Cesare Malfatti
e Marco Parente
Two musicians with a long past behind them are free to move between their songs, sometimes alone and sometimes together, in an unprecedented collaboration, exchanging two facing positions: one standing with guitar, microphone, bass pedalboard and the other seated, with drums, microphone, keyboard. Those who are sitting accompany those who are standing. Cesare Malfatti accompanies Marco Parente. Marco Parente accompanies Cesare Malfatti.
Giuseppe Righini will open the concert and enjoy the evening with a good glass of wine.
Cesare Malfatti is one of the pioneers of the Italian alternative music scene, as a member of Afterhours in the late ’80s and early ’90s and especially as co-founder of La Crus together with Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi and Alessandro Cremonesi. After his most recent experiences with The Dining Rooms and Amor Fou, and in parallel with the 2011 La Crus reunion, he has been pursuing a solo career in recent years. He has done so, as always, in his own way, breaking away from traditional market mechanisms and rediscovering craftsmanship at 360 degrees. After the eponymous “Cesare Malfatti”, released in 2011 with the artistic co-production of Paolo Iafelice (Adesiva Discografica) and sold exclusively by mail by Cesare himself, who hand-finishes every single copy with a sewing machine, and after its live re-release in 2013 with the participation of, among others, Giovanni Ferrario and Manuel Agnelli, comes the new album “Una mia distrazione”. This album too was initially distributed exclusively by mail, with an equally original packaging: a vacuum pack made of postcards with photos taken by Malfatti himself, which change every hundred copies. The constant and continuous growth of the project, however, convinced Cesare Malfatti to return to record shops, making an official release of “Una mia distrazione”, which will be released on 6 May 2014. Often the challenge that leads an artist towards different directions, less usual roads, less his own, is a winning one in building a new project. So Malfatti’s new work is also tinged with jazz, thanks to the presence of Antonio Zambrini, a Milanese pianist and composer, a real treasure of our music, a versatile artist open to comparisons with other musical languages. Well orchestrated, enriched by the collaboration of musicians from different backgrounds, such as Matteo Zucconi on double bass, Riccardo Frisari on drums and Vincenzo Di Silvestro on strings, “Una mia distrazione” is an airy work with a wide melodic range that is a real “happy distraction” in Malfatti’s career, with 8 texts by Luca Lezziero, 3 by Vincenzo Costantino Cinaski and the vocal contribution of Stefania Giarlotta. The artistic co-production was once again entrusted to Paolo Iafelice (AdesivaDiscografica).
Marco Parente was born in 1969 on the same day as Duchamp, 28 July. He is one of the most brilliant and elusive songwriters on the contemporary Italian scene. Active since 1997, he has released six studio albums, a live show, a double DVD and three original theatre shows, which have highlighted his desire to break the mould, the coherence of his ever-changing stylistic vision and accurate sound and textual research, always poised between song form and poetic performance. Without forgetting his innate predisposition to confrontation – it is enough to remember collaborations with Stefano Bollani, Carmen Consoli, La Crus, Cristina Donà, Paolo Benvegnù, Manuel Agnelli; on the literary side, he knows and accompanies names of international poetry such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Anne Waldman, John Giorno and Ed Sanders. He receives the appreciation of a sacred monster such as the ex-Talking Heads David Byrne who rewards him by including him in the playlist of his personal web-radio. In 2011, “La riproduzione dei fiori” was released by the new independent label Woland. Of particular note is the special contribution in the song “Always” by Robert Kirby, Nick Drake’s historic string arranger. In 2013, Woland released “SUITE LOVE”, the first of a trilogy of suites in song form. The album was produced and recorded by Taketo Gohara (Capossela, Edda, Baustelle). In January 2014 he released the first album by BettiBarsantini, the new band formed together with Alessandro Fiori.