Processthe last concept album of Calgollais an intense and stratified sound journey within the contradictions of the contemporary human condition. With a musical language that combines Alt Rock, Post-Rock, Post-Punk, Spoken Word and incursions in Performance Art, the band builds a complex work that escapes any definition.
We met Emanuele Calìfounder of the project, and with him we have deepened some issues related to new work.
Process It is a dense and stratified concept album. Where does the idea of building such an ambitious work come from?
Calgolla was originally the solo/Bedroom-Producer project of the singer and guitarist Emanuele Calí and slowly he is transforming into a band in all respects. Despite this, both the first and the second album arise from spontaneous ideas collected over the years. Of all these ideas (there will be about a hundred) some have been developed, others abandoned. A selection was then made, which was then worked in the recording and production phase in order to make them consistent with each other, given that, being born spontaneously, in some way each song represents a fragment, a different inspiration. You say that you are ambitious, for us it is only the result of time and patience …
What does the Latin word “procedure” represent for you?
In Italian it is still used as a synonym of “process” and this is probably the meaning it represents for us primarily. Our life is like a passage, a long journey full of inner transformations, more generally. More specifically, this album contains many of the impressions received over the years of the transfer, adaptation, setting abroad and in particular to the city of Berlin, where we currently live.
You mixed alt-rock, post-rock, spoken word, post-punk and even performance art. How did you find the balance between all these languages?
Did we find a balance? We would like … what we know is that we did not want to do the classic “gender” album (a disc, so to speak, in which one track very much resembles the other, in terms of the musical genre above all) and not even an inconsistent mixture of different material. We were interested in telling our story, through the influences that have colored the previous and parallel musical projects. As well Yolk (the first album) tells the story of the influences of when I played in Italy, this album represents an implementation of these influences, until the current moment.
“Digital pupil” is an invective against digital control and technological depersonalization, what do you think of the use of social networks in the music field?
As in many other cases, according to the use of social networks, the problem is not in itself, as it simply represents a tool, which if used with wisdom also has its advantages (in this case, potentially, everyone can use them to promote their own project without necessarily passing through other channels). In practice, however, only those who reach a certain degree of notoriety (and therefore of Likes, or followers) really manage to get something about it. And to reach an adequate number of followers there are few who really manage to invent something original and thanks to their intuition to earn appreciation. In most cases it is a question of adapting to the “trendy” content of the moment which, re -presented in many different sauces, help to increase their followers. Without wanting to judge these mechanisms, let's try to stay back, to observe them, and remain at a certain distance. To make our decisions based on what we consider interesting or not, but let's try not to let ourselves be “sucking”, let's say so …
Each song is sung in a different language (English, Italian, German, French, ancient Greek, Sicilian …). What role does multilingualism play in your narrative?
Well, not every song, but we did a nice potpourri, that yes. Well, there are many aspects of why this choice. The most direct is the fact that by living in a multi -cultural metropolis such as Berlin, we speak many different languages every day (we do not speak so much German, as one might think, at least not in our case) and since one of the main themes of the disc is precisely migration, we think this choice is in the direction of breaking down the barriers. We also really like the approach of musicians who have gone in this direction (in Italy, for example, Franco Battiato) and in this way we only try to represent our daily reality a little, without pretending to mean who knows that.
Some texts are recited poems or contemporary mantra. How do you work on the voice-parola-span relationship?
Good question, thank you, because it is a fairly central theme of this project. Almost all texts of Processin fact, are traits and adapted by Viaticusgraphic poem written by me who are the singer together with the visual artist Giacomo della Mariareclaimed to adhere to music. In many cases he started from these texts (in the form of rather than prose poetry), later heats were composed, which then reached the definitive form adapting the text to music, and vice versa, as a kind of collage. In other cases, however (e.g. erdelous pflanze or calm waves), he started from musical ideas and an ad hoc text has been written, in which the rhythm of the text/poetry follows the rhythmic of the music song. In any case, a cadenced “Spoken Words” form was found, we say recitative, for the sung, since the singer has been following this line for years. To break with this sung/spoken some moments of cantato were added in which the voice is used as a pure harmonious tool, in addition to the other tools.
Is there a song that more than others represents the essence of this new job?
No, I would say no. I am very far from the “opportunistic” mentality of writing, so for us each song represents a precise moment and we do not feel like choosing one over another. The title track, for example, instead of being the most catchy song, is perhaps the most abstruse, more experimental. But for this reason the album received the title of the title track. And then we prefer that everyone chooses his song, his moment, rather than suggesting which one can be our possible preference.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
