ETERONIMIE

In 2012, after many years of work, Vieux Carré finally released a sophomore album titled "Eteronimie" (Heteronyms). The literary concept of heteronym was invented by Fernando Pessoa and refers to one or more imaginary characters created by a writer to write in different styles and in some way it describes the content of the album where you can find many different styles and characters giving life to the different tracks. In my opinion during the years the composition skills of the band have improved, this work is very rich in ideas, less derivative than the previous one and it's really worth listening to. By the way, the art cover reminds me of another independent band from Italy, Absenthia...

The complex opener "Relegazione"(Exile) is inspired by the life of the Latin poet Ovid. In 8 AD, Ovid was banished to Tomis, a city on the Black Sea now in Romania, by the exclusive intervention of the Emperor. Ovid wrote that the reason for his exile was carmen et error - "a poem and a mistake" - claiming that his crime was worse than murder, more harmful than poetry... "Beyond the walls of Time they sing my poems / Beyond moral my voice keeps on caressing your soul / Ingenio sic fuga parta meo...".

The melancholic "Terra Nova" is inspired by the ill-fated expedition to Antarctica led by Robert Falcon Scott (the expedition was also the subject of a 1948 film directed by Charles Frend, Scott of the Antarctic). It begins softly with an acoustic guitar arpeggio... "They arrived before us / I can already see the flag with the cross of the north...". The music and lyrics describe disappointment and dismal, the landscape is bleak and the long come back for the men of the expedition is sad, dangerous... "Farewell dreams of glory / I can't fight any more / How beautiful is to close my eyes and let the sleep come...".

"Praz!" features many changes in mood and rhythm. It's a complex track inspired by the life and work of eccentric Italian critic Mario Praz... "They say that my karma is ill-omened / That I sow conflagration and destruction / The fragments of other lives feed me / My identity is the glance of Medusa...".

"Il cardine storto" (The crooked hinge) begins with a nice piano intro, then the rhythm rises. It's an interesting track inspired by the work of the American writer of detective stories John Dickson Carr... "The art of the murderer is like the art of the conjurer / It consists in attracting your glance in the wrong place...".

"El Gabal" is a particular ballad inspired by the story of a homosexual Roman emperor, Elagabalus, and of his lover Hierocles. It begins softly and the mood is dreamy... "Come on, Hierocles, lay with me / Rest awhile, help me to dream...". A sax solo provided by the guest musician Enrico Battisti marks a change in mood and the romance turns into a slaughter... "They look at me with disgust / Because in my face there's the pride of the hetaeras... I can smell my blood / I fear the sun is going to leave me...".

"Evans" is a short instrumental for piano solo dedicated to Bill Evans. It leads to "Tenno", a nice track that could recall Franco Battiato and that is inspired by the childhood and youth of the Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. Then comes "Ramo di lillà" (Lilac branch), another track dedicated to a famous film director, Sergei Eisenstein, an to his Mexican odyssey... "From human sacrifices to the haciendados of Porfirio Diaz / Look at me straight in the eyes / Que viva Mexico, it's the time of the uprising...".

"Inquietudine" (Restlessness) begins with a nice piano pattern and is jazzier. The lyrics are inspired by the life and work of Portuguese poet and writer Fernando Pessoa and some passages are taken from a poem titled Tabacaria... "I am nothing / I shall never be anything / I cannot wish to be anything / Aside from that, I have within me all the dreams of the world...". After a short pause, a delicate, dreamy hidden track inspired by the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge concludes this excellent album.