No need to explain the meaning, I think. 
I'll make new changes to the track at the next historical turn, if I'm still alive.

Sax (from 0:33 to 1:23): Korey Riker, via 'The Message - Hard Bop Jazz' (with my reworking).
Cover photo is from Pietro Corrao.

Composed by Michele Ansani (2018-2025).
Posted on SoundCloud on 2025, February 21.

Old Europe's last dance (final version)

The lyrics translated into Italian are taken from the well-known T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land". Part IV: "Death by Water".

To give a new and different look to this old track I asked to my (and yours) friends (you know them well: @beatingedge). They improved the mix and above all added an instrumental part, on wich I enjoyed myself with other guitar, pad and cello sounds and parts. Obviously, I thank them immensely, with a special thought for Vampira (aka Mary).

LYRICS (ENG - ITA)

Phlebas the Phoenician,
a fortnight dead,
forgot the cry of gulls,
and the deep sea swell
and the profit and loss.
A current under sea
picked his bones in whispers.
As he rose and fell
he passed the stages of his age and youth
entering the whirlpool.

Gentile or Jew
o you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
consider Phlebas,
who was once handsome and tall as you.

----

Phlebas il Fenicio,
morto da quindici giorni,
dimenticò il grido dei gabbiani
e il fondo gorgo del mare,
E il profitto e la perdita.
Una corrente sottomarina
Gli spolpò l’ossa in mormorii.
Mentre affiorava e affondava
Passò attraverso gli stadi della giovinezza
della maturítà
Procedendo nel vortice.

Gentile o Giudeo
o tu che volgi la ruota e guardi sopravvento,
Considera Phlebas,
che un giorno fu bello e alto come te.

----

Music by Michele Ansani & Beating Edge (1981-2025).
Picture is from James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 'The Ocean Wave' (1883-1884), National Museum of Asian Arts, Washington.
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, March 6

Phlebas il Fenicio [with Beating Edge] *

That guy is me, exactly 50 years ago, after a soccer match. I was a decent, fast young footballer, but I stopped when I went to university. I  didn't grow tired of running after a ball, simply having other things to do; thinking I'd start again sooner or later. It only happened occasionally, over the years. Today I could go back to kicking a ball on a football pitch, but it's unlikely that I'd come out of there alive. And so, officially, I bury that part of my life in the archive of memories and play a little (and not sad) 'requiem'.

Saxophones (reworked by me) are courtesy of Gareth Lumbers (via Komorebi Audio - Sunset Jazz) and Tokyo City Pop Tapes.
Composed by Michele Ansani (2023-2025).
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, March 19.

Requiem for a footballer *

Cover picture: Albert Bierstadt, "Emigrants Crossing the Plains" (1869): an oil on canvas painting of emigrants on their way to Oregon, inspired by a fifty-wagon train of German emigrants who crossed Bierstadt's path during his 1863 expedition.

Although it is very difficult to estimate the total number of European emigrants, it is thought that from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, around 30 million people left Europe for the United States.

I reworked in the last days on this not particularly original piece, whose first draft is from 2018.
Femal vocals courtesy by La Boutique Studios Dakar; harmonica by Dust Bowl - Vintage Country.
Composed by Michele Ansani (2018-2025).
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, March 26

Their American dream *

In Euripides' tragedy 'The Suppliants', a group of Argive mothers travels to Eleusis to plead with Theseus, king of Athens, to help them recover the bodies of their sons, who fell during the failed assault on Thebes. The Thebans, in fact, refuse to return the corpses for burial. These mothers, immersed in profound grief, represent the universal symbol of maternal mourning in the face of the loss of their children in war.

Cover picture: Theseus and Amphitrite with Athena looking on. Interior from an Attic red-figure cup, 500–490 BC. Currently housed at the Louvre Museum of Paris (inventory G 105).

Composed by Michele Ansani (2023-2025).
Female vocals courtesy of VOX.
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, April 4.

The Suppliants *

"Dans un voyage, on évolue, on change, on se transforme. Et souvent, on rentre et tout est annulé par le retour".

"During a journey, we evolve, we change, we transform. And often, we return, and everything is undone by coming back"

(Raymond Depardon, Errance, Paris 2000, pag. 40).
From the same work, the cover picture (page 4).

Composed by Michele Ansani (2016-2025).
Sax (reworked by me) is courtesy of Komorebi Audio - Sunset Jazz.
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, April 17.

Everything is undone by coming back *

The axolotl named Julio Cortázar watches Julio Cortázar observing the axolotls swimming in the aquarium.
The sister tracks here: https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani/this-is-them-last-version and https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani/this-is-us

Here the short background story:https://ambystoma.uky.edu/teachers_materials/axolitbook/AxolotlByJulioCortazar.html
Picture is from Pietro Corrao.

------

Composed by Michele Ansani (2025)
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, May 1

Is this you? *

When the railway runs along the coast, right beside the sea, there are many tunnels. Sometimes they’re so narrow that two tracks must draw near to one another to pass through. That’s how a strange love story begins between them.
This is a song I wrote around the year 2000, one of my last. I think it has a good mood. I’ve remixed and partially rearranged it.
You can still hear the warm tone of the Washburn, along with the old Yamaha’s sounds (including the flute). The sax — reworked by me  — is kindly provided by Dropgun Samples.
Still, as always, everything is very handcrafted.

Below is the English translation of the lyrics.

They converged at the tunnel’s mouth,
suddenly parallel —
twins of the railway.
They looked at each other, studied each other,
just enough
to not quite grasp
how much the one beside you knows of you.
They hesitated, thinking of the road behind:
companions in adventure,
but now unsure why.
And then they stared at the night gaping inside the tunnel:
a magnificent promise
to be traveled on the thread of fantasy.

“Inside this darkness, maybe we will never part,
under this shadow, maybe you’ll finally know me,
after this night, who knows where you’ll fall asleep —
perhaps closer to the sea…”

They parted at the tunnel’s edge,
but a narrow wall concealed a silence
charged with jealousy,
shaped like fear — fear of that strange kind of courtesy,
fear of the light,
fear of the end of the tunnel.
“Parallel track,
mirror born of the railway,
traitorous twin,
lover made of parody.
Don’t tell me that
after this darkness we’ll never part,
that under this shadow you’ll finally touch me,
that after this night, who knows where you’ll take me —
perhaps down by the sea…”

And at the end of that masterpiece of engineering,
only one of them
came rushing out of the tunnel;
on instinct, he turned and saw
that the sea was beside him,
and under the sea, the sky,
and beneath the sky — who knows what lies...

“After this darkness, surely we will never part,
inside this shadow, surely you’ll let go,
after this night, I cannot say where you’ll fall asleep —
perhaps closer to the sea…”

----

Confluirono all'ingresso della galleria
improvvisamente paralleli 
gemelli della ferrovia.
Si guardarono, si studiarono quel tanto che
non basta a misurare sino in fondo
quello che hai di fianco cosa sa di te.
Indugiarono, pensarono alla strada dietro di sé:
compagni di avventura,
ma ora non capivano perché.
E poi guardarono la notte spalancata nella galleria:
magnifica promessa
da viaggiare sul filo della fantasia

"dentro questo buio forse noi non ci separeremo mai,
sotto questo scuro tu finalmente mi conoscerai,
dopo questa notte poi non so dire dove ti addormenterai,
forse più vicino al mare ..."

Si congedarono sulla bocca della galleria,
ma parete stretta nasconde silenzio
fatto a carica di gelosia,
fatto a forma di paura di quella stranissima cortesia,
paura della luce
paura della fine della galleria.
"Binario parallelo,
specchio generato dalla ferrovia,
gemello traditore,
amante da parodia.
Non dirmi che 
dopo questo buio noi non ci separaremo mai,
che sotto questo scuro tu finalmente mi toccherai,
che dopo questa notte poi chissà dove mi accompagnerai,
forse giù vicino al mare ..."

E alla fine di quel capolavoro di ingegneria,
di loro uno solo
usciva di corsa dalla galleria;
d'istinto si voltò e vide che
c'era il mare di fianco a sé,
e sotto il mare il cielo,
e sotto il cielo chissa cosa c'è ...

"dopo questo buio certo noi non ci separeremo mai,
dentro questo scuro tu sicuramente ti abbandonerai,
dopo questa notte poi non so dire dove ti addormenterai,
forse più vicino al mare ..."

----

Composed by Michele Ansani (1999)
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, May 16

Down by the sea [Viaggio di nozze] *

Composed by Michele Ansani (2025).
Saxophone and female vocals (reworked) are courtesy by Daze of Nostalgia and Cinematic Vocals.
Cover picture: René Magritte, The Art of Conversation (1963).

Posted on SoundCloud:  2025 June 1.

Talking about our lifetime

I had posted a year ago the row version of this track recorded back in 2015 (https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani/bosque-redondo)
I thought that, after all these years, it was time to remake it, without altering the melody or the atmosphere.
Regarding the context evoked, see for example here: https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/navajo/long-walk/long-walk.cshtml

Composed by Michele Ansani (2015-2025).
Bansuri is courtesy by Aahro.
Cover photo: Navajo girls at Fort Sumner, Bosque Redondo era, New Mexico, 1864-1868(?). Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, negative number 038208.

RePosted on SoundCloud: 2025, June 16

Bosque Redondo (final version)*

I am an university professor of history who enjoys playing (guitar and piano/keyboard) and composing: unpretentious, just for fun. As a consequence, the most of my recordings (made with KorgD8 / Audacity and also Reaper now, for MIDI) are handcrafted and largely imperfect, even though this year I learned to work with sample libraries.
My stuff consists of old songs (all wrote in the past century; here are only those I have redone in these last years) and old and new instrumentals (usually in various versions, some of which are removed at some point because they're unlistenable). 
Thank you in any case for stopping here to listen to something; in the description area you can find often explanatory notes or lyrics translations.

Here I found a community of great musicians and songwriters and a lot of beautiful music to listen to; you can be sure that any liking, commenting or reposting by me is a consequence of careful listening to the tracks. Obviously, for this very reason, I am not interested in collecting free ‘likes’ without real listening. I will not answer any messages from possible promoters: the number of followers does not interest me in the slightest. 
By popular demand (well, exclusively my daughter's — she says it's the "cooler" platform), I'm finally starting to put some of my stuff on Spotify too...

Update (2024, September 9). Completed the "AI & (fake) songwriting project". Here: https://soundcloud.com/mick-hansan 

P.S.: A prayer, a humble request to those who publish songs: use the description area to make the lyrics available... This would make listening to them more complete and enjoyable!

Email: michele.ansani@unipv.it

This track is not available anymore.

Other tracks from Michele Ansani