LA NOTTE ANCHE DI GIORNO

"La notte anche di giorno" is the third studio album by La Coscienza di Zeno and was released in 2015 on the Fading Records label with a line up featuring Alessio Calandriello (vocals), Gabriele Guidi Colombi (bass), Andrea Orlando (drums, percussion), Stefano Agnini (synthesizers, Moog, organ), Davide Serpico (guitars), Luca Scherani (piano, synth, Mellotron, Hammond organ, bouzuki) and Domenico Ingenito (violin) plus the guests Joanne Roan (flute), Melissa Del Lucchese (cello) and Simona Angioloni (vocals). It's an interesting concept album, divided into two long suites, about two female characters and two different ways to face fear and pain. It confirms all the good qualities of the band's previous works and the cover with a beautiful painting by Priscilla Jamone gives a visual form to its dark atmospheres and reflective mood...

According to the liner notes, the first suite, "Giovane figlia" (Young daughter), was inspired by the figure of a suicidal girl, Serena Zanimacchia, and is dedicated to her memory. It is divided into six parts but, despite its complexity, is well structured and flowing. The first part, "A ritroso" (In reverse), begins with music and lyrics evoking the image of an empty, very particular swing hanging from a tree, a girl floating in the air like a kite without string. Then the music and words take us back in time conjuring up the images of an unexpected pregnancy and of a girl in a hospital fed by syringes and nurses. She feels helpless, as if she were put on trial for her sins and condemned even by her own mother... The following section, "Il giro del cappio" (The turning of the noodle), marks a change of perspective, the atmosphere is calm and reflective, the mood melancholic. The narrator tries to understand the reasons for such a tragic, extreme action. There's pity and mourn, the memories of the deceased girl emerge from the shadows, with all her efforts to change and the sense of impending tragedy that slowly grows. What did they do to her? She lived in darkness even during the day, but who forced her to hang herself, who knitted the fatal rope? The vortex of memories becomes a hurricane in the third section, "Libero pensatore" (Free thinker), where the narrator draws the image of one of his friends and of his brilliant girlfriend, a bit crazy but friendly and tenacious, now lost forever... In the next part, "Quiete apparente" (Apparent quiet), comes back the image of the girl swinging in the air like a kite while the light chases the shadows along the walls at dawn. A short instrumental part, "Impromptu pour S.Z.", leads to the last part, "Lenta discesa all'Averno" (Slow descent to Avernus) which attempts, once again, to investigate the reasons that pushed the unfortunate girl to take her own life. She couldn't overcome her crises, some evil persecuted her like a slithering serpent. What follows is a long, scary journey throughout the holes of the soul, where our hell simmers, a gloomy place that only the wise or the madman dare visit. The last verses of the suite are sung in French by the guest vocalist Simona Angioloni and are taken from a traditional ballad that tells, in a very poetical form, of a terrible family crime. The ballad is "La complainte de la blanche biche", in the past interpreted, among others, by bands such as Malicorne and Tri Yann...

The second suite, "Madre antica" (Ancient mother), is divided into four parts and is dedicated to Bianca Orsi, one of the most important Italian sculptresses and to Sfefano Agnini's father, Gregorio, who during World War II lived in the Po Delta area. Born in Salsomaggiore Terme, Emilia, Bianca Orsi trained in Milan at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and in the first half of the 1930s frequented artistic and intellectual circles. Later she experienced the horrors of World War II first hand taking part in the Resistance as a partisan relay and a profound trace of that experience remains in her works. The first part of the suite, "Il paese ferito" (The wounded country), describes fake scenes of normality in a country ravaged by war: a little girl playing in the street, an old man smoking tobacco, two lovers kissing passionately, two stray cats on the run... The second part, "Cavanella", takes us in a village of the Po Delta and conjures up the image of the young Bianca walking barefoot on the bloodstained sand while some boys amuse themselves throwing stones with their slingshots at some corpses in uniform floating on the river waters. Mercy seems to be vanishing in war times and violence rules... The third part, "La staffetta" (The relay) depicts Bianca as a partisan messenger in Salsomaggiore Terme. In fact, the most common task for female fighters was the staffetta. The staffete brought or collected weapons and sent messages between the various fighting groups. They were women, in most cases very young, who perfectly knew the territory and moved on foot or by bicycle. The risks they faced were very high... The last part, "Come statua di dolore" (Like a statue of pain) evokes images of the concentration camps in Germany and tells of how Bianca managed to overcome that horror: now her blade cuts into the wood generating statues that recall death, statues of women pierced by pain...

On the whole, an excellent work!