News of Italian music. The World Around Us (by Sarah Mac Beel)

Di Sarah Mac Beel
Data di pubblicazione 07/04/2013

Anyone knows what a guitarist, a singer, a drummer does. On the word "producer" instead, the ideas are not always clear. I asked myself this question too, actually, when they commissioned me to do this research. Especially when I realized that, just when the classic performers, solo singers and bands above all, who come out of Italian festivals and talent shows seem to struggle harder to get out of the borders of Italy, Italian producers are not only contended by the stars, but also set trends in the international market. To be clear, there is Benny Benassi from Reggio Emilia who puts his hands on Madonna and Kelis, Tommaso Colliva who makes Muse explode, and even crazy hits like Gnam Gnam Style sound Italian.

The school at the end of the 90's of artificially tuned melodies is now part of ninety percent of the black made catalog in the U.S. and also in the production of music for movies and video games, we do not miss anything, because Diego Stocco is the number one in the world.

So, sailing in this ocean of music, of those who make it and those who play it, I landed in the studios of Miraloop, where I met a 32-year-old Bolognese, who by name makes Gerolamo Sacco and the record producer by job. Abroad they call him The Wizard, he has thousands of listeners around the world, in Italy he's not very well known even though he sold, on the recommendation of his label, about forty thousand copies of his records in less than ten years, since he started making music.
The first thing that surprised me is the fact that this guy doesn't have any kind of musical "ideology". He was born as a techno dj, then became a dance producer, classical studies of composition in conservatory, then keyboardist, singer and rock producer, as well as creator of a record company that deals with all types of music, from contemporary classical to hard rock.

And then, unlike most producers around the world, he is not just a man of study, but also a performer, with an image halfway between glam and surreal, between steampunk and Dali, and a unique voice.

The record company he founded, Miraloop, is a young project that surprised me: I was talking about an all-Italian brand that in 4 years has cooperated with about 80 artists from different countries around the world and published about 600 songs, almost half of which have Mr. Sacco's legacy.
And just after having listened in the meanders of the net all the listenable, with immense excitement we have decided to agree that it is a overcoming of the musical genres that has no precedent in the history of the music, nothing more, nothing less. The only problem that can be posed is to consider Sacco in the history of Italian music, since he is not known enough by the mainstream public to be a pop artist, but if you want to go beyond the usual popularity of television and radio, Gerolamo's world is really something never seen before. Among his productions I have literally and pleasantly lost myself.

"The Way I Feel" by Melodia Infinita is a dirtier and meaner Armin Van Buuren, the minimal tracks, the series "Amyl", electronic music for prepared piano that on the net the guys define an opera between John Cage and Aphex Twin, "Der Traum" released with the album "the Renaissance 2" is an electro-ambient figure based on a futuristic reconstruction of Renaissance melodies, baked out in a series, the op. 6 by Schoenberg produced together with Alessandro Ratoci to put in a bit of an effort. 6 by Schoenberg produced together with Alessandro Ratoci to put in some culture, and finally his solo project, where he sings in Italian arranging how Battiato would arrange if he had found himself in the creative period of the "White Boar" today, contaminating the Italian music with the dark and club-oriented atmosphere of Skrillex.
All the harmony of this game shows a new musical balance, which emerges from the first notes of "Il Mondo Intorno a Noi", first extract from the upcoming album "l'Alieno", promised to fans for at least two years. Not to mention the podcast "Gerolandia Express", where an hour of unpublished music every week (written, sung, produced and arranged by Gerolamo) is set in a fantastic journey with girls of every possible language (from Russian to French) who participate in the journey by sending vocal samples.

In a world where still the figure of the "bassist" or "guitarist" is what the audience wants to judge the maturity and talent of an artist, the complex game of making Italian electropop, experimental electronics, hard rock and those who have more than listen, certainly does not help the audience to easily understand the character, but I was very amused by the fact that there is someone who can move acrobatically between styles and styles of music different by nature and pure social categories (who has ever seen contemporary music proposed in a context of academic respect and at the same time make a top 100 genre on the music portal dance Beatport?).
Not happy I contacted the girls who work with him and they immediately told me about the new album, smiling they told me that he hasn't left the studio in months.
It will be a new album in Italian with dark and kind atmospheres, pure Battiatesque and rock'n'roll melodies, and it will be called "L'alieno", the story of an eighteenth century magician who does the magic of travelling through time and describes the world of today.

Italian music needs something really new. Perhaps Gerolamo Sacco is not the category of Italian singer that everyone imagines, with the mandolin and the bow tie, but it is definitely the most exciting musical project I could find. And now listen to a few words from his song "Il Mondo Intorno A Noi".