"An affect or passion of the mind is a confused idea."

Post Romantic Empire was a research project on the inheritance of the Romantic revolution in the contemporary world that was originally supposed to result in an essay within two years time but which, finally, ended up becoming something entirely different. PRE is the testimony of how an idea, or rather, the derivations of Romanticism’s rhizome can mark the destiny of one or more people.

Factually, PRE has been a project management focused on event organization and artists booking, a recording label, and a photographic safari in the underground.
Moreover, in has been a daring journey in the territory of the ineffable.

To create one’s own world, limitless and possible, and to forget the reason for having created it: this, in short, is the history of the Post Romantic Empire project.


The Post Romantic Empire album was born from the desire to produce a representation of the concept behind the PRE experience – a personal exploration of the heritage of Romanticism – using music as the only language. 

The idea of revisiting (retracing) famous landscapes of our culture, which are open paths in many minds, is the most complex work I have ever done for the Empire. On the surface the idea was rather simple: to choose four significant tracks and then associate/assign them to different composers and producers. The composers would suggest what musicians to invite and the producers would then mix the blind collaborations together.
The songs were to have been: Rimsky Korsakov’s “Sheherazade”, the traditional folk song “The House of the Rising Sun”, Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Something for Your Mind” by Speedy J. 

In 2011, thanks to Klarita Pandolfi, I entered into contact with Roger O’Donnell and asked him to re-imagine “Sheherazade”. The moment he accepted, this album was officially born. From that point to today almost two years have passed.

“Sheherazade” represents, if we also keep in mind Rimsky Korsakov’s work as a whole, the origins of European Romanticism.  This is a duet both from the point of view of the narration (the king and the princess) as well as that of its execution. As Roger O’Donnell was composing and playing in London, Julia Kent was recording in New York. It is a composition in three movements that, although developed along a narrative structure, is pure emotion.

The southern U.S. folk standard “The House of the Rising Sun” was proposed to Baby Dee, Andrew WK and Matt Sweeney during the dilated time of a pre-concert sound-check of Current 93’s. “There’s nothing easier and at the same time more stimulating for an American musician,” was the answer. Baby Dee confronted this re-writing in the best of ways – a jam session in New York where, in addition to Matt Sweeney and Andrew WK, she invited Little Annie Bandez to be on vocals, Sxip Shirley, Sarah Alden, Robbie Lee, Sarah Nowicki and Matthew Robinson. Improvisational magic: from the echoes of the house of the rising sun comes “Little Black Train”, a song within the song reinforcing the impression that in reality it is all part of the listener’s dream. A moment in time destined to forever repeat itself in different permutations.

From the earliest days of PRE we have collaborated with violinist Matt Howden. It was therefore only natural for us to ask him, a citizen of Yorkshire, to elaborate “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, which for us is a neo-archetype of contemporary Romanticism. In 2006 I had met New Order for a photographic session and from that meeting had kept Peter Hook’s email address. I wrote him to ask permission to continue with the project and invited him along with guitarist Nat Wason to be part of a virtual jam-session to take place around Matt’s re-composition. The presence of one the original authors of the 20th century’s most moving song added an unexpected dimension to the entire history of the PRE: that of the real, of the connection to a history not simply perceived a posteriori. We then invited David Tibet to sing, Annabella Lwin to be on backing vocals, Dave Barbarossa and Vin Cassidy to play drums, Massimo Pupillo to play bass and Eliot Bates to play oud. Andrew Liles, who we consider the most formidable sculptor of sound alive, accepted the most difficult job of the entire album: mixing the hours and hours of recordings.

I myself had the opportunity to participate in one of the mixing sessions of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” when I personally brought Andrew another recording, an unexpected gift, which once again would turn our plans upside down. 

Vin Cassidy had given Carlo Cassaro, my primary collaborator, a recording of Larry Cassidy, whose band Section 25 we had recently promoted in Italy, reciting a selection of Joy Division lyrics. Larry had passed away only a short time before and his reading of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” moved us all profoundly. It is above all for this reason that we decided to suspend the production of the fourth track we had originally envisioned to close the track-list – “Something for Your Mind” (which had been given to Othon Mataragas who did an exceptional job and which we hope to be able to put out in the near future) – in order to substitute a second version, elegiac and open, of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” celebrating Larry’s posthumous work. 

Together with this album there is a second, smaller one. Carlo had proposed applying the same method used on the PRE album to a disc dedicated to our departed friend Paul Tired. The songs this time were chosen from among those that had been his favorites. It is no accident that here too we found ourselves face to face with highly meaningful songs: New Order’s “Dreams Never End” and CCCP’s “Annarella”. The recomposition of both was entrusted to Maja Elliott because she is the pianist who moves us more than any other and because butterflies live in her heart. “Dreams Never End” was enriched by the cello of John Contreras and by the generous and profound interpretation of Gitane Demone. “Annarella” was sung by Pueri Cantores Regina Nivis, the children’s choir of Carpi. Both songs were mixed according to the binaural sensibilities of producer Matteo Spinazzè.

"Gocce di Sole nella Città degli Spettri"

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