Franco Battiato
Franco Battiato, born Francesco Battiato (Ionia, March 23, 1945 - Milo, May 18, 2021), was an Italian singer-songwriter, composer, musician, and painter. An internationally known artist, he has been everything in his long career, from beat singer to avantgarde performer, producer, contemporary music composer.
His beginnings lay in the mid 1960s, with many singles released with no particular success, the first two under his real name of Francesco. He had left the native Sicily moving to Milan around 1965. In 1970 after his collaboration with Osage Tribe (which he quit before their only album Arrowhead) he had a record deal with Bla Bla, releasing his first solo album in 1972. Housed in a outrageous cover, Fetus was an original prog album with a minimalist sound mainly based on the use of a VCS3 synth, unusual lyrics, complex arrangements. Follow-up Pollution followed the same route but with a larger use of traditional rock instruments. It reached the Top Ten of the Italian chart.
With his 3rd album Sulle Corde Di Aries, the sound shifted toward a more avantgarde style. 4th album Clic was mainly instrumental, with just a single vocal track. It also got an English release on the prestigious Island label, though this album contains different versions of tracks originally released on Sulle Corde Di Aries and the Italian issue of Clic. (His first solo album had also been recorded in an English version titled Foetus but it was never released at the time and only appeared on CD recently.) 1975's album M.lle Le Gladiator features avantgarde music, and after the Bla Bla's demise the following releases up to 1978 were all in the same direction, with long instrumental piano or synth performances closer to contemporary music. 1979 saw a radical turn with the new wave-inspired album L'Era Del Cinghiale Bianco, which began a fruitful collaboration with violinist Giusto Pio. It was a big hit and later works followed the same style. From the late 1980's until today Battiato is still one of the leading figures in Italian music.