In front of the video of Seia I block myself a moment. Among those images, provided by the Ansaldo Foundation, I recognize one in particular: the dense smoke of the steelworks of Cornigliano. The smog accompanied all my childhood. “Ah, he thinks,” says Gaia Banfi, “I actually never visited that area, but Genoa was my second home. My mom's family is all Genoese ». That mood ended up inspiring the musician who named his first album The maccaia.
Maccaia is a typically Ligurian meteorological phenomenon that takes place when it blows the sirocco, the sky covers itself and the humidity reaches very high levels creating a sort of misty substrate that rides the sea and confuses with it. «It was the atmosphere that surrounded me when I was walking in Corso Italia. Training walks because I started listening to music, the first things that interested me. I was 13-14 years old and I was doing my first thoughts about the future, I became aware of my desires. They were moments of great discoveries, in which, let's say, the senses were all on the alert ».
Listening to the disc, you can imagine this girl (who was born in Milan and has lived in Bologna for years) who focuses to observe the Genoese promenade and feels sensations that would have stimulated the inspiration for a “brumoso” album, suspended between earth and sky, with seven songs in a continuous dialogue with silence. “This album arose of flashbacks, a return to the places from which everything started.”
The maccaia It exudes melancholy. Of the beautiful one, which is positive to try sometimes, closed in themselves, with your thoughts, its worlds. Summarizes the landscapes of the soul. And the rest? To stay in the Genoese area, the city offers two faces: the sunflow of the sea and the dark one of the carrugs. “On the album there is also that, facilitated by De André's listening. I wanted to understand the nuances of his music and dialect. All things that, in the end, are also veiled by the melancholy that communicates my album ».
It starts from the Ligurian capital and arrive far away. The sounds are tints of electronics, they are world and post rock glazes, ambient textures. They photograph wide -ranging landscapes. «I didn't focus on a particular genre. I studied jazz at the conservatory and from there I developed the whole question of improvisation, of harmony … then the discovery of prog, electronic music. My father worked with Klaus Schulze who influenced me a lot. At the moment what strikes me most is instrumental music ».
Gaia's father, Giuseppe Banfi called Baffo, was one of the pillars of the ticket for Hell, authors of a single album in 1974 who left his mark. Then Baffo dedicated himself to electronics, affecting work for the Schulze label, worked with Mina and many others. «My father allowed me to meet a lot of music. In the car with him there were various genres, it has always been very open. At home we had a lot of records and taught me to listen carefully. His work in prog and electronics transmitted me a freedom that do not teach you at the Conservatory ».
Gaia Banfi's album is part of a vein of Italian music in which Daniela Pes, iosonouncane and musicians related to her Tanca Records can be included, which make their daily bread experimentation. An experimentation never end in itself, somehow pop, with disparate influences and a great desire to expand the tissue (even too rigid, in recent years) of the song. «I am happy that my music is associated with those records. I met Jacopo and Daniela and we often see each other because we find ourselves a lot in tune ».
Incredible, among other things, the feedback that artists of this kind have obtained, in times of trap and disengaged pop. «In my opinion people are getting tired of genres who have been stopped for some time. Perhaps the public is opening up, he is warning the need to listen to something that can amaze them ». With characters like Pes or Incani, Gaia Banfi shares the use of various languages in the texts, which are mostly in Italian but with parts in Spanish and English. “The Spaniard was a randomness, I simply had the will to collaborate with Rehhll, an Italian-Argentine artist. I really like how the voice can lead to different types of sound by facing different languages ».
The texts, sung with a voice in balance between sound and dream, have a common thread: memory and memory. «I pulled out the things that have been part of me and continue to do it in a more conscious and mature way. Being 27 years old, I began to reflect on lived emotions and how I perceived them. I didn't talk about specific experiences, but I liked to tell some events emotionally, bringing out the nostalgic and melancholic appearance in tracing personal memories. In the end the songs united naturally, creating a harmonious result ».
On the whole the desire for a journey backwards, to the days between childhood and adolescence, as if to stage the moods with still pure eyes. «I teach music to the children, and seeing them discovering the world, doors have widened on me on a world that I needed to explore. I wanted a creative approach that had the typical purity and innocence of the little ones. In this way we have opened visions that as adults are lost a little ».
Gaia has shown all his skills as a complete musician by composing, playing and producing The maccaia. «However, I have always been joined by Aka5ha, which deals with mix and master, but also helps me with different advice on production. In the last three years I have worked to become as independent as possible in the areas of production and arrangement, already having a solid theoretical base thanks to my studies. I missed the production part, but I have done many progress, even if there is always a margin of improvement ».
The maccaia It is a great start and makes Gaia Banfi hope to go further in the future. From her and artists close to her, they are expected to be able to expand the boundaries with increasingly adventurous jobs, which go in unexpected directions. «I would like to explore the electronics again, but with a more analog approach. It is a perspective that excites me a lot. The beauty, in my opinion, also lies in the path you choose while you do these things, making the most of the situations and meetings that make you grow. If you do musical research of this type, you never stop. “
