Si presentò domestico.
Ora gravita nello spazio.
Radici nella terra: aromi bucolici e intimità da focolare.
Poi voli obliqui: sapori nuovi e morbide tenerezze effervescenti.
Adem, dopo la militanza nei Fridge, si è presentato con un disco d’esordio dal titolo programmatico (Homesongs - 2004) che l’ha posto all’attenzione dei cultori dell’affollata scena nufolk.
Il presente lo vede oggi tentare una via meno terrena, più eterea e volatile.
Come l’elemento intorno al quale gravitano le sue nuove creature.
Una cosmogonia sostenuta dai dettagli.
Nella struttura di canzoni che rivelano un’attitudine alla scrittura pop, retta dai piccoli equilibri posti in essere da arraggiamenti molto accurati, sopravvive l’intima parsimonia dell’anima folktronica.
Spalancata però, come con un’ampio respiro, verso spazi più aperti.
Illuminati da luce tiepida, solcati da fresche correnti.
Si parte bene.
La rarefazione dell’aria è una condizione perfetta e i fragili suoni di “Warning Call” la attraversano con una “semplicità” ancora ancorata al suolo, che ci consegna una canzone profonda ma delicata.
La fase di decollo prosegue sugli arpeggi di una chitarra acustica per condurci verso luminose aperture che, in “Something’s Going To Come”, entrano subito in circolo, irradiando leggere folate melodiche.
Poi…
Tintinni e battiti di mani.
Tappeti ritmici fragranti solcati da accurate armonie vocali.
Sottofondi tremolanti e sospiri.
Discrete particelle elettroniche che convivono con chitarre ed harmonium.
Violoncello e violino, vibrafono: per virare verso zone più incerte dello spazio, in pieghe più spoglie e profonde.
Perché si viaggia seguendo una rotta zigzagante, dentro una navicella assemblata con elementi modesti, ma sorprendentemente agile e funzionale.
Ed ogni pianeta mostra un volto diverso del complicato e contraddittorio sistema al centro del quale brilla il misterioso sentimento che è propellente e meta del viaggio.
Le canzoni di Adem lo descrivono ora ricorrendo ad una atmosfera quasi onirica, distesa ma punteggiata da un balbettante sfondo di voci (X Is For Kisses), ora saltellando ritmicamente su uno schioccante battito di mani tra le piccole sfere sonore irradiate da vibrafono e percussioni (Launch Yourself). O tentano di sondarne le zone più celate, con l’equipaggiamento minimo di un approccio intimo, a bordo del suono di un harmonium (Love And Other Planets).
E il viaggio continua, recuperando frammenti durante un’esplorazione che incontrerà altri spazi, a volte ancora echeggianti malinconie inquiete (Craschlander) o sembrerà riprodurre superfici più distese, illuminate dalla luce di lievi arpeggi di chitarra e cori sospirati (Sea Of Tranquilty).
Si procede attraverso costanti cambi di rotta, per conoscere l’aspetto cangiante di questo sistema solare. Che passa dalla desolata atmosfera di “Last Transmissions From The Lost Missions” alla radiosa vitalità melodica che attraversa “These Lights Are Meaningful”, sino ad un pianeta rarefatto ma ospitale, dove non sarebbe troppo improbabile incontrare un vecchio amico come Robert Wyatt. Sorridente mentre ascolta gli accordi dell’harmonium circondare la voce di Adem, così vicina alla sua, in “Human Beings Gather ‘Round” che chiude il viaggio.
La navicella, al suo ritorno, ha consegnato al vostro cronista alcuni reperti che potrete ascoltare con un semplice clic.
Per un reportage completo della missione occorre rivolgersi alla Domino, che ha licenziato nel maggio del 2006 le 12 canzoni di Adem.
Il voto gravita tra il 3 e il 4, anche in base all’umore presente nella vostra atmosfera.
C U on another planet.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Warning Call (04:49)
If we received a warning call,
Would we change at all?
Close your eyes and make believe
And tell me what you see.
Will we rise
From our sleep
Like a bolt from the blue?
Will we realise?
If they found a tube in outer space
And no-one knew who put it there.
If they looked inside and
Found out they’d lived lonely lives,
Followed by a lonesome death
They sent it hoping we would learn
They blew it here with their final breath.
They made a list of their mistakes-
It looked a lot like ours.
If it happened, do you think we’d learn?
Do you think we’d learn?
Will we rise
From our sleep
Like a bolt from the blue?
Will we realise?
If they knew how to talk through space,
And we received a warning call
Do you think we’d learn?
Would it be in vain?
Do you think we’d learn?
Let’s not end our days
Like they did on earth.
04 Launch Yourself (03:36)
I’ve been
Trying
Fixing the problem
You pressed
The button
To launch yourself
While I was outside
I heard a spark ignite
I saw a ball of light
I watched you lifting off
There could be no mistake
My hope and faith misplaced
I saw you lifting off
You pressed
The button
To launch yourself
While I was outside
You left me stranded
While you broke through
The atmosphere
I guess you thought you’d start
A new clean sheet and heart
From when you lifted off
I watched you disappear
A ringing in my ear
From when you lifted off
You pressed
The button
To launch yourself
While I was outside
You left me stranded
While you broke through
To other worlds
You left
Me stranded
While you broke through
To other worlds
You pressed
The button
To launch yourself
While I was outside
You left
Me stranded
You launched yourself
While I was outside
You pressed
The button
To launch yourself
While I was outside
You left
Me stranded
You launched yourself
While I was outside
05 Love and Other Planets (03:44)
Come with me
There’s something you should see
In the evening sky
Put on your warmest coat
We’ll be breathing ghosts
And they don’t want us to see
So they join the clouds
Which clot above our heads
But on a clear night,
If you look close enough
You can just make out Love
And other planets
We are not alone
And normally
It’s bright enough to see
With a naked eye
I held you close to me
And I felt you smile
And you whispered in my ear
I know it’s there
Let’s make our own light
But on a clear night
If you look close enough
You can just make out
Love and other planets
We are not alone
And on this clear night
If I hold you close enough
I can feel love.
06 Crashlander (03:21)
Crashland
You took your own life in your hands
You had to escape him somehow
Oh you knew
You knew it would hurt
Pull yourself free
With the wreckage at your feet
Feel the relief
All your doubts and wounds will be
Gone
Gone
Crashlander
There’s damage, but at least you’re alive
The hardest thing you could have done, you’ve done now
It gets easy from hear
As you turn your back on
The constellation you flew from
You are hurting, lonely,
Hopeful, happy
Pull yourself free
With the wreckage at your feet
There’s a million worlds to explore
When you’re ready the cosmos is yours
Yours.
07 Sea of Tranquility (03:21)
So here we are
And we’re looking for
A treasure
Take deep breath
And follow me
To the sea
We’re nearly there
Take a deep breath
And follow me
Find what you seek
Let’s dive
‘Cause I’m seasick from this solid ground
We’re so close,
I think we
Have found it here
It’s at the tips of our fingers
Feel it at the tips of our tongues
Let’s dive
‘Cause I’m seasick from the solid ground
Let’s dive
Who knows what we might find around
08 You and Moon (03:42)
Searching
I wore out my telescope
And I nearly gave up hope of finding anything
Discovery
Was an accidental thing
A reflection slipping in
To the corner of my eye
I saw you
And moon
And hope flooded through me
I just needed proof
I saw you and moon
I had to get closer
For a look
Alone and
A universe away
I was drawn to make my way to where the living are
My eyelids
Filled with hypnogogic shapes
And my body wracked with shakes
I travelled light years
In heart beats
I saw you and moon
Dancing together against dark blue
I saw you and moon
I never felt lonely ‘til I saw you
Been making
Music
With instruments
Of science
Distracted
And happy
And so self
Reliant
Then I saw you and moon
And hope flooded through me
And I chased proof
But I left, I left too soon
‘cause light is a liar
And so are you
I saw you and moon
But the image was older
Than the truth
When I arrived
I found only tombs ‘cause light is a liar
Telling old truths
Having had something to aim for
Has left me lost.
09 Last Transmission From the Lost Mission (03:08)
if I wanted to be alone i’d be happy now and if i wanted to hold on to those memories of… if i’d tried harder would i still be here? holding on a while tried harder i might have i might i might have done if i wanted to be alone i’d be happy right now
10 These Lights Are Meaningful (04:03)
I know that I’ve
Not been the same
Since the day we walked around and marvelled at the firmament
Both wrapped up
In a blanket that was handed down
And it struck me like a meteor
It’s hard to explain, so hard to explain how I’m so sure
These lights are meaningful
We’ve got to understand
And work out what they say
These lights are meaningful
They’ll tell what we forgot
We have a mission here
These lights are meaningful
We must translate them now
Else we’ll just float around
We have reason here
Something beyond ourselves
These lights are meaningful
I needed purpose,
I was given one
To find the reasons for life
Etched between the distant suns and
The Zodiac gives clues to the wealth of all that once we knew
It’s hard to explain so hard to explain how I’m so sure
These lights are meaningful
We have forgot ourselves
We drift on oblivious
These lights are meaningful
A message writ out large
Lest we forget ourselves
These lights are meaningful
This is our final chance
We had a mission here once
There not just pretty sparks
They’re more than tiny stars
These lights are meaningful
We have a reason here
We must resolve ourselves
Maybe I got it wrong
Maybe I am just alone
Anything to feel alive
Take my hand and take me home
Make me feel like I’m not alone
It’s what I need
11 Spirals (03:22)
You marked
The back of my hand
You drew a heart
And some tiny dots
And a spiral
Which reminded me
Of the Milky Way
And it made me think
If our galaxy
And Andromeda
Felt like you and me
Were like the way we are
They couldn’t feel as vast
And if they join
At six billion lives per second
And they danced around
Linking spiral arms
As they’d spin
Spin through infinity
They couldn’t feel as vast
As I feel now
Galactic tectonic shifts
In my chest
And behind my eyes
And yet the smallest vibration
Like the touch of your pen
Makes my hair makes my hair stand on end
You marked
The back of my hand
You drew a heart
And some tiny dots
And a spiral
Which together spell
‘I want you’
In electricity
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