When Enzo and I started this project, the idea was that of creating a fresh contribution to Italian music. A fusion of music and Italian language carried out with a different methodology, other than the standard procedures of modern song-making.
The lineup included me, a musician, and Enzo, a poet. Not a singer, a poet. This is crucial, since the poet is the archetype of the singer. The poet masters rhythm, tune, timbre and spoken words. In Greek iconography, the art of poetry is often represented by the lyre, a musical instrument. Poetry is music in itself. The poet is The Singer.
So, this was the vague starting point of La stanza sul fiume, a musical creation carried out by a musician and a poet.
I proposed to Enzo six musical tracks performed with an instrument I built for the purpose, a multitouch system made of several granular engines and effects that allowed me to improvise live.
I followed a basic idea of openness, trying to leave enough space for the voice in the tracks. I also used some natural environmental noises as the basis of the synthesis process.
Still, I wasn’t expecting much from this first attempt, Enzo could have hated it all, or at best he would have indicated to me some parts here and there to focus on.
I was ready to dialogue, even to restart from scratch.
Surprisingly, the magic happened… in a blink of an eye Enzo composed six lyrics for the six tracks as they were. Everything took its place in a natural, spontaneous way. And we both loved it.

The first of these six tracks, La marina, is a song about the sea.
The word “marina” is a less used, but widely known synonym of “mare”.
Italy is a peninsula that protrudes in the Mediterranean sea for approximately 7.900 kilometers of coast, islands included.
No wonder the sea, such an omnipresent entity, has been celebrated by italians throughout the centuries, from the latin poets all the way to modern popular music.
The sea has been sung in all possible ways, pictured as a powerful force of nature, a bringer of life, a precious resource, a border between known and unknown, down to more mundane aspects of human life, like holidays at the beach, the first kiss, the moonlit shores, you name it.
The sea is one of the more abused, clichè words in modern Italian songs.
Enzo, willingly, took the challenge.  And he put it first in the list.
With a good dose of irony, he chose an almost scientific lexicon,  to bring the listener to the solemn, undeniable, unquestionable conclusion that the sea, in the end, cadences the frequency.
In my opinion, this is definitely a fresh take on the subject.

Enrico Serotti, Bologna, 5th March 2023.