LOTO is the solo debut album by musician and visual artist Theo Taddei, previously a member of the Italian indie bands TooMuchBlond, Le Furie and Aquarama. The album will be released on April 10, 2020 by Fresh Yo! Label, on vinyl and all digital platforms.
“On the cover image there is one of my drawings: a mountainous landscape made only of cypresses and respective shadows, which transmit the definition of the hills through the perception of depth. That’s what I also tried to do on the record: to put every detail in a wider context“, Taddei explains.
LOTO has been played and recorded over the last few years by Taddei. He started on the drums – his instrument of choice – and then added more elements (guitars, bass, piano, keyboards), all essential in the songwriting phase, up to the voice, deliberately kept low in the mix, as if it were whispered to himself with the hope of being universal. The approach is as intimate as it’s instinctive. “Time has smoothed the new songs, defining a puzzle that has taken the shape of my life“.
Everything, starting from the drawing on the cover, speaks about the attachment to the places in Tuscany where Taddei grew up and the nostalgia triggered by their memory: “I was born in the countryside, just outside Florence. Here I soon learned to play drums, to be alone, to cultivate silence and sense of discovery guaranteed by the surrounding nature. I developed a certain sacredness for these places“.
Taddei’s music is concrete and at the same time dreamlike. It evokes indie pop, psychedelia and alt-folk. But above all it contains images.
The release of LOTO is anticipated by the first single XIX, an essential and liberating hymn to Taddei’s land, that opens with the sound of the drums, in the distance, captured during the procession on the day of San Giovanni, patron of Florence. XIX refers also to the number nineteen, the date of birth of Taddei, his father and his grandfather, as a generational link between yesterday and today.
The release of LOTO will be accompanied by an exhibition that will take place at the Bellini Museum in Florence on 3, 4 and 5 April 2020, curated by Caterina Toschi. It will be a multidisciplinary path marked by the display of drawings, video and music productions, during which it will also be possible to preview the album. “I was born as a painter in a family of painters. I became passionate about vintage prints and I specialized in china drawnings. I draw imaginary landscapes, with small fine strokes, which however recall my real birth places. It is once again about memories”.
LOTO is the door to enter Theo Taddei’s personal microcosm.
