Wednesday, March 18, 2015

L'Apparenza

I'm very fond of Lucio Battisti last records.  I think they mark the greatest achievement
in his musical career.

I was curious about the creative process behind these songs. We know pretty well how Lucio worked with Pasquale Panella. In the last records the lyrics were composed before the music.

Instead, we know less about how the songs came to take the form we can listen to now. So, I tried to ask Robyn Smith, who arranged "Don Giovanni" and "L'Apparenza" and he was so kind to reply:

Ciao Carlo, 

I have not listened to the album for a while now. I just did - oh, it is so magical. The harmonies are mainly all Lucio’s. He demoed the songs with a very simple keyboard with his voice. What was so wonderful was that he just let me arrange everything as I wanted and he seemed to like everything. 

The relationship of the sound and the atmosphere relevant to the lyrics and the meaning was most important. At that time drum machines were widely used and the use of rhythmic keyboards gave it this feeling of almost unemotion. This is what he wanted - the empty change… the appearance. 

It was so easy and so enjoyable to make. I had already arranged Don Giovanni so I knew how Lucio worked and he knew how I worked. It was great and he is greatly missed.

Many thanks for bringing back such wonderful memories. 

Robin

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