Biography of Mario Castelnuovo

Intense and poetic atmospheres

January 25, 1955
Mario Castelnuovo was born in Rome on January 25, 1955. Still keeps its Tuscan roots, since the mother is native to this region. He uses his passion for drawing doing portraits for tourists and passers-by. Began to compose in the academic years at the Faculty of Arts, where he deepened inter alia studies of French literature. He is attracted by the magical world of the Chanson de Geste and Provencal and Celtic music. During the same period he completed his studies of guitar and starts dating the Folkstudio. In the late ' 70 the first songs. In 1978 he released a 45 rpm that sees him as an author, a song in English entitled "Woody" Soldier "sung by Katy Stott, wife of Lally Stott, former vocalist for Motowns. The first 33 laps of Mario Castelnuovo, "Seven strands of hemp", was released in 1982, preceded by the single "Oceania" at the back "fragile" and that Blood won the selection organized by the tv show "Domenica In". The same year Castelnuovo participated in the Festival of Sanremo, between the new proposals, with the song "Seven strands of hemp".
"I think I might believe the ghost of Sanremo"remember Mario amused. In fact that song came out completely from classical schemes of the song from Festival and it was absolutely understood mainly because of a text defined for hermetic. The first great success of Mario Castelnuovo remains "Oceania". The title contains already a wonderful sense of mystery, of dream, and in fact "Oceania" wants to express its unfulfilled desire that each of us holds. It is a text that is based on a combination of symbols and images that seek to express, through a music closely linked to words, a major source of inner view. Why the word "Oceania"? -"It's a word that I have always liked and that if you think about it you don't ever eat" explains Mario-"I was looking for a meaning far away at the same time very close so I thought of Oceania, a word that everyone knows why we should not then have a deep culture to know it exists." In 1982 Mario starts a tour with Marco Ferradini and Goran Kuzminac. The initiative is called "open Barracks" and is sponsored by the Ministry of defence: playing in all barracks of the Alpine troops, turning into army buses, with so many people for the first time came within a structure usually stiff as the military to see them sing.
The tour continues through the summer. His second album "Mario Castelnuovo" is the album of "Nina", the song perhaps best known, one that has enjoyed the most success among people and also for the album: "... when I proposed Nina I didn't realize perfectly had written a song that could become my manifesto [...] I had to fight a lot to go to Sanremo with that piece, and especially to warn you that very classical arrangement, guitar and strings. It was a huge hit ...". It's a love story very simple that Mario tells every time with a deep emotional involvement, too. Presented at the Sanremo Festival in 1984, "Nina" get a good location (6) in the final standings. Albano and Romina Power will win with "we will." Not all experts expect the success of this piece judged somewhat hastily as it often happens, too rarefied and little substantial. The other tracks on the album were somewhat affected by the success of this song: "I am bound to midnight Flower, another song about Tuscany, our land, Italy".
The idea of putting out a disc as brave as "piazza del campo" (1985), third album by Mario Castelnuovo, arises from the need to change the page; After "Nina" John realizes not be cut out for mass success, that bulky, big numbers: "even today are innamnorato of this record," says Mario, "recorded everything completely live without rhythmic support battery". The protagonist of "piazza del campo" is life lived as a great race much like the palio di Siena. "Il palio di Siena has always fascinated me," said Mario, "and in that race so poignant I see rules very similar to those that govern everyday life, life is for me a great race in the square with many false starts, with its treacheries, and his misconduct." The record company believed so little on this album not even released on 45 rpm. Paradoxically, what is heralded as the most impossible Mario disk found following so many people signed up: "the Eagles" was featured in the film "the boys of the southern suburbs" by Gianni Minello, former Assistant to Pasolini, Gigliola Cinquetti filming "The distant man," while "stage" was remade as a Duet, a few years later by Baraonna. Between 1986 and 1988 along with Gaius Vampirebleeding Mario writes several pieces for Paola Turci, with two of them, "the man from yesterday" and "Primo tango", the singer will participate at the Sanremo festival, will win the critics ' Prize and will be regularly rejected from juries.
In the first disc of Paola Turci, Mario Castelnuovo plays guitar, sings and, in "portraits" performs the trumpet part with his voice. With Paola Turci will never make real tours, however a little brother, Mario will participate in some of his concerts and appearing together on television. In 1987 it was the turn of "Venus", an album produced by Connie Lam and Gaetano Ria; the disc begins with "Lady", a song "easy", ideal to be programmed on the radio and on television. Who was still in the ear "Piazza del Campo" would, at first approach, wrong a little nose, and he also thought about a ... betrayal. "Lady" is only the desire to give space to a moment of loudness, rhythm and a bit more substantial, while speaking the same language.
The same year Castelnuovo returns to San Remo with "Madonna di Venere": once again, then with a cryptic text. "I lived that return with some discomfort, I'd gotten to be closer to the secrecy of Piazza del campo that to the glories of Sanremo, I'd have done less ...". The song, released on 45 rpm (on the back "Swallows in the afternoon") has in the synthesis of what Mario did until 1987. From intimate enclosed veins especially in the first two discs until the third album acoustic overtones. "Madonna di Venere" expresses all of this and also summarizes the contents of "Venus". In this way, Mario has carved a space all its own in the panorama of Italian music, far from easy winks and artistic elements unoriginal and repetitive. His instinctive search ringtone in the world led him to dust off intense and poetic atmospheres joining them in an absolutely personal exposure. "Like all atmospheric singers"-wrote Luzzato Fegiz in the Corriere della Sera-April 19, 1987-"with a non-dialectic, Castelnuovo has a difficult to describe. But the new road of Italian song writing could be just his".
Critics have welcomed "Venus", an album that "distorts all preconceptions and comes in a great shape, luxurious without disturbing the intimacy of Mario, his silent emotion from Lonesome" (by the music magazine "blue" number 5, 1987). In 1989 is published "over the cuckoo's nest", "... for this disk taken literally the title from a movie that had impressed me very much (one flew over the cuckoo's nest, by Milos Forman) and also the song at extreme content, speaks of an attempt to love between two characters that have mental health problems, so it is a story that I imagined so surreal with the stars that light up with a button, such as a Nativity scene ...". This album was the first album of Castelnuovo in having some success abroad: in Germany the piece that pleased him most was "the eyes of Florence" which was also released as a single. In the Netherlands also fared "Via della luna". The disc also sings in choirs Mariella Nava, then in its infancy.
Mariella toured with Mario performing in a space all its own, thus having the opportunity to introduce his songs. Last album for RCA and last disc of Castelnuovo in vinyl is "How will my son" of 1991, a work that sums up 10-year career with the addition of three new pieces. "The record they wanted an anthology of success", says Mario, "I, I had a kind of modesty for those pieces that were most successful, I wanted to make room for things less well known, but they did do." The album marked the beginning of a long collaboration with Fabio Pianigiani, which will have two more albums. It was an album that pleased him and from which were also two videos. Single disc with the Cetra "Castelnuovo" (1993) is perhaps the hardest job of Mario, although this word refers to the artist could make people smile. It was designed by Fabio Pianigiani, who with his experiences rock stimulated much Castelnuovo. The music follows with elegance the play of different lyrics without weighing it down but letting you create a symbiosis words-music in a natural way.
No forcing in characterizing the songs, in fact the guitars of Pandita, Lanfranco Fornari, Mauro Formica's bass and backing vocals by Camilla Antonella and Will never take the upper hand but are part of a sound together in perfect balance. The next album "Lady Love" was recorded in 1996 for a German label (Jungle records), along with Pandita and Maghenzani (then producer of Battiato), was also a minimalist work that has sought to exploit certain possibility offered by electronics. Were also two tracks recorded during "How will my son": "the Wizard" and "Salome". In Germany went out, besides the album, the single "Ma vie je t'aime" comprising three songs including "so be it", a song not included in the Italian Edition but now available for import. Tracks: "l'oro di Santa Maria" thanks to life that Mario engraved after some personal vicissitudes, "letter from Italy" Readme "in the future". After "Miss you love", alongside the artistic direction of the festival "Cant'Autori in Silvi Marina", held annually in New York City, in the province of Teramo, the first few days of August, Mario had two collaborations with diverse artists. A with Riccardo Fogli album "Dancing" and the other with Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, Mythic, and with Mario Fasciano, who recorded his piece, in Neapolitan, titled "White Star", based on a story by Domenico Rea.
It was a very unique experience, where you are married the Neapolitan villanella of the seventeenth century, the English ballad, rock sounds of Wakeman and writing by Mario Castelnuovo. In June 2000, after a few concerts in the museums of Siena he released new album, "good morning", which sees the return of the collaboration with Lilli Greco. Made by the same author and from Alberto Antinori who, in addition to the arrangements, even the disc recording made at Lilliput Studio, the album was released on tiptoe, almost fearful that it could be contaminated by the music business that engulfs and destroys everything around. After nearly a year of its publication and some events affecting the distribution "Hello" is reprinted with the addition of a song, "the miracle", a surreal fable, written by Mario a few years ago and marks the beginning of cooperation with Ambrogio Sparagna. The September 11, 2003, after a series of summer concerts in Tuscany is given published a new drive Fabio Pianigiani involving Mario Castelnuovo in song-writing of 5 tracks.
Mario also plays the eponymous song "blue Etruscan" and there is then in some concerts for the presentation of this disc. The same year the publication of a Compact Disc containing the music for the Rai broadcast on Rai Tre "Alle Falde del Kilimangiaro" that sees Mario in the unusual and unprecedented as a composer of instrumental 4: dance in MI7, Isabella, long notes, Sunrise and sunset. Of 2005 is his latest work, entitled "how the cherries came good in the spring of ' 42."
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.