Franco Casavola “Futurlieder” [Salon/LTM]

One of the more obscure Futurists gets an entire album, most of which was thought to have been lost material. He was ‘discovered? by Marinetti in 1922 (‘we Futurists would be pleased if you would join our fight against obsolete ideas?) and spent the next 5 years rubbing shoulders with the big Futurist boys: Russolo, Casella, Pratella, et al. He broke with them in 1927 and focused on movie scores.

On this disc you will find advertising jingles, song cycles, lyrical pieces, and cabaret pieces (that sound surprisingly like Satie’s street caf? pieces). They date from before, during, and after his Futurist phase. All are short, melodic, lyrical, and pleasing.

All I can say is that the music is gorgeous and crystal clear. Rigacci’s voice is like pure cool mountain water to my ears. The selections are on the opposite end of the stereotypical noisy/mechanical Futurist offerings (although Casavola did dabble in that).

Goes hand-in-hand with the ‘Musica Futurista? and ‘Futurism and Dada Revisited? collections in the library. Brief bio and some translations provided in the liner notes.

-Cujo, KFJC, September 2006

Haiku Review:
Time circuits are on…
Italian songwriter goes
Back to the Future