- Angelo Branduardi
Angelo Branduardi (born
February 12 ,1950 ), is an Italian pop singer and composer who scored relevant success in Italy and European countries such asFrance ,Germany andHolland .Biography
Branduardi was born in
Cuggiono , a small town in theprovince of Milan , but early moved with the family toGenoa . He was educated as a classicalviolinist in the local school of music. At the age of 18 he composed the music for the "Confessioni di un malandrino" ("Hooligan's Confession") bySergei Yesenin .He is married to
Luisa Zappa , who wrote the lyrics for many of his songs. They have two daughters, Sarah and Maddalena, both musicians.Works
The beginnings
Branduardi's first album was never released, and resulted from a co-operation with
Maurizio Fabrizio , composer and gifted performer. The first released album, "Angelo Branduardi '74" was arranged withPaul Buckmaster .The minstrel
"La Luna" ("The Moon"), including "Hoolingan's Confessions" and the fine, delicate song giving the LP its name, was a prelude to the success of the following works. "Alla fiera dell'Est" (English edition: "Highdown Fair", 1976) was Branduardi's first vastly popular album, followed by "La Pulce d'Acqua" (English version, "Fables and Fantasies" 1978) and "Cogli la prima mela" (English edition, "Life is the Only Teacher", 1979). Lyrics for the English versions of Branduardi's albums were written by
Peter Sinfield , also lyricist forKing Crimson andEmerson, Lake and Palmer .In those albums Branduardi exploited themes and patterns from ancient music, mostly Renaissance and early Baroque. The very song "Alla fiera dell'Est" ("At the Eastern Fair") is still popular among Italians of every age, who test themselves to send in memory all the fable-like, repetition-based lyrics. It is based on an old Jewish song in Aramaic ("Chad Gadya" - One Kid Goat) sung at the end of the
Passover Seder night service. In 2007 "Alla fiera dell'Est" was covered by Israeli singerShlomi Shabat for a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8sdnZ3zfsk Passover time commercial] for cellphone companyPelephone .Lyrics had a broad spectrum of inspiration: a
Danse macabre , the theme of Satan's mistress, Chinese, Native American and Druidic tradition, the apocryphalGospel s. Concertation owes much to the talents ofMaurizio Fabrizio , and exploits unusual instruments for pop music: dulcimer, Pan flute,lute ,clarinet , among others - mixed with more standard guitar-bass-and-drums.Experimentation and crisis
Subsequent albums showed an increasing desire towards experimentation and differentiation. "Branduardi" (1981) had a more intimate tone, "Cercando l'oro" ("Searching for Gold", 1983) had very sophisticated and delicate
arrangement s (starts with aString Quartet ), "Branduardi canta Yeats" (1985) was a tribute toWilliam Butler Yeats . "Pane e rose" ("Bread and Roses", 1988) was a still inspired, but increasingly dark picture of life and death. "Il Ladro" (1991) marked a very delicate point of Branduardi's life, edging on depression, echoed in a dark, almost cemeterial, style of singing.The album "Si puó fare" 1993 brought back Branduardi to normality, but the artist is now struggling to evade the "minstrel" character which was now too strict for him. In 1994 he published "Domenica e Lunedì" ("Sunday and Monday"), dedicated to
Franco Fortini .New directions
In 1996, during the celebrations for the restoration of the Duomo of
Spilimbergo after the catastrophic 1976 earthquake, he recorded the album "Futuro antico", in which he poses as an earlyBaroque musician, reusing, mixing, wording pre-existing material along with his own. This experience, together with musicians and musicologists, will continue with "Futuro antico II" and "Futuro antico III". The same year he performed "Te vojo 'bbene assaje" ("I love you so much" in Neapolitan) with Italian pop singerEugenio Finardi .In 1998 Branduardi teamed up with Italian stand-up comedian and writer
Giorgio Faletti for "Il Dito e la Luna" ("The Finger and the Moon").He subsequently reworked earlier musical themes with writings of and about St. Francis to produce "L'infinitamente piccolo"; he wrote a musical on the same topic ("Francesco").
In 2003 a new album, "Altro ed altrove" ("Other and Otherwere"), in a time period marked by a rise of racism and intolerance, brought together (mainly) love stories from several cultures.
Discography
* "Angelo Branduardi" (1974)
* "La luna" (1975 - French edition: "Confession d'un malandrin", 1981)
* "Alla fiera dell'est " (1976, Italian Music Critics's Award - French edition: "A la foire de l'est" - English edition: "Highdown Fair", 1978)
* "La pulce d'acqua " (1977 - English edition: "Fables and fantasies", 1980)
* "Cogli la prima mela " (1979 - French Edition: "Le demoiselle")
* "Gulliver,la luna e altri disegni " (1980)
* "Branduardi '81 " (1981)
* "Cercando l'oro " (1983 - French edition: "Tout l'or du monde")
* "State buoni se potete " (1983, soundtrack for the movie with the same name)
* "Branduardi canta Yeats " (1986)
* "Pane e rose " (1988 - French edition: "Du pain et des roses")
* "Il ladro" (1990)
* "Musiche da film " (1992)
* "Si può fare " (1992 - French edition: "Ça se fait")
* "Domenica e lunedì " (1994 - French edition: "La menace", 1995)
* "Camminando camminando " (1996, live collection)
* "Futuro antico I " (1996)
* "Il dito e la luna " (1998, lyrics byGiorgio Faletti )
* "Studio Collection" (1998, collection)
* "Futuro antico II " (1999)
* "L'infinitamente piccolo " (2000)
* "Futuro antico III " (2002)
* "Altro ed altrove " (2003)
* "The Platinum Collection" (2005, collection)
* "Futuro antico IV " (2007)External links
* [http://www.angelobranduardi.it Official Site]
* [http://www.angelo-branduardi.com Multilanguage Website of Angelo]
* [http://www.branduardi.info Branduardi.info]
* [http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/branduardi-ans/ Branduardi-ans Official Mailing List]
* [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=angelo%20branduardi&search_sort=video_date_uploaded&search_category=0&search=Search&v=&uploaded= Videos of Angelo]
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