TORONTO – “Mandi” in the Friulian language (an Italian dialect, spoken in the North of the BelPaese) means “goodbye”. It is a farewell formula, with a rather varied etymology: it can be understood as a reduction of “m’arcomandi” (“I recommend”) or of the Latin expression “manus Dei” (“hand of God”), in the sense of “may you remain in the hands of God”.
From today, “Mandi” is also the title of an album: the debut album of Italian-Canadian musician David Zucchi, originally from Toronto, who lives and works in London, United Kingdom. A very particular album, where each song is built on the basis of the “traces” or, better, the tracks left by David’s family, who emigrated to Canada from Friuli, Italy, in the 1950s. Tracks in every sense, in this case, given that they are, actually, recordings made on a “Geloso G.255” recording device by David’s father’s family in 1959, eight years after he emigrated from Italy to Canada.
“These tapes – David explained to us – were recorded to send back to Italy, with the intention of giving an insight into their life in Canada. Elaborations on and reconstructions of the words, songs, and music of these tapes, along with the glitches inherent in the recording process and the deterioration of the reels form the basis of the musical material”, continues the musician who has “grafted”, onto those tracks, his own music and numerous saxophone solos, his main instrument. In every piece – sometimes in the background, sometimes more prominent – there are voices and sounds of the (new) daily life in Canada of a family of Italian immigrants. In other words: a glimpse of 1950’s Canada, which acts as a backdrop to contemporary sounds and metropolitan atmospheres of the new millennium.
The album is published by the Toronto-based label “people | places | records” which, in the presentation of the album on the Bandcom.com portal, writes: “The album ‘Mandi’ is a simultaneous embrace of past and present, communicating a snapshot into his family’s experience as Italian immigrants in Canada and David’s own musical world. In the way that his own family communicates their lives and experiences through their words and music, David conveys something of himself through a range of musical references from jazz, ambient, electronic, experimental, and classical, developing his own interpretations of the meanings behind his family’s messages”.
“Mandi” was written, produced, and recorded by David Zucchi and mastered by Jonathan Higgins, with voice and piano contributions from Flavia Silano, Paul Zucchi, Giacomo Zucchi, and Nives Zucchi and violin contributions from Emma Purslow. The graphic design is by Emma Werner.
It will be available from today, December 13th, on all streaming platforms. For further information, you can visit David’s website (here: https://davidzucchi.com/) and the label’s Bandcamp page where it is possible to purchase the album and the beautiful booklet of work design created by Emma Werner and containing interesting information on the genesis of the work and on the history of David’s family (the link is: https://peopleplacesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mandi).
In the image above, David Zucchi (photo: Caterina Lombardi); here below, the cover of the album
