Sogno n° 1, is a posthumous tribute album to Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, released in 2011 and featuring De André's original isolated vocals over entirely new orchestral backing tracks, arranged by British conductor and composer Geoff Westley and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Including vocal contributions from Franco Battiato, Vinicio Capossela and De André's widow Dori Ghezzi, the album is a collaborative effort of Westley and Ghezzi's, originally released in aid of her Fondazione Fabrizio De André charity organization.
Track listing
"Preghiera in gennaio" ; originally from Volume 1 – 6:04
"Ho visto Nina volare" ; originally from Anime salve – 5:23
"Hotel Supramonte" ; originally from Fabrizio De André, also known as L'Indiano – 7:33
"Valzer per un amore " ; originally from Canzoni; featuring Vinicio Capossela – 4:14
"Tre madri" ; originally from La buona novella – 4:07
"Laudate Hominem" ; originally from La buona novella – 3:44
"Disamistade" ; originally from Anime salve – 5:26
"Rimini" ; originally from Rimini – 5:41
"Anime salve" ; originally from Anime salve; featuring Franco Battiato – 8:43
"Le nuvole" ; originally from Le nuvole. NB: The spoken text written by De André and featured on the original version is omitted from this recording, although the booklet does include it. – 3:55
Overview
The album features a selection of songs from all stages of De André's 40-year career, from his very first studio album to his very last. Westley's orchestral arrangements add a sense of epic, cinematic grandeur to the singer-songwriter's usually quiet, restrained style, generating a unique, unusual mixture of sounds, textures and styles, and bring all of the Genoan artist's creations into new territory.
Differences between original studio recordings and new versions
All songs are built on De André's original vocals, taken from his studio recordings. However, only two songs over ten are re-orchestrated recordings of the respective album versions. All others have been changed, some subtly, some significantly. The changes are as follows:
"Preghiera in gennaio" is extended with new orchestral material, by Westley.
"Hotel Supramonte" is taken at a much slower pace than the original studio version. The single vocal lines are separated from each other and dilated, which enables Westley to build a vast, breathy orchestration on a very broad largo tempo in .
"Valzer per un amore" has a marked symphonic, Strauss-like feel, rather than the country-sounding original, and incorporates a short excerpt from Dmitri Shostakovich's popular "Waltz 2", taken from his 1956 Suite for Variety Orchestra. Vinicio Capossela sings a virtual duet with De André on this track.
"Tre madri" is slightly slower than the original, and, like "Hotel Supramonte", it is changed from to.
"Laudate Hominem" is a completely new recording of the original track from La buona novella; De André is not featured on this track, which is instead sung by an operatic choir.
"Disamistade" is relatively faithful to the original studio version, but includes a few orchestral passages newly composed by Westley.
"Anime salve" is, yet again, much slower, broader and substantially extended than the version on the same-titled 1996 album. Franco Battiato, De André's virtual duet partner on this track, enters by singing his opening line "Passaggi di tempo..." a few bars after De André has finished singing it. In the original version, Ivano Fossati, his duet partner at the time, finishes the line himself, while De André does not – the start of Fossati's vocal is overlaid on his.
"Le nuvole" is another entirely new recording where De André is not featured at all. It consists of the orchestral piece written by Mauro Pagani, and arranged by Piero Milesi, for the original song from the same-titled 1990 album, without the spoken-word vocals featured in the original.
The title Sogno n° 1 is a paraphrase of "Sogno numero due", a track from De André's 1973 album Storia di un impiegato. Dori Ghezzi chose it because hearing her late husband's voice over all-new orchestral backgrounds was a dream come true for her. The artwork for the album, created by designer Arturo Bertusi for the Chiaroscuro Creative design company in Bologna, is a CG combination of the Genoa port skyline on the upper side, and the Westminster skyline on the lower side, symbolizing an ideal union of De André's hometown and London. The back cover features the same design but with the upper/lower positions of the two cities having been exchanged. The inner gatefold of the Digipak CD features a simpler, line drawing version of the same artwork.
