A record for the fiesta, and inescapable after-party blues. The Italian singer-songwriter and poet brings solstitial songs and love letters, smacking of beer-soaked confetti. Vinicio Capossela “Conciati Per Le Feste”, live in London
Tickets londonrootsfestival.com/vinicio-caposselaconciati-per-le-feste
19:00 | £32 adv.
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https://youtu.be/JyPLGFM2-6U
viniciocapossela.it
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VINICIO CAPOSSELA
His discographic career
Phantasmagorical singer-songwriter, poet, writer, but also illusionist, showman, and band-builder. He debuted in 1990 with the album All'una e trentacinque circa, winning Targa Tenco Opera Prima, an award he would be given another four times in the following years for the Best Album. After the first albums - which are Modì (1991) and Camera a sud (1994) - rooted in jazz and South American rhythms, came the telluric Ballo di San Vito with Marc Ribot and Evan Lurie, the explosive Live in Volvo with the balcanic brass band Kocani Orkestar, followed by the pataphysique Canzoni a Manovella (2000). After that, he shifted his attention to more universal themes, often inspired by classical literature, from Melville to Céline, Dante and Homer. Works such as Ovunque Proteggi, Da Solo and Marinai, Profeti e Balene have been staged as total works of art. Ovunque Proteggi, in particular, has been ranked at #2 in Mojo's Top Ten World music albums in 2007. Still in 2007, he played a few special concerts, interpreting Michelangelo's sonnets, a project that is still unreleased.
In 2004 he wrote his first book, Non si muore tutte le mattine (Feltrinelli), which gave rise to a shadow play performance and the Radiocapitolazioni broadcast by Radio 3.
He dedicated several works to Greece and rebetiko music: the album Rebetiko Gymnastas, recorded in Athens (Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for the Best Worldmusic album in 2013), a documentary made with the filmaker Andrea Segre and the book Tefteri, published by Saggiatore and translated in Greek and Spanish. In 2013, he also started a new project with Banda della Posta, an elderly but still wild bunch of frontier serenaders, between Buena Vista Social Club and the Pogues, whom Capossela produced and toured with in Italy and abroad. 2015 and 2016 are very important years for Vinicio: his book “Il Paese dei Coppoloni” (finalist at Premio Strega and winner of Dante Alighieri Society's Prize), the docufilm “Nel Paese dei Coppoloni” and his studio album “Canzoni della Cupa”, are the result of a deep elaboration about Irpinia, the Land of the Fathers. In 2017, he was awarded the Premio Tenco for his career.
In 2019, he released Ballate per uomini e bestie, an album that focuses on Middle Ages and the plagues of current times, followed by 2020 Bestiario d'amore, a four songs EP whose title-track is the translation and adaptation of a poem by the 13th century French troubadour Richard de Fournival. His latest work is the book Eclissica, published in 2021 by Feltrinelli; it focuses on Capossela's last fifteen years of career and life. He released a new album in 2023, called Tredici canzoni urgenti. He spent the last three months of the same year touring with a show inspired by the themes of the record: urgencies of today’s society.
Touring abroad
Vinicio Capossela made his first appearance outside Italy in 1995, while touring in support of his album Camera a sud. He played a sold out concert at Théatre de la Ville in Paris in February, then he toured Switzerland in 1996, after the release of Il ballo di San Vito. But it is in 2006 that he starts creating a stable presence abroad: in fact, he released Ovunque proteggi in Spain and then he embarked for his Minotour, during which he played in Europe (Greece, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg) and America, for the first time (Canada and USA). After the 2008 release of Da solo, an album that has been partly recorded in Tucson (Arizona, USA), Capossela started Solo Show, a long tour that, in 2009, touched also European capitals (three concerts in Berlin, then Zurich, Paris, London, Luxembourg, Bruxelles) and, in 2010, Canada (with shows in Toronto and Montréal), United States (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco) and Portugal (two performances in Lisbon). Before the New York show, he presented the film La faccia della terra, directed by Gianfranco Firriolo; it shows the back stories of Da solo's recording process. In the same year, the English label Nonesuch Records released Capossela's first compilation of songs, called The story faced man. He toured Europe again in 2012, in support of Marinai, profeti e balene, which also was released in the UK and in France, and in 2013, in support of Rebetiko Gymnastas. Besides shows in Germany, Belgium, France, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain and England, he he also performed for the first time in the Middle East, with shows in Beirut (Lebanon) and Istanbul (Turkey).
Price:
General Admission: GBP 32.00
Artist: Vinicio Capossela