The sense of time, renunciation and individualism are the themes that inspired the songwriting of Aliante, the new album by Italian band Rigolò, out today January 20th, 2023 on CD and all digital platforms via the production company Antropotopia.
The eight new songs have been affected by the mood experienced over the last few years. The new single If and the previous two singles Leaving The Cockpit and I See Your Smile talk about the loss of oneself and of love, whether by choice or weakness. Rainbow and Beautiful Grace represent the will to contrast the passing of the days, urging us to perceive every moment with awareness, without abandoning ourselves to solitude. The rejection of selfishness is instead the main topic of War Is Yet To Come: as in a fairy tale with sovereigns locked up in defense of their castle, the track tells of fear and denial of others. In Who Calls Me and Be Right, on the contrary, there is a strong desire to reconcile with a community.
Aliante is the fifth full-length album by Rigolò, a band from Romagna made up of Andrea Carella – founder of the project – and Jenny Burnazzi, who met during their past militancy in the Comaneci, as well as Alessandro Reggiani Romagnoli, and Andrea Napolitano (currently also in the Clever Square line-up). Aliante follows Cocoons Should Die Young (2010), Slangenmensch (2013) and the more recent Giant (2015) and Tornado (2018), both produced together with Mattia Coletti, with the contribution in the second case of Brian Deck (Califone, Modest Mouse) to mastering. The cinematographic attitude of the band, active live both in Italy and in Europe, has also led to the inclusion in various soundtracks.
Rigolò continue to deal with the element of air, but this time, instead of being at the mercy of its strength, the four musicians have found a way to be able to fully exploit it. Recorded and mixed by Riccardo Pasini, an international sound engineer also present as a guest on keyboards, Aliante crosses different musical styles, while remaining faithful to the sounds that characterize the group from Ravenna, between folk background and post-rock structures applied to alt-pop. According to the band: “In the studio we put greater attention on the sound research of each specific instrument, which finds its own defined space, even if fitting into a unitary rendering. The result is a more effective sound“. In the arrangements we can trace the influence of names such as Belle and Sebastian and Khruangbin, Brian Eno and Ben Shemie, Sharon Van Etten and Aldous Harding, Bill Callahan and Mark Kozelek.
The electric cello, always preeminent in the compositions of the band, builds melodies that offer various listening keys with unconventional timbres and equalizations. The electric guitar layers and emphasizes the sonic environments, the bass plays free in its harmonic designs, while the drums mark those odd rhythms that beat the full work. The energetic and sunny music complements the gloom of Carella’s essential and thoughtful lyrics, conveying the desire for a rebirth. The voices of Carella and Burnazzi divide and bind together with immediacy, acting in the field of the “double” that dwells in each of us and fueling the cycle of destruction/regeneration that marks the passage of time.
