Egida
Aurea is a project that began life in Genoa in 2006 on the initiative
of Diego Banchero and Carolina Cecchinato, both coming out from the
experience with another band called Recondita Stirpe. After a first
Ep released in 2007 and titled Storia di una rondine, in 2010
they released an excellent full length début album on the
independent label HR!SPQR, La mia piccola guerra (My
little war), with a line up featuring, along with Diego
Banchero (bass, backing vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitars) and
Carolina Cecchinato (lead and backing vocals) also Fernando Cherchi
(accordion), Marco Garegnani (acoustic guitars), Claudio Dondo
(keyboards), Davide Bruzzi (electric guitars), Roberto Lucanato
(acoustic guitars), Max Mantovani (drums) and Antonio Losenno
(percussion) plus some backing vocalists. Despite the numerous
musicians involved in the recording sessions and the tight links with
bands such as Il Segno del Comando or Il Ballo delle Castagne, on
this work the acoustic atmospheres prevail and there's always a
perfect balance between music and lyrics. The main sources of
inspiration range from neo folk to Italian canzone d'autore,
but the musical recipe is sprinkled with a nice progressive taste and
Mediterranean flavours.
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The
first two tracks evoke some dark ghosts from the seventies, the Years of Lead. The title track is a beautiful ballad dealing with the issue
of terrorism. There's a warm empathy in the vocal parts sung by
Carolina Cecchinato while the lyrics try to explore the feelings of a
young woman who chooses the clandestine ways of armed fight to
express her contempt against what she perceives as a tyrannical
society... “I will carry with me your words, a few rags and these
guns / Maybe I wasn't made for love / Everyone who was born wolf will
never fly... The way of spiritual life is not disconnected from
action...”. There's no celebration of terrorism here but an effort
to understand why so many young people, both of the right and of the
left wing, in the seventies chose the deathly ways of extreme
political fight after fighting a tearing inner combat with their
conscience.
“Memorie
di gesta” (Memories of deeds) is a lively track that in some way
celebrates an episode of urban guerrilla. A mob charge the
police who have to retreat, a young woman observes the scene and
after an inner struggle decides to join the rioters. There's empathy
in the vocals but here violence is kept in the background as the
memories of that day emerge from the past like a flash of light that
cuts the darkness. According to their website, Egida Aurea's project
is not politically committed but simply deals with the artistic
side of an extinct past and an oppressed present, and intends to stay
away from the way modern world is run. So, it doesn't matter if
these memories come out from the seventies or refer to the riots in
Genoa during the G8 in 2001, the lyrics just invite you to reflect about the
reasons of such a kind of behaviour... “In this leaden forest /
Memories of deeds echo right now / In this anomalous day / Where
delay gives room to action...”.
“Il
passo dell'esule” (The pace of the exile) is reflective and
melancholic. There's a feeling of nostalgia, the lyrics are partially
sung in English and depict a man drenched in a deep sorrow who has to
leave his land on account of his ideals. Time flies... “No East no
West no lands to reign / No time to stay with you again / No seas to
sail no walls to scrape / But only salt lakes of pain...”. The
instrumental coda is excellent, but maybe too short!
“Gli
sguardi nel sole” (The glances in the sun) is a nice ballad about
time passing by. The youth is gone but broken hopes and dreams are
still blowing in the wind... “Can you stop Time? / When it flows
running after the wind / Into my memories I escape from reality / I
look at the sun, as it once was... / The wind is still singing / With
words that I can't forget...”.
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| Egida Aurea 2010 |
“Lo
zar non è morto” (The tsar is not dead) features atmospheres and
rhythms that recall Don Cossacks. According to an interview with the
band, the lyrics represent not only a criticism against the era of
the Soviet Union but an effort to explore the poignant sense of
identity and nationality of Russian people that is so difficult to
understand in the Western World.
“Epifania
di una chimera” (Epiphany of a Chimaera) is calm and reflective. It
deals with social changes and new ideas. The birth of an idea is
never the result of one mind, that thought appears simultaneously in
a thousand other souls... “Already new acolytes are joining the new
vision of the world / Light of a new dawn, plague the curtain of
darkness!”.
“Egida
aurea” (Golden aegis) is an ethereal ballad featuring strummed
acoustic guitar and a martial rhythm. In Greek mythology the aegis
was a shield carried by gods as Zeus or Athena. Here the word is used
in a metaphorical sense, as a way of life to survive in a world that
is crumbling, where order and ideals melt and every resistance is
useless.
“Il
congedo” (Farewell) recalls some atmospheres from Fabrizio De
André's album Storia di un impiegato. The lyrics evoke the
final farewell of some losers, some people who lost their battle
against an oppressive society and now get ready to meet their destiny
on the gallows with a smiling face and an intact pride. This piece
reminds me of Alexandre Dumas' novel The Companions of Jéhu...
The
final track, “L'ultimo valzer” (The last waltz), features a slow,
solemn pace and describes in music and words an imaginary funeral,
the funeral of the civilization that flows under the rain in sad day
where faith, ideals and memory get lost.
On
the whole, I think that this is a very interesting album. Music and
lyrics are tightly bound and non Italian speaker might miss many
nuances, but I really think that this work is worth listening to,
especially if you like bands such as Ianva or Il Segno del Comando.
You can listen to the complete album HERE
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