Comment from the album author (Stefano Liani aka Synthesis)
Lorenzo is a very recent acquaintance, but despite this, he quickly became a good friend, thanks to his depth, passion, kindness, and sincerity. Regarding this last aspect, in fact, his review, while on the one hand almost obsessively delving into and detailing various aspects of the album, on the other hand, doesn’t hide any criticisms, not even in the most subtle ways. And that’s exactly what I wanted from him, and in fact, he didn’t disappoint. Lorenzo, despite not being an “insider,” thanks to his sensitivity, captured many aspects that often go unnoticed by people who claim to be “musicians” and “experts in the field.” I was surprised by how many aspects he highlighted, especially regarding the lyrics: honestly, I usually spend little time writing (I’m talking about the lyrics, of course), using simple terms but, I hope, profound meanings. Sintesi is the album where I wanted to lay myself bare, describe myself without veils and frills, but without necessarily going straight to the intrinsic meaning of what I had in mind. In fact, I like to think that every listener can form their own opinion, not necessarily coinciding with that of the author. Regarding Lorenzo’s specific comments, I must point out that “La Discoteca” was created precisely to be the most “commercial” (so to speak) and “direct” song, and, in fact, I have published the video (see below), thanks to the direction of Stefano Greco (already involved in the graphics and photography of Sintesi); “La Soluzione” is one of my favorite songs, while “Senza Se,” my absolute favorite, saw the heavy involvement of Andrea Trapasso (mixing and production), who, in some ways, masterfully revolutionized the song while remaining faithful to my initial conception. In the phrase “soul, there are two of us” I meant myself and, indeed, my soul, though I realize the phrase is rather cryptic. Lorenzo, despite having only known me for a short time, captured some aspects of my personality, even hidden in the songs, that few of my longtime friends had grasped. This made me very happy, since my intention, with this album, was precisely to describe myself intimately, without veils and without compromise. Regarding my voice, I found Lorenzo’s critique very interesting. There’s no doubt that my voice has changed a lot, especially after “Revolution,” or rather, in the last 10 years or so. During the long period between the aforementioned album and the subsequent ‘Distopia’, a full eight years, during which I wrote 13 songs that were supposed to be part of ‘Senses’, a sort of ‘Revolution 2.0’, in addition to difficulties in composing, one of the reasons that led me to abandon the project after a full five years, I suffered a complete collapse of my voice, which led me to reinvent my way of singing. There is no doubt that some very high and complex parts of this album were approached by me almost ‘on the defensive’, but it is also true that I decided to sing this way because the album needed this type of voice, this emphasis and, above all, the ‘calm’ in my voice, despite the aggressiveness in some songs, especially on the very early albums. When I recorded the vocal tracks for the latest effort, I was 55 years old, so there is no point in playing the hero and ending up ‘making chickens laugh’: I accepted the limits of my voice and I think my performance on Sintesi is among the best of my career. The last aspect concerns the musical part, where Lorenzo almost doesn’t express himself, perhaps because he feared he didn’t have the ‘papers in order’ to give an opinion: this is what makes his review even more interesting and unique, as it breaks away from the usual, in which we talk a lot about the technical aspects (and here, undoubtedly, we would have a lot to say, thanks to the contributions of ‘greats’ like Franco Giaffreda, Walter Rivolta, Franco Napoli and Andrea Trapasso) and almost nothing about the lyrics and their intrinsic meaning.
