Italian singer-songwriter and would-be-composer Franco Battiato has ventured
into just about every style, from pop muzak to avantgarde.
Unfortunately, his prolific output is not supported by adequate quality,
and most of his recordings are mediocre at best in each of the genres he
tries. It takes a lot of patience to listen to some of his albums.
To his credit, Battiato has mixed popular music (pop songs) and avantgarde
music (electronic collage) in a way that few musicians had attempted.
As a pop musician, he has a flair for catchy refrains,
but a rather monotonous, inexpressive voice.
As an amateur "classical" composer, he is rather limited (both in skills
and imagination).
At the end of the day, he might be best remembered as a melodic
singer-songwriter of atmospheric ballads, an eccentric innovator of an
authentic Italian tradition.
Fetus (Bla Bla, 1972) was a futuristic score that employed
electronics, found sounds and collage techniques. Despite the
obnoxious lyrics, it did bridge Italy's melodic tradition and
Germany's Kraftwerk-ian expressionism in a visionary whole.
Pollution (1973) delivered an even more adventurous form of montage,
particularly the experiments on the human voice, with an increased use of
noise. Most of the album is fragmented and naive, but the
triptych of Areknames, Beta and Plancton
packs enough pathos to compare favorably with avantgarde operas of the time.
With Sulle Corde Di Aries (1973) Battiato evolved towards the
chamber electroacoustic music of Sequenze e Frequenze and Da Oriente A Occidente, a natural progression from his electronic-rock fusion.
Having replaced rock instruments with chamber instruments, Battiato
concocted his most ambitious album,
Clic (1974), a veritable (but rather naive) tribute to the avantgarde of
Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Edgar Varese.
Exaggerating the ideas that these albums had explored,
the lengthy compositions of M.elle Le Gladiator (1975) and
Battiato (Ricordi, 1977) were not as intriguing. In fact, they were
mostly predictable and boring. Ditto for the six suites for
piano, strings, soprano and choir of Juke Box (1978).
Far more successful is
the hypnotic title-track from L'Egitto Prima Delle Sabbie (1978).
A collection of eccentric pop songs, no matter how well arranged,
L'Era Del Cinghiale Bianco (EMI, 1979) changed course, hoping to
transfer his experiments to a more accessible format.
Patriots (1980) and especially the best-seller
La Voce Del Padrone (1981) refined the idea. With this pop trilogy,
Battiato returned to his roots: Italian melodic music.
At the same time Battiato composed his first opera, which was also turned
into a ballet, Genesi (1986).
Fisiognomica (1988) is an autobiographical work, largely devoted to
his land.
This phase ended with Come Un Cammello In Una Grondaia (1991), a
considerably different album that introduced a lyrical and spiritual
philosopher-bard, boasting neoclassical arrangements (but ruined by a series
of covers).
His existential and ideological confusion (Battiato even
performed for Saddam Hussein's regime) was summarized by the ballads-psalms
of Caffe` De La Paix (1993)
that examine both the history of the human race, the zeitgeist of
his age and the musician's own tormented soul.
In the meantime, Battiato resumed his classical-music career with the operas
Gilgamesh (1992) and Il Cavaliere dell'Intelletto, and with
the Messa Arcaica (1994) for solists, choir and orchestra.
These are clumsy compositions. A reviewer in a classical music magazine
(American Recording, january 1995) summarizes the "messa" as
"an awful lot of uneventful noodling and doodling". The definition applies
to most of Battiato's "classical" experiments.
The austere philosophical themes of L'Ombrello E La Macchina Da Cucire (1995)
announced a new phase, that was refined via
L'Imboscata (Polygram, 1996) and reached its zenith with
Gommalacca (1998): while retaining the song format, Battiato indulged
in harsh and harrowing guitar and electronic sounds, thus coining a psychotic
form of hard-rock. But, mostly, he was just trying to sound "a' la mode".
The electronic pieces of Campi Magnetici (2000) were his wildest
collages since his early days, while Ferro Battuto (2001) was
lost in loungey jazztronica.
Dieci Stratagemmi (2004) is a lightweight collection of clumsy
electronic pop songs, occasionally politically motivated, and childish
pseudo-classical pieces, which constitute some of his most tedious material
ever.
Il Vuoto (2007)
He died in 2021.
Battiato is a national hero in Italy, widely considered one the greatest
living musicians by both the critics and the public.
