Genre: Neofolk / Experimental

01 Volgari e Cafoni
02 Punk Woyzeck
03 S.Nicola
04 Lupo
05 Kristal Estonian Light
06 Hai Mai Tu Presto Un Café?
07 Candidato
08 Holland Sea (part I)
09 La Sagrada Familia
10 Holland Sea (part II)

‘Early and unreleased songs’, as the title explains, refers to a collections of compositions Damiano Mercuri, heart and soul of Rose Rovine e Amanti. Each song is accompanied by a short explanation of what it represents for the author, which is very helpful to get into the ‘mood’. The result in as eclectic group of songs, some sounding purely like Rose Rovine et Amanti, but most of them sliding in and out of neofolk as they please. The presentation, a digipack format covered in old European postcard images collected by Damiano’s friends Igor and Tanya is excellent.

A chaotical mixture of percussion and guitar riffs. A double voice line, one highly, one low. An imbedded duality and plentiful distortion. An ironic use of martial oriented percussion and elongated moans. All this defines the music Damiano Mercuri thinks “all those children who play into ‘kindergarten’ neo-folk”. Definitely a strong and surprising beginning. But ‘Punk Woyzeck’ is even more disturbing. Constructed only by a repetitive rhythm and a large voice sampler, Rose Rovine e Amanti defines it as ‘Punk’ but it is closer to a crude mixture of new wave and post punk. It seems to be gaining impetus and intensity, but it actually is only a tense looping. It ends as it started, with a short singing sampler and silence.

The velocity is extended into the next composition, ‘S. Nicola’, a very strange forceful pop version of the song included in ‘Rituale Romanum’ and actually recorded during these sessions. The voice glides over the underlining bass line and the guitars serve as a bridge between the defined rhythm and the singing. It even includes a stop and then takes off again. Perhaps it could be the reverse of a ‘club song’… And what follows is a twisted version of ‘Lupa’, song recorded for ‘Woyzeck-cdr’ with the most recognizable Rose Rovine e Amantri so far. An undulating folk song, where the voice is detached from the music line created by the guitar and the raining notes of the violin. The sound seems to be modulated like plastersine surrounded by a dark character.

It is followed by a ‘love’ song. Intimately constructed with a guitar line and the voice, it is projected into an epic sound through the echo of the voice line and the huge space feeling behind it. Around the centre part of the song, Damiano Mercuri introduces a thick and dirty digital percussion, isolating the original feeling from being admitted. What follows, originally one of RR&A early demo-songs, is a sublimation of wild dark folk where the voice is intensively swaying over the song and the instruments seem to be aggressively tearing notes from calm into a storm. The violin line introduced towards the end makes the song move into a distressing longing feeling.

‘Candidato’ talks about the false intentions of current politicians and is directly inspired by David Bowie ‘Diamond Dogs’. This is clearly found through the way Damiano curbs and transforms his voice and the guitar work, different from normal. It includes tempo changes, variations, climax and slow moments. And all this, is built and recognized only through a simple and remarkable guitar and voice. ‘Holland Sea (part I)’ is a sailor song dedicated wickedly to their liberal society, considered in an immoral way. It appears as a ballad made with a repeating guitar melody that only subtly changes, a voice line that is almost reciting, sometimes moaning, and a vast veiled atmospheric synthesiser that cloaks the entire composition.

‘La Sagrada Familia’ was supposed to be part of a tribute CD to Gaudí that was never released. It possesses a vibrant solid percussion, over which a main guitar line flies and a lower, secondary line, almost enveloped by the strength in the base where the voice is slowly extended. The entire song sounds quite like a taciturn march that looses its percussion towards the end, to end in a melancholy matter. To end, ‘Holland Sea (part II)’ opens with a rock n’ roll sampler ‘warden through a party in the county jail’, by Elvis, and slides into a guitar constructed folk line over which diverse samplers hauntingly hang. Hymns, pieces of conversations, voices, silence and the elongated shadow of sex and perversion.

The bizarre result of this record will be found extremely interesting by Rose Rovine e Amanti’s followers. It is also very interesting that this catholic project has been edited by the Israeli record label The Eastern Front… perhaps the strange side of folk will be the bridge that unites us all. If you have a good reception for irony and enjoy being surprised, ‘Early and unreleased songs’ is a secret to be discovered.