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Spleen was formed in 2004 when 6 musicians came together for the first time: Mimmo Di Cicco (drums), Antonio Isernia (bass), Stefano Formato (guitar), Alessandro Nunziata (guitar), Francesco Pirone (keyboards), Alessandro Granato (vocals). In June 2005 they won the first “Rock Contest” and strated recording the demo “Ghost Note (E)xperiment”. September of the same year saw the first line-up change with Alessandro Nunziata leaving the band to continue playing with a classical progressive quintet. After a number of live gigs and various disagreements over the musical genre of the group, the lead singer Alessandro Granato also left the band, shortly followed by the keyboard player Francesco Pirone. It was not a good moment for the group, but the three remaining founder members remained hopeful and eventually put together a new quintet with the singer Enzo Conte and the talented keyboard player Adriano Aponte who was to become a key figure in the future of the band. Having regained a certain stability, the band started composing and playing live once again, participating in the “Harley Davidson” motorbike rally in Agerola in April 2006 with bands such as Up The Irons, Marshall and Rain. In June of the same year, with Rosario Vitiello replacing Enzo Conte as lead singer, the group won the “Rock Contest” 2006 and received the opportunity to record a new demo with the voice of Marco Mangiapia. Another period followed with no lead singer until the arrival of Olga Mangiacapra and the participation in April 2007 in one of the major festivals in southern Italy: Heavy Naples – Dual Beat – Agnano, sharing the stage with Paintbox, Gorgeous, Savior from Anger, Loadstar and Marshall. The perennial line-up problem persisted until September 2007 when the band finally found its definitive formation with the return of Marco Mangiapia as lead vocalist ad the arrival of Davide Amodeo on bass. In May 2007 the live compilation CD, “Heavy Naples Fest 2007” (produced by “PMP”) was released and in the following months received reviews in numerous specialized magazines. Spleen opened the show for “Heavy Naples 2008” in March and are still in the running for the finals of the prestigious “Festival di Saint-Vincent”. Meanwhile the group is working hard on a brand new and soon-to-be-released demo CD.

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Gianni Ferretti was born in Tivoli in 1962. He plays the piano and keyboards and has been writing music since he was 14 years old. Together with the other musicians in his group he has released two albums in his name, published by Lengimusic: “Johnjohn” (2003) and “Chapter Two” (2005). The latter contains some prestigious musical collaborations such as the track written and performed together with Riccardo Zappa, one of the greatest Italian guitarists of all times. Gianni’s albums are almost entirely instrumental because it is the musical form with which he is able to express himself with the greatest sincerity and he loves the continuous confrontation with other sounds. For this reason there is plenty of space in his tracks for instruments that are not his own. His musical references range from A. Vollenweider to J. Zawinul and from J.M. Jarre to M. Oldfield: the important thing is that there is something in their notes that is able to arouse his emotions.

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Fabio Napodano aka It-Alien (the italian alien) composes and plays his music as a hobby, drawing his inspiration from a mixture of reason and emotion: the former shaping and leading the latter. Disinterested in any form of commercialization, Fabio has no concern for limits of genre, length and audience, creating first of all and above all for his own personal enjoyment, giving total freedom to his self-taught sensibility. Through his personal experience, however, he has traced out and followed a pathway made up of progressive rock, contemporary classical, jazz, dark ambient and psychedelic electronica. His guideline can be resumed in his own words: “To have a style means to invent once and sell forever; to have creativity means to invent forever and never sell”.

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The “Fabryka” project began at the end of 2004, when Stefano Milella (programming, air-fx, bass guitar, synth, acoustic and electronic drums), Tiziana Felle (voice, guitars, bass guitar), Giovanni Chiapparino (piano, synth, bass, drums, accordion, vibraphone), Agostino Scaranello (bass), and Pasquale Luisi (visual maker) first got together. Although still in its early days, the band is already highly considered and has taken part in the main shows of the music scene. The project aspires at the harmonious blending of acoustic and electronic music, of refined and improvised visuals, all performed or re-created on stage. It is an attempt to merge reality and fiction, fairy tales and facts, words and metaphors. “Fabryka” could be defined as the “moment” in which the different facets of a single expression manage to live together. The band’s name is taken from a Kieslowski documentary film, but it is also inspired by the idea of art as a ‘factory’, an assembly line where numerous little “pieces” are carefully assembled into a final product which does not openly reveal its underlying components: as so often happens in art between thought and expression, feeling and showing, imagination and production.

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A driving passion for music and an overriding desire to play in front of a live audience led to the birth of the Acousticherie project at the end of the year 2005. The line-up includes two acoustic and classical guitarists: Ivan Melis and Elia Casu, a drummer and percussionist: Stefano Vacca, and a singer: Giulio Muscas, with the addition in October 2007 of the bass player: Matteo Muntoni. An instrumentation at the limit of acoustic sometimes filtered with effects to create a more original and particular sound. The group’s repertoire, which ranges from rock ’n’ roll to swing, from bossa nova to the sweetest of ballads and includes ethnic and experimental music, revisits and reinvents in acoustic form the most famous and powerful songs that have characterized the history of music from the beginning of the 20th century up to the present day. Contact with their audiences was immediate from the outset and live exhibitions have given an extra kick to a group already highly charged and well harmonized. Acousticherie has performed live on innumerable occasions, some considerably important, and has had the opportunity to play alongside a number of eminent artists such as the renowned musician Enzo Favata. In the winter of 2006/07 the group produced its first studio album entitled, quite simply, “Acousticherie” which saw the collaboration of a number of friends whose contribution has further enriched what was already a highly individual sound.

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ENGLISH
Restlessness and an overwhelming urge to communicate are the only spurs that incite certain artists to take action. Max Maffia is without doubt one of these artists. While many artists, before acting, think about their sales potential and the chances of meeting with general approval, Maffia, like few others, acts because he has no choice. His lifestyle and artistic production are living proof. Born in Salerno, a fiery electric guitarist with a strong Hendrix stamp and influenced by the sound of 4AD, Max has also demonstrated with the acoustic guitar his ability to reach extraordinary states of grace. His first release was the cd “Sky and Misery”, produced by Paul Chain in 1995, with the rock group the “Peanuts”. For a year or two he was a member of the ska group “Appesi Aun Filo” and also played with “Il Pozzo di San Patrizio”, recording with them the album “Altri Tempi” (Other Times) – a mix of Irish folk, dub and space rock – and taking part in their international tour. In the meantime Max moved ahead with his own self-produced projects such as “Stagioni” (Seasons) and “Anywhere in the World”, the soundtrack to a video entitled “Picasso, sulle impronte del mito” (Picasso, on the artist’s trail). From 2005-2006 he collaborated with Nicodemo, a group of electronica songsters, on the albums “Boulevard Du Sud” (Southern Boulevard) and “Il Treno per Bologna” (The train for Bologna) while dedicating himself at the same time to the cultural association “Anima Mundi” of which he is both founder and president. In the spring of 2007 he successfully completed the difficult musical and hunanitarian project “The Right Compilation” supported by the FAO for the Telefood programme. The album is the result of a meeting of artists from various cultural and stylistic backgrounds such as the Scambio, the Israelian singer Talya G. A. Solan, the Argentinian singer Florencia Ruiz and the Neapolitan sitar player Guido Schiraldi. The cd can be purchased from the site www.therightcompilation.com at the cost of 10 euros with all the proceeds going entirely to Telefood. At the moment Max Maffia is recording a cd with the Peanuts and is preparing the next edition of “The Right Compilation”.

ITALIANO
L’irrequietezza e la smania di comunicazione sono gli unici stimoli che spingono all’azione alcuni musicisti. Di questa schiera fa parte senza dubbio Max Maffia. Mentre tanti artisti, prima di fare, pensano alla vendibilità e alle probabilità di trovare consensi, Max, come pochi altri, fa perché non ha scelta. Le sue vicende di vita e artistiche lo dimostrano. Salernitano, chitarrista elettrico infuocato con una forte impronta hendrixiana e influenze del suono della 4AD, Max ha anche dimostrato con l’acustica di saper raggiungere inconsueti stati di grazia. La sua prima produzione è il cd “Sky And Misery”, prodotto da Paul Chain nel 1995, col gruppo rock dei “Peanuts”. Milita per qualche anno nel gruppo ska “Appesi Aun Filo” ed entra ne “Il Pozzo Di San Patrizio”, registrando l’album “Altri Tempi” - un ibrido tra folk irlandese, dub e space rock - e prendendo parte al rispettivo tour internazionale. Intanto porta avanti progetti personali autoprodotti come “Stagioni” e “Anywhere In The World”, colonna sonora di un video intitolato “Picasso, sulle impronte del mito”. Dal 2005 al 2006 collabora col gruppo di cantautorato elettronico Nicodemo a “Boulverd Du Sud” e “Il Treno Per Bologna” dedicandosi intanto all’associazione culturale “Anima Mundi” della quale è fondatore e presidente. Nella primavera del 2007 riesce a realizzare il non facile progetto musicale e umanitario di “The Right Compilation” sostenuto dalla Fao per il programma Telefood, risultato dell’incontro di musicisti provenienti da culture e formazioni stilistiche differenti come gli Scambio, la cantante israeliana Talya G. A. Solan, la cantautrice argentina Florencia Ruiz e il sitarista napoletano Guido Schiraldi. Il cd è acquistabile dal sito www.therightcompilation.com al prezzo di 10 euro, che verranno devoluti interamente a Telefood. Al momento Max Maffia sta registrando un cd con i Peanuts e sta progettando la prossima edizione di “The Right Compilation”.

(artist profile by Gianmaria Consiglio)

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