"L’OCCIDENTE" @ JUNGE FREIHEIT (D) by Il Levriero Staff
27/12/2007 at 19:17
Great review @ JUNGE FREIHEIT (D) by Martin Lichtmesz.
English translation:
"Among the friends of the so-called "Neofolk" exists a dedicated fraction, that prefers above all the mediterranian version of the genre. The Italophilic of the fans adore the monumentalism of Camerata Mediolanense, the cool classicism of Argine, the rocking Calle della Morte and the enigmatic pioneers Ain Soph. Since 2005 another group has entered this Hall of Fame, after only two releases. The Genuese group IANVA (thus the old Latin origin of their hometown’s name) however feel only loosely attached to the label "folk noir", preferring to define their style as "melodramatic Pop music", or more intellectually as an "archaeo-futurist" concept "coming from the past, but cast into the future". Influences range from Ennio Morricone to Milva and Dalida, from Fabrizio De André to Scott Walker and Marc Almond unto Industrial Music icon Boyd Rice. The core members are also maniacal cinephiles, which goes to show both in the dramaturgical structure of songs and the visually stunning cover artwork. The concept album "Disobbedisco!" put up new yardsticks both in style and content. In the vein of a kind of Pop-Folk-Opera full of great feelings, great ideals and great gestures, "Disobbedisco!" ("I do not obey!") and its (sold out) prologue "La Ballata dell’Ardito" told the love story between the mysterious "chanteuse" Elettra and the young Major Renzi who in the aftermath of WWI joins D’Annunzio’s "arditi", who in September 1919 occupied the now-croatian port city Fiume in order to build up a theatralic regime, that eventually would be cut off by the Italian king in 1920. "Comandante" Gabriele D’Annunzio is an avowed icon of the group which choose one of his famous greyhounds as a totem animal for their label "Il Levriero". Until the release of the next fulltime album IANVA’s fans can comfort themselves in between with the 23minute Mini-Album "L’Occidente". As usual the cover is aesthetically moving, showing a steelgrey ocean-liner on an equally steelgrey sea in the style of a nostalgic postcard; thus an allusion to Oswald Spengler’s "Death of The West" which was allegedly conceived in the year of the Titanic’s sinking, 1912. The title track’s cynically ironic pathos of doom is followed by "Santa Luce dei Macelli" which plunges the listener into the archaic world of crypto-paganic rituals as partly preserved in Italian rural catholicism. After a suggestive instrumental-only track the album closes with a coverversion of a classical "Strawbs"-Song, under any aspect worthy of the orginal: "In Battaglia / The Battle" transposes the lyrics dealing with an episode of 1639/40’s english-scottish wars to the Isonzo-battles of 1917. As "Disobbedisco!", "L’Occidente" offers powerful vocals and a strikingly epic orchestration. Added to this is a beautifully designed booklet, quoting Pier Paolo Pasolini: "Thanks God it is possible to go back... even if it requires a courage that those who go forward have no knowledge of." The CD can be directly ordered at the groups website: www.illevriero.it, where also english translations of the brillant lyrics can be found". (Martin Lichtmesz - Junge Freiheit n° 50 - December 2007)
Our biggest thnx to Martin and all Junge Freiheit Staff
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