The air smells like mist, in which you’re shrounded, which thickens at each step you take. A faint light barely filters in through the fog and the naked branches. Grey. Sad. Lonely.
It’s dusk. Maybe.
An icy breeze fondles your skin, your hair, and brings with itself the noise of leaves, dead, under the advancing of someone. A presence. Perhaps a curious creature that’s watching you from behind a bush. Scared by the unusual visitor. 
Something in front of you. A dark shape. Still. A bench. An invitation to seat. There’s nothing else to do in that place without time, without a reason to exist. You do it.
For the first time you’re asking yourself why you are here, but there’s nothing in your mind. It’s like you’ve known it, but you’ve forgotten. Or have you just dreamt of it?
Suddenly another noise, louder, it wakes you up from that odd condition near the border to sleep.
Have you really heard it this time?
Yes, you have.
It’s behind you. You know.
And I seat beside you. Noone of us stops gazing the emptiness.
All at once you turn towards me.
“What are you doing?”
Have you really spoken?
A half smile. My look moves from the tree to my hands, from them to yours and then your eyes.
Neverending instants are passing by. The imperceptible sound of time, which we are unbelievably able to grasp now. And to understand.
“I’m looking for you.”
“I’m here.”
“You are… but I am not.”
These whispering words are still re-echoing in your ears, when you realize that you are bending your sight to the nothingness.

Photo: © Felice Monticelli, my grandfather; this picture was probably taken in the 60's.

(written by Nelly Furtado & Brian West)

All I know
Is everything is not as it's sold
but the more I grow the less I know
And I have so many lives
Though I'm not old
And the more I see, the less I grow
The fewer the seeds the more I sow

Then I see you standing there
Wanting more from me
And all I can do is try
Then I see you standing there
Wanting more from me
And all I can do is try
Try

I wish I hadn't seen all of the realness
And all the real people are really not real at all
The more I learn (the more I learn) the more I cry (the more I cry)
As I say goodbye to the way of life
I thought I had designed for me

Then I see you standing there
Wanting more from me
And all I can do is try
Then I see you standing there
I'm all I'll ever be
But all I can do is try
Try
Try

All of the moments that already passed
We'll try to go back and make them last
All of the things we want each other to be
We never will be, we never will be
And that's wonderful, and that's life
And that's you, baby
This is me, baby
And we are, we are, we are, we are, we are, we are
Free
In our love
We are free in our love
Try

MP3: © 2004 "Try" performed by Chee (a.k.a. Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli), Dario Tinucci, and Marc Cros. This is a cover of Nelly Furtado's song.

How many times have you heard these words?
They are so powerful and at the same time so false when they are about life.
And so many things in our life would be useless and hopeless if these terrible certainties were true.
But they are not, fortunately.

La settimana scorsa ho avuto l'occasione di assistere ad alcune ore della registrazione delle voci del nuovo album di Daniele Groff, la cui produzione è affidata a Volker Hinkel (chitarrista e produttore dei Fools Garden).
Avevo già avuto modo di visitare i famosi studi del Forum Music Village di Roma lo scorso anno, ma questa volta ho potuto vedere questi grandi musicisti al lavoro, che ha rappresentato sicuramente un'emozione ben diversa.
Chi ascolta un album finito, a meno che non abbia esperienza in campo musicale, difficilmente può immaginare a pieno tutto il lavoro che c'è dietro ogni singola nota suonata o anche un singolo verso cantato, come qualcosa di apparentemente semplice sia frutto di tanti diversi tentativi alla ricerca di quella "perfezione", che sembra tanto difficile raggiungere.
Durante la mia breve presenza in studio ho avuto il piacere di ascoltare due brani nei quali, a mio parere, si fondono con ottimi risultati la musica di Daniele con quella di Volker e dei Fools Garden.
Mi sono subito innamorata di quelle canzoni, tanto che anche a distanza di giorni e senza la possibilità di riascoltarle, mi sono ritrovata a canticchiarle inconsapevolmente.
Particolarmente interessante e allo stesso modo divertente è stato vedere come Volker, nella sua veste di produttore, spiegava a Daniele (talvolta mescolando all'inglese un improbabile italiano) come cantare una certa canzone o un certo verso, ripetendone le parole, delle quali non aveva la più pallida idea del significato!
Questa collaborazione artistica nata lo scorso anno, in seguito al contratto di licenza che da allora lega la Road House, già etichetta di Daniele, ai Fools Garden (il cui ultimo album "Ready For The Real Life" è stato pubblicato in Italia nel novembre 2005 proprio con etichetta Road House), si è sviluppata nel corso del 2006 ed è giunta in questi ultimi mesi alle ultime fasi di lavoro in studio, con la registrazione delle parti vocali, che saranno presto terminate.
Non vedo l'ora di vederne (o meglio sentirne) il risultato finale, anche perché questa collaborazione tra Groff e i Fools Garden ha avuto la sua vera origine da una mia "pazza" idea avuta all'inizio del 2005 (alla quale qualcuno pure più pazzo di me, Marco Patrignani, proprietario dell'etichetta, ha voluto dare seguito) e ne sono quindi particolarmente orgogliosa (modestamente!).

Foto scattate il 2 agosto 2006: sopra Daniele Groff a cena, sotto Volker e Marco al Forum Music Village.

Siti web
Daniele Groff: www.danielegroff.it & www.lestellesonomie.tk (fanclub)
Forum Music Village: www.forummusicvillage.com
Volker Hinkel: www.hinkel.tk (anche in italiano) & www.hinkelstone.de
Fools Garden: www.foolsgarden.it (anche in italiano) & www.foolsgarden.de

I wanted a life
successful and happy
I wanted my dreams
to become true
I wanted the world
to turn around me,

but all I want now
is to live that with you.

© 2006. A little poem in rhymes, for once.

V1
It’s been 14 days since you went your own way
And I guess you don’t have anything to say
So perhaps I thought much more of what we had
Cause I didn’t think that it was all that bad
Was that only me



Ch
And was it me that made believe
That there was something in the breeze
To make me wanna make you stay with me
And was I blinded by your smile
Did you just love me for a while
To make me wanna make you stay with me



V2
You’ve requested that I stay your smiling friend
But I can’t remember how to make pretend
And I just can’t change the way I feel inside
So I guess I’ll do my best to run and hide
(don’t we own that to each other)



Ch
And was it me that made believe
That there was something in the breeze
To make me wanna make you stay with me
And was I blinded by your smile
Did you bring heaven for a while
To make me wanna make you stay with me
And was it me that made believe
That there was something in the breeze
To make me wanna make you stay with me
And was I blinded by your smile
Did you just love me for a while
To make me wanna make you stay with me
Stay with me
Stay with me

© 2006 There There. http://www.myspace.com/theretheremusic and www.theretheremusic.com

There was a time in which I used to feel like those who have been abused for so long that they thought it was right, fair, and then even if I knew it was wrong, I used to feel ashamed of my past, cos I had been abused and I would have had to say no, but I hadn't done it.
So I started doing all the best for proving myself that I was better, that I deserved more.
But deep inside myself I still felt I was not.
It was like I was living in a bigger cage, but it was always a cage.
I could move a little more but I couldn't escape.
Still I felt that my warden was the only one who could set me free.
Unless somebody could steal his key, but any try was unsuccessful.
Then something unexpected happened: my warden opened the door, so that, to my surprise, I could shily step out from my cage and take a look outside.
Decide whether to stay inside or outside.
My old wounds of captivity began to disappear, one by one, together with the pain and the shame.
All that is still in progress, but the environment around me slowly changed.
My narrow cage turned into a nice and comfortable house, where I choose to take refuge whenever I can, with big windows and a beach in front of it.
And my warden turned into my beloved sea.

Eccomi ancora una volta a fare un po' di pubblicità al mio amico-musicista preferito, ma anche un po' a me stessa. Infatti voglio segnalarvi la pagina personale su MySpace di Volker Hinkel, creata e in parte gestita da me, oltre che da lui stesso.
Vi invito a darci un'occhiata, ad ascoltare i brani del suo progetto solista (Hinkel), vedere le clip e magari, perché no, comprare il CD.
Se devo fare pubblicità, la faccio fino in fondo, no?
L'album s'intitola "Not A Life-Saving Device" ed è stato autoprodotto da Volker e pubblicato lo scorso anno dall'etichetta indipendente, di proprietà dei Fools Garden, Lemonade Music.
Se volete una recensione imparziale dell'album, io sono decisamente la persona sbagliata per farla, ma quando l'anno scorso Volker mi chiese di scriverne una descrizione, ecco quale è stato il risultato.

Più che un semplice album si tratta di un viaggio emozionale di un’ora, che ti coinvolge e ti mostra le varie sfaccettature della musica di un artista fuori dall’ordinario, dal pop al rock, passando attraverso la moderna disco music (“Run” e “The Beauty Of It”), dolci ballate (“You Can’t Fall Down”), pezzi strumentali (“Reprise” e“Save Your Life”) e brani con le potenzialità di una hit (“Shine”). Il tutto accompagnato da testi accattivanti, che ci descrivono sentimenti e personaggi forti, in un’atmosfera a metà strada tra il sogno e la dura realtà.

Se ancora non vi ho convinto, vi invito ad ascoltare il brano sotto riportato, che è il mio preferito, dal quale è tratta la citazione riportata sull'header di questo sito.
Per il resto, vi rimando alla pagina su MySpace.
E se poi avete anche voi un account su MySpace, aggiungetelo come amico.
Ne sarà sicuramente felice.

Volker Hinkel on MySpace: www.myspace.com/volkerhinkel

Brano nel player: "All It Takes" di Hinkel, © 2005 Lemonade Music.