl Who Dreamed of Maradona) stems from the Piedmontese artist’s connection not only with soccer, already recounted in some of his band’s songs, but also with his half-Neapolitan origins on his mother’s side. It is a cheerful and dreamy song, with Paolo Bonfanti on guitar, inviting us to let ourselves be carried away by the current of imagination: “A kick to life and one to magic.”

Archetti Maestri masters a style of writing made up of metaphors, memories, and judgments expressed with class, always with the elegance of De Andrè, De Gregori, his friend Fossati, and that great generation of songwriters, poets, and intellectuals capable of shaking consciences. This can be seen in songs such as La canzone delle distanze (The Song of Distances) or the beautiful L’Amore Trova Sempre la Sua Strada (Love Always Finds Its Way), songs full of feeling and a great ability to penetrate through delicate melodies, sometimes with the acoustic guitar in the foreground, sometimes with a piano and a host of non-electric instruments, but all exuding energy with refinement.

He also enjoys playing not only with the soft Central American rhythms in Curcuma e zenzero (Turmeric and Ginger), but also simply listing the foods used to flavor dishes, turning them into a fun song. There is also the tragic and touching memory in the dialogue between Iaio and Fausto, written for a play dedicated to the memory of the two young men brutally murdered in 1978 outside the Leoncavallo Social Center in Milan. “A terrible story of hatred, indifference, violence, and deviance that cannot and must not be forgotten,” writes Paolo.

We also find a couple of songs already donated to two artists: Stelle Nere for C.F.F. and Nomade Venerabile, a paratheatrical rock group from Gioia del Colle, and L’Ennesima Canzone sul Tempo given to the Milanese duo Cri + Sara Fou. This song, written at the time in collaboration with Cristian Soldi, features vocal accompaniment by Cecilia Lasagno in this version, but it is not only her harp that can be heard: Cristian himself plays classical guitar, Paolo plays the charango, while the late Alan Brunetta plays the glockenspiel and… even a chandelier.

Il cigno e la rosa celebrates the hard work “of crickets, woodworms, and ants, all this small life, in the paradise of toil, which from morning to night unscrews the screws of time gone by and gives us the spring we have so longed for.” A metaphor for tireless nature, very similar to the lives of the rest of us, who manage to embrace each other and enjoy memories together after tiring days spent surviving and doing our best. Enrico Pesce is on piano, with arrangements by Lucio Costantinni and the ever-present YoYo Andrea Cavalieri on bass.

Baionetta, one of the four songs performed with Susanna Roncallo on guitar and Simona Colonna on cello, is a sweet and melancholic anti-war fairy tale inspired by Paolo’s maternal grandfather. It tells the story of a soldier stabbed by the enemy who saw his heart escape from his mouth. A doctor and his nurse watch helplessly as life ebbs away, but as the vital organ escapes, a word remains on the soldier’s lips, which, wet with the tears of the two healthcare workers, causes the heart and the word to explode in a song of love.

Some writings by Paolo Enrico Archetti Maestri accompany the booklet attached to the disc, and the mixes are by Dario Mecca Aleina, created using Dolby Atmos immersive technology, which can only be heard with suitable equipment and certain types of headphones capable of creating a three-dimensional sound environment. Amorabilia is a testament to the sensitivity of an artist who has always been positive and who, in recent years, has encouraged people to fight for a dream, for an ideal, for a world that may not be perfect, but is better.

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Paolo Archetti Maestri – Amorabilia (Nota, 2024)

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by Marco Sonaglia – blogfoolk.com

“Amorabilia” is the first solo album by Paolo Archetti Maestri, singer, guitarist, and founder of Yo Yo Mundi. It is not just an album, but also a book that defines, expresses, and preserves eleven songs and eleven poetic compositions, as if they were two soccer teams competing on the field of creativity and imagination. The album opens with “I cani sognano di noi” (“Dogs dream of us and we dream of falling, we have a thousand stars in the puddles of our hearts and a hundred moons to bark at”) with the stubborn strings arranged by Lucio Costantinni and the double vocals of Donatella Figus. “La bimba che sognava Maradona” (“A kick to life and one to magic, son of talent ignites volcanoes and waves, song becomes wind, genius, madness, the madness that loves you, the darkness that hides”) is marked by Luca Garino’s trumpet, Maurizio Castagna’s saxophone, and Paolo Bonfanti’s electric guitar. It continues with the delicate and intense “Il cigno e La Rosa” (“Listen to the breath of the swan and the cry of the rose, the fog that envelops the forest when it rests, watch the river glide slowly over the thighs of the plain, if the sickle mixes pain, let the hammer nail fear”) cradled by the piano and cello, and “L’ennesima canzone sul tempo” (“Time that inclines the planets and the silent run of the antelopes, adjust the wing of my song, turn the propeller of the wind, move the propeller in the wind”), written with Cristian Soldi and sung together with Cecilia Lasagno, who also plays the harp. Simona Colonna’s cello and voice intertwine with acoustic guitar arpeggios in “Baionetta” (“A song is born softly, the word and the heart, slowly they make love, a song is born softly, the heart and the word, finally they are one”). “L’amore trova sempre la sua strada” (“Love always finds its way”) (“The day tears the eyes from the moon, rags are lost in the cough of the wind, lick my hand, calm my torment, Euripides stops, sniffs and barks”) has a backdrop of strings, piano, and vocals by Marialuisa Ferraro, Daniele Gennaro, and Alice Cavalieri. Maestri’s militant anti-fascism can be seen in “Iaio e Fausto” (“Fallen at the dawn of spring, I slap them in the dark, black tarantula, two twin flowers lost in the shadows, the hand that kills, the voice that overshadows, dying young does not make you grow old, but dying murdered does not make you forget, Iaio see you soon, Fausto we’ll be in touch: Two tears falling slowly, slowly”) where we find Simona Colonna and Susanna Roncallo (vocals and guitar). “Estate in piscina” (“May summer in the pool bring all this happiness, leaving a sprinkling of stars on our skin, may summer end its run here at the bottom of this pool like a smooth stone to caress in your pocket”) has a folk-rock sound and is played with the entire Yo Yo Mundi band. “Stelle nere” (“Abandoned by the moon, rare stars dive into the sea, twin lights dancing freely in the reflection on the precipice of the abyss”) is a song written for an Apulian group, C.F.F. and Nomade Venerabile, re-proposed in an excellent version with the melodica in the foreground. “Curcuma e Zenzero” (“Cook aphrodisiac music, fantastic notes will nourish us, cook heavenly music, ethics and sustainability”) shines with ethnic influences thanks to Simone Lombardo’s bagpipes, Maurizio Camardi’s duduk, Laura Merione’s violin, and Elisa Testa’s intertwining vocals. The album closes sweetly with “La canzone delle distanze” (“I drank hunger, I ate thirst, digested tears, stole comets, my gaze rises and falls, in front of the horizon, the song stretches out”). With this work, Maestri highlights his entire human universe, confirming himself as a champion, thanks to refined writing combined with convincing sounds. “Amorabilia” is a succession of emotions, as well as being an excellent debut and a happy confirmation.