If the past few months Glitterbeat Records took us far off and exotic places like Mali and Thailand, then for its latest release the label remained a little closer to home. The musical universe of Italian band Sacri Cuori ("sacred hearts"), a group of musicians from Emilia-Romagna describing themselves as Fellini's bastard sons, hovers between the soundtracks of Ennio Morricone (title track 'Delone' might as well be from the master himself and the same applies to tracks like 'Portami Via' or 'El Comisario') and Nino Rota and the surf rock of Italian-American duo Santo & Johnny. For 'Serge' Sacri Cuori drew inspiration from the life and work of the eccentric French chansonnier and bon vivant Serge Gainsbourg. Sacri Cuori describe 'Delone' as follows: "'Delone' is a man and a journey; a journey into the geography of what once was, a man obsessed with all that might have been. Delone is an Italian story always told with a foreign accent, a story imagined on the remote border between joy and melancholy.". Even though the album is largely instrumental, for the vocal parts Sacri Cuori called on Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Emmanuelle Sigal and Carla Lippi, sometimes referred to as the last Italian diva. In addition Sacri Cuori could also count on the collaboration of American guitarist Marc Ribot, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and members of Mexican band Sonido Gallo Nero. 'Delone' sounds like the soundtrack to an old movie and in this light it should come as no surprise Sacri Cuori managed to win the award for "best soundtrack of the year" for the music that they wrote for 'Zoran, Il Mio Scemo Nipote', an Italian-Slovenian comedy from 2013.
Of a similar kind is 'Dead Dance', the long player debut by Opez, a project by Massi Amadori and Francesco Tappi, two multi-instrumentalists from Savio in the aforementioned Emilia-Romagna. Musically speaking this album balances somewhere between an Angelo Badalamenti soundtrack for a film by David Lynch and the frontera sound of Calexico, spiced with echoes from the work of Cowboy Junkies, Django Reinhardt and Los Lobos.
A mesmerizing double Italian surprise!