 The premise for Guano Padano’s Americana is like very few others, it is inspired by an underground and anti-fascist literary movement that happened in Italy between 1930-1940, where Italian intellectuals started to translate American literature in a regime where open displays of affection for any foreign culture was strictly forbidden. Much like these literary-rebels Guano Padano have fallen in love with classic American culture, but have gone in a totally different direction with their translations. 

   Guano Padano musically interpret the words and verses of great authors such as Hemingway, Cesare Pavese, Steinbeck, John Fante, Sherwood Anderson and many more. Below is a track-by-track breakdown of the literature which inspired each song, as well as some insight into the album's guest appearances which notably includes Joey Burns (Calexico), Mark Orton and words by Dan Fante (son of author John Fante)

   The music on this extraordinary album blends the timeless melodies of Morricone's westerns and the pulsating surf-punk rhythms of John Zorn, the heartbreaking Tex Mex atmospheres Calexico's ballads, and the free jazz experimentation and the psychedelia of Sixties. Americana is not an album like any other, it is a musical trip that starts from the mists of the Italian province, then wanders drunk through the agitations of Balkan Europe and crosses the ocean with a wide-brimmed hat and it lands in America. The America of Vittorini, Pavese, Nanda Pivano and the America of lonely hearts sung by Hank Williams.
 
My Banjo Dog
Inspired by Sherwood Anderson, Dark Laughter, first edition Boni & Liveright, New York, 1925; first italian translation by Cesare Pavese as Riso Nero, Frassinelli, Torino, 1932.

Guano Padano - My Banjo Dog

from ZENO DE ROSSI SHTIK - ME'OR 'EINAYIM session, previously unreleased. 2007
Francesco Bigoni tenor sax - Piero Bittolo Bon alto sax - J Kyle Gregory trumpet - Alfonso Santimone piano - Stefano Senni bass - Zeno De Rossi drums

We Speak (Booker Little)

Kathya West / lyrics, concept, vocals
Danilo Gallo / baritone guitars, organ
Riccardo Tosi / live electronics

THE BRIDE WORE BLACK
I run, not as fast as my mind, mindful I can never reach the place where you found refuge, where you lie. I will never reach you lest I give up the ghost. 
I will get there slowly like a bride, dressed in doubt until I hear that “Yes, I do” - with the eyes of who seeks confirmation of the presence of her spouse at the altar.
As beautiful as the time you carry away with you.
Yes, I will come slowly, like a bride, dressed in doubt until I see your grave, staring in disbelief as if seeking to awaken from a nightmare, not seeking confirmation of any presence.
As beautiful as the time I carry away with me.
I will have no bouquet of flowers, the flowers fade. In my hands the desperation of a woman who loves you and the weakness of a young girl not satisfied with mere memories.
Despair sinks but never goes away. Now, I'm suspended on that thin line that separates my light from my darkness, those you once knew and loved. 
Ready to accept your non return, I embrace the idea I had of happiness you sought so badly to deny. Today I will boldly hold on to it with rage.
I will bring you nothing you can touch.
Do you still have hands? With those you held me tight and then always left me, without asking. Each thing at the right time. 
Nothing you can listen to.
Do you still have ears? With those you listened to your music, now also mine, in every note and every word. 
Will you still read down there?
Will you still have eyes? I love you even without eyes, I return even without them. You did not look with those eyes. I hear you with the love and the hatred of those mocked by fate. I see you through the eyes of a blind man, now. Take me down with you for a night of sleep, I’ll be awake.
I am your light. In five years, will you remember? Yes, you and I will do great things together, but not here, right?
In heaven, will you still want anything to do with me?

The Bride Wore Black

Kathya West / concept, lyrics, vocals, live vocal fx
Danilo Gallo / acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, bass VI, bass
Riccardo Tosi / drums, live electronics

FATHER
You who escaped in the face of life, for you just any old life, created in a moment of ego.
Your escape championed the paths my soul would take, generating - deeply - the constant need and curiosity to look in the mirror; for me today, a mirror obscure.
I rode the crest of time without you and without she who confided in hope.
You who promised love to a barren, sterile mother,
you who built me a house of card that could not bear the inevitable storm,
you who gambled the odds with a fate for you turned to great glory.
Too early to think, too late to love the outcome of an error. Where were you father, when I was killed, once again, because of you! Where did you run to while I was born of that random womb.

Your big, strong hands, your deep and reassuring eyes, your masterful arms, were not for me, nor even for her.
For me, just the memory of a steel-cold world where my words echoed with the speed of thought,
for me, only a surrogate father bought half price on a day of a woman’s on-going weakness.
No privilege for the defenseless creature who paid the never-ending debts of conscience.
Is all this is for me, father, only for me?
Today, for you father there's no more a glorious life to live,
there’s the insistent gaze of the triumphant woman,
there’s an unsteady hand on your face,
there’s my soul’s unuttered word.
For you the blood and tears of who has never screamed your name.
Only for you, father, all this is for you!
Look at me, father, look at me now if you can, tell me what you see,
do not look down, do not dare utter a word, do not run away, looking back; it's time to walk now, looking ahead.
Now, it's time to ask me my name and who I am, it’s time to shine on that dark mirror.
You who ran away in the face of life, for you, just any old life.
My life.
Ask for forgiveness, father, forgiveness!

Father

Kathya West / lyrics, concept, vocals, live kaos pad on guitar
Danilo Gallo / bass, baritone guitars
Riccardo Tosi / drums, live electronics

NOT THREADS OF SILK
They are not threads of silk, but tendons torn from life.
They are not threads of silk though they may seem so to your unseeing eyes.
They are endless thick lines with no beginning and no end.

They are not threads of silk, but the frayed cords of inexhaustible screams.
They are threads of glue fixed to a present past.
They are threads of silk for you who do not exist.

They are not threads of silk, but threads of thirst.

Not Threads of Silk

Kathya West / lyrics, concept, vocals
Danilo Gallo / bass, bass VI, baritone guitar
Riccardo Tosi / drums, live electronics

THE WAY OF THE DAZZLING DARK
Darkness invades me, inside and out.
I lit my last match and soon it will go out, leaving only the pungent smell of smoke that enters your nose and makes your eyes burn in that brief flash of light.

Along the road I walk, lined with luminous edges, not seeing where I tread, but it’s kind and pleasant road, never straight, but full of twists and turns, some large, some narrow.

I will not wait for you.

I go where no-one waits and where none expect me.
I go the way of the dazzling dark and I'll stop where the emptiness, echoing my name, will fill the space that was yours.
Now, I close my eyes to see where I finish when the road ends and the open space gapes wide. 
Raining light will fall upon this road and turn off the luminous edges, at intervals illuminating my disarming madness.
The match has burned out.
I slap back the darkness that bathes my eyes and withers my soul.
I fall

The Way of the Dazzling Dark

Kathya West / lyrics, concept, vocals, kazoo, harmonica, live kaos pad on guitar
Danilo Gallo / bass, baritone guitars, melodica
Riccardo Tosi / drums, live electronics

THE RAPE
Still. I have always been still. 
My body is still and my mind is far from itself. 
The overwhelming, cold, sharp wind has come. 
My soul bleeds in my flesh, my mind crumbles in the wind.

Still, waiting for it to happen, for it to come, to overthrow me inside, raping and violating my truth. 
Binding my eyes, I trampled over my body. 
Opening my legs I tore out my heart, tainting my pure concession.

I called up all that was calm and in its proper place. 
And now it will not stop, and everything will be conveyed into its unstoppable and unjustifiable vortex. Everything will be in a new and unsuitable place. 
I will waste a lot of time looking for the right thing in the wrong place and I will have little time to find the wrong thing in the right place. 
Order in disorder.
I am the centre.
With my legs drawn up I seek refuge. 
With arms flung wide I try to take back what was always mine. 
But what has always belonged to me, I have never had. 
There is no cure for my wounds. 
There is no absolution for my rape. 
I trace my journey with my blood. 
I die with what belongs to me.

The Rape

from "There Inside The Dark" (2016)

THE RAPE
Kathya West / vocals, concept, lyrics, kaos pad
Danilo Gallo / bass, bass VI, baritone guitar
Riccardo Tosi / drums, live electronics

The third track from my last Cd "Dedications" (solista 002) with Marco Fior, trumpet; Francesco Bianchi, alto sax; Massimo Pintori, drums. It's a composition of mine dedicated to my grandfather Ionas Rantzer.

Botosani (Tito Mangialajo Rantzer)

danilo is a supreme producer of rythmical lows and noises. to do that, he uses doublebass, electric bass, acoustic bass guitar, bass balalaikas, 12strings bass. born in foggia _deep south italy_ in the near 1972. living. somewhere. beetween berlin and foggia: actually, padova, italy﻿
danilo is a member of El Gallo Rojo Records (<a href="http://www.elgallorojorecords.com">www.elgallorojorecords.com</a>)﻿
my references? ehm... i mean, every musician (and not only musicians) I met in my life... but, if you like: Uri Caine, Cuong Vu, Marc Ribot, Gary Lucas, Chris Speed, Rob Mazurek, Steven Bernstein, Anthony Coleman, Ben Perowsky, Jim Black, Ralph Alessi, Tom Rainey, Angelica Sanchez, Jessica Lurie, Alexander Balanescu, Bob Mintzer, Benny Golson, John Tchicai, Famoudou Don Moye, Steve Grossman, Francesco Bearzatti, Giancarlo Schiaffini, a.o.﻿
Danilo is the winner of the italian TOP JAZZ Referendum by Musica Jazz, as best bassist of the 2010.

www.danilogallo.com


Not Threads of Silk

danilogallo

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