Light years away from the glitter of the Sanremo Festival and the red carpets rolled out by some of the most popular protagonists of Italian music, in desperate search of the chart-killing hit, “Urban Impressionism” is a work of impeccable modern classical. Dardust leaves aside any performance anxiety (it is impossible to predict whether the potential hit of the moment will really turn into a successful song), returning to highlight the aspects of his writing that go beyond the expectations and needs of pop.
The two words that define the title perfectly enclose both the contents of the album and the author's intentions: to quickly fix, like a painter on the canvas, with a few quick sketches, the impressions aroused by the observation of an urban landscape , walking around the outskirts of big cities. In particular, brutalist concrete buildings and depersonalizing dormitory neighborhoods, in this case metaphors of the emotional barriers that each of us tends to build around ourselves, as a form of (in)voluntary protection.
Dario Faini tries his hand at the piano, banishing catchphrases, and writes thirteen melancholy and poignant tracks, enriched by numerous elements that vibrate under the skin: violins, synths, very soft beat. No vocal intervention is grafted onto the instrumental scores, and Dario could have involved the most important voices, with the intention of creating a clever work, which would have been very popular. And instead he opts for a work of subtraction, aiming to keep it as dry as possible, preserving only the indispensable (“Impression, Skyline”, “L de la Nuit”, “Cobalto Love”).
The approach remains minimal (“Nocturne Of You”, “Golden Cage”, “Italian Reverie”), even when the sudden impetuosity (“Le Bolero Brutal”) would suggest a frontal attack. Despite the presence of subtle glitch rhythms, the main declared references are Debussy, Liszt, Steve Reich, taken as the guiding light of a deeply introspective writing, which intends to investigate loneliness, the sense of loss, the end of a love.
“Urban Impressionism” is a work with an international scope, in which the sound of the piano blends naturally with both urban electronic sounds and the classicism imposed by the strings. There is no shortage of surprising homages, as in the Hispanic flavor instilled between the lines of “Mon Coeur, Béton Brut”, taking up the theme of “Asturias”, a famous composition by Isaac Albéniz dating back to the end of the 19th century. The iconographic aesthetic, also reported in the video clips created to comment on the songs, further underlines the intent to create a real sound installation. The virtuosity of the author (“Vertige”, just to name one) is thus placed at the service of a project that combines music, architecture and post-modern philosophy, created by an artist capable of seeing the future, clearly, after having studied and analyzed history, the past, in depth.
12/19/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
