"The Our music is violent because there is violence in the street "Demetrio Stratos said in an interview in 1974 talking about the kind of music he played in the group area. The focus of the Area, Coduto writes, were the struggles of students and workers, the problems of work, alienation of the individual, Marxism, terrorism, politics and the international framework. The group put their music in the service of those struggles. The sound of the area was a form of struggle for himself. Their music, freed from the limitations of the song form, and using heterogeneous languages: jazz, rock, pop, Mediterranean music, electronics, launched a new and explosive message, without the need for caption of the accompanying text.
The full name of the group is "Area - Popular International Group", was born in 1972 in the initial training included: Demetrio Stratos (vocals), Giulio Capiozzo (drums), Eddy Busnello (reeds), Patrick Djivas (bass), Lambizi Johnny (guitar), Leandro Gaetano (keyboards), and almost immediately came out of the group and took over Lambizi Leandro and Patrizio Fariselli (keyboards) and Paolo Tofani (guitar and synthesizer).
With this training in September 1973 they released their first disc of the area, headed Arbeit macht frei [Work makes you free], the written that appeared at the entrance of the Nazi concentration camps. In that title was prompt both the extermination of the Jews, the expulsion of Palestinians from Jordan, but also the question of work, the workers' protests, violent clashes in those years, as if to say - as outlined Coduto - "Warning! The work does not makes you free, but it's just a trap of modern society that it takes well-framed and ready to do our duty by silencing the brain. " The other songs, as well as that which gives the title to the entire record, were: "July, August and September (black) (still alive was the terrible memory of the Olympics in Monaco in 1972, when a command called "Black September" stormed the Olympic Village and killed eleven Israeli athletes, killing one policeman and five men of the command itself), "Awareness" (unfolds the theme of alienation of the individual and the recapture of reality ), "The lips of time" (with sound reassuring but not liquid), "240 km from Izmir" (instrumental, typical structure of jazz improvisation and after the tour of the various instruments culminating in the opening theme), "The 'killing the Zeppelin "(attack on the Anglo-American rock as Led Zeppelin were the greatest exponents). At
end of 1973 the area held a series of political concerts. They also played some concerts in solidarity with Chile, where General Pinochet with a military coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. Were invited to Paris to perform at 8 Biennale in the Sound section.
The area had been born in Milan, in the sixties and seventies had become a thriving center of culture and counterculture with a strong presence of the student movements and workers. Cradle of the middle class left-wing intellectual, home of the big national publishing: Feltrinelli, Mondadori, Bompiani. In Milan, the "hippies" had created the first common pool. They were born World Beat, the first newspaper of the Italian and Re Nudo , the first alternative magazine. This paper organized by the Parco Lambro Milano in three years after three huge musical gatherings, halfway between underground and policy communities in all three occasions they played the area.
Milan was also the home of the world record. The biggest mover of the counterculture, especially but not only music, it was Gianni Sassi. Growing up with a communist political party, began circulating among their diverse experiences in publishing, art, theater, marketing, music. Sassi, along with Sergio Franco Mamone Albergoni and decided to found his own label: Cramps Records, mainly due to the need to follow the production of area, without wasting energy and money. Sassi became a real part of the area, although it did not sound: he wrote the lyrics of their songs, their albums packaged in the smallest details, planned the whole group communications.
Meanwhile the group had left Eddy Busnello Djivas and Patrick, the first was not replaced, instead of the second, on bass, took over Ares Tavolazzi. In early 1974 released a new album Caution Radiation Area . Disc entirely different from the previous, more advanced in the search for new sounds. The music of the area - Coduto writes - "goes to the ground more angular and rugged electronics, bastardized with the sounds of jazz and the spirit of blood rock". They are part of the disc tracks: "Red Comet", "ZYG (zero growth)," Brujo "," Mirage? Mirage "," Lobotomy. " This piece was inspired by the story of Ulrike Meinhof, one of the founders of the German RAF terrorist group armed with West Germany, in 1972, Meinhof was captured and attempted to impose a lobotomy, prevented only by large popular demonstrations.
The area had become an important group that was invited to play everywhere. From May to September of 1974 they held about 28 concerts. They even had a concert in Trieste Psychiatric Hospital, directed by Mark Levy MD. In the summer of 1974 the Italian area were the only guests at the International Pop Festival in Bern, Switzerland.
In the spring of 1975 the album came out Crac! , nice as the previous records in London, Trident studios, Paolo Tofani and Patrizio Fariselli. Member Area whilst continuing to sing the company with its tensions and contradictions, now looking ahead looking for the most positive aspects of reality and of the struggle. The political reality between 1974 and 1975 - writes Coduto - appeared, in some ways more joyful and positive, and the area, which have always been inspired by reality, could not help but register the weather. Among other things, in 1975 had finally ended the Vietnam War. Here are the songs that make up the album: "The white elephant," "The apple of Odessa" (inspired by a true story in 1920, when an artist named Apple Dada [apple] hijacked a ship German [leaf] bringing it up to Odessa to give it to the Russians, who organized a big party by blowing up the ship with the Germans on board), "Megalopolis" (the city is Brasilia), "raw nerves", "Joy and Revolution" (joyful folk ballad), "Implosion", "Area 5" (the number refers to the five members of the group). Crac! received almost unanimous praise from the music press. The album won the Record Critics Award in 1975 for the Italian progressive music.
After three albums in the studio in late 1975 by the Cramps was released a live album Are (A) tion . In that year, the area held about two hundred concerts. The album is the result of recording some of those concerts. It contains the songs "July, August and September (black)," "The apple of Odessa (1920)," "Red Comet", "Are (A) tion", "The Internationale" (famous piece of area, which summarized the political images of the movement, the anger, the joy of participating, the revolution pursued, the party of the big events).
1976 was almost entirely devoted to the study and individual research. Demetrio Stratos public Metrodora , a voice used as a research tool, there are several segments where the experiments with the voice are taken to the extreme limit. Paolo Tofani, under the name of Electric Frankenstein, public What me worry? , an album of songs in English simple and direct result of the experience in London.
However in 1976 there was also a major area of \u200b\u200blive performances, including a concert in France at the Fete dell'Humanité few days in Paris and Portugal. At the end of 1976, on his return from abroad, the area again on Cramps label released their fifth LP: Cursed (maudits). It 'an album based on the picture fiction of a society driven by an electronic brain, that a failure to lose the historical memory ("evaporation" and "The massacre of Brandenburg number three in G major), causing great social confusion (" Diforisma urban "), to resolve the situation in the area offer three options with three songs:" gerontocracy "(the power entrusted to the elderly ), "Scum" (the power entrusted to women), "Round, round, round" (give power to children). On this record, in addition to historical components (also Capiozzo Tavolazzi and in the meantime had gone) also played several other musicians, forming an open group.
During the registration record and the Area October 27, 1976 were called upon to play nell'Università Statale di Milano occupata. Suonarono improvvisando in base allo stato emozionale suggerito dalle indicazioni contenute su alcuni foglietti di carta dove erano scritte le parole: Ipnosi, Sesso, Ironia, Silenzio e Violenza; ogni tre minuti venivano scambiati i foglietti e cambiava l'emozione da interpretare. Il pubblico rimase completamente spiazzato, si aspettava il repertorio classico degli Area e non quell'esperimento. Quella straordinaria serata fu documentata nel disco Event '76 (pubblicato dalla Cramps nel 1979). Quest'ultima pubblicazione era stata però anticipata con l'incisione in studio di “Caos (parte II)” inserita come ultimo brano di Maledetti .
the summer of 1977 the historical formation of the Area (Capiozzo, Fariselli, Stratos, Tavolazzi, Tofani) sviluppantesi make a tour in a fortnight of performances, songs performed during the show were selected from the four studio albums. The name given to the tour was Anto / logically, which is also the title of a new area of \u200b\u200bthe disc includes seven tracks from previous work record.
In 1978, the area left the Cramps and record label with Listening 1978, the gods are angry they leave the , ten years after the area they want to have their say on the '68, they warn that it's over an important historical period and they è aperta una nuova, scivolata nella violenza e nella lotta armata di alcuni e nel disinteresse delle masse. Il movimento nato nel '68 era fallito. E cambia anche la musica. L'album è più accessibile e fruibile rispetto ai lavori precedenti. Brani presenti: “Il bandito del deserto”, “Interno con figure e luci”, “Return from Workuta”, “Guardati dal mese vicino all'aprile!”, “Hommage à Violette Nozières”, “Ici on dance!”, “Acrostico in memoria di Laio”, “"FFF" (festa, farina e forca)”, “Vodka Cola”. Dalla formazione storica manca Tòfani, che era uscito dal gruppo nel 1977.
Nel 1979 anche Stratos lascia gli Area per seguire personali progetti musicali; ma il 13 giugno 1979, affetto da una gravissima aplasia midollare, muore a New York.
Nel 1993 era morto Gianni Sassi, seguito da Giulio Capiozzo nel 2000.
Qui finisce la mia recensione del libro di Coduto sugli Area. Ma voglio aggiungere qualche notazione personale. Il 5 luglio 1980, in qualità di assessore alla cultura, portai gli Area a esibirsi (gratuitamente per il pubblico) nella piazza del mio Comune di Villa Castelli, in provincia di Brindisi. Il 17 dicembre 2010 ho partecipato, nel Teatro Kursaal Santalucia di Bari, al concerto AREA reunion con Patrizio Fariselli, Paolo Tòfani e Ares Tavolazzi, accompagnati alla batteria da Walter Paoli. Gli Area sono stati, sono e rimarranno grandi.
Rocco Biondi
Domenico Coduto, Il libro degli Area , Auditorium Edizioni, Milano 2009, pp. 208, € 12,50
