Why has Thou forsaken me? - a charity album (sorry)

Ciao a tutti,
Really sorry (again) for the rather shameless self-promotion message after a long, long absence from ILM but I just would like to tell you about the charity album that, with a big help from a lot of friends, we will put out next April.

The idea came out of some family troubles: my 3-yr old son Giona was diagnosed with a rare syndrome, we spent a year and a half in and out of hospitals and basically saw our little world going totally upside down. Sometimes it was really hard but it was also a weird opportunity to see things (and people) under a different light.

Together with Marco Fasolo (Jennifer Gentle’s main man) we started thinking about an album that was meant as a way to express some of my family experiences and, more importantly, as a fund-raiser for an organization called Città della Speranza (www.cittadellasperanza.org) who is quite active with seriously ill children.

We didn’t want anything glossy or self-consolatory: we thought of the album as a sort of quiet celebration of life including its darker sides – love, hope, but also death, sorrow and even madness. So we chose a fistful of our favourite Anglo-American songs and asked some of our favourite Anglo-American singers to sing.

Surprisingly, most of them agreed to do it.

The album is titled Why hast Thou forsaken me?, the fictitious band who recorded the backing tracks include among the others Alessandro Stefana (Mike Patton’s guitarist) and 65-year old drummer extraordinaire Mauri Boldrin (also with Mamuthones etc.). Soundtrack maestro Pino Donaggio helped a bit and Marco Fasolo masterminded arrangements and production.

Below you can find the (almost) complete tracklist: I can only say that the final results sound good to me, dusty and warm and a bit grainy.

It will be distributed from April 2013 in Europe and UK by Rough Trade.
Since we are obviously quite attached to it, any tip, advice and help for additional promotion, press, radio etc. is absolutely welcome: feel free to contact me, while I’ll start posting some songs as soon as we will have the final mixes.

I am born to preach the gospel (Washington Phillips) Chris Robinson
I hear voices (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins) Alan Vega
The clock (Johnny Ace) Swamp Dogg
It’s your voodoo working (Charles Sheffield) Mick Collins
Hong Kong blues (Hoagy Carmichael) Baby Dee
Is that all there is? (Peggy Lee) Stan Ridgway
Midnight, the stars and you (Al Bowlly) Lisa Germano
First of May (The Bee Gees) Jarvis Cocker
Psycho (Jack Kittel) Steve Wynn
For the last time we’ll pray (Pino Donaggio) instrumental
Cheree (Suicide) Mark Arm
Kangaroo (Big Star) Gavin Friday
Mother (John Lennon) Marco Fasolo

Hope you can like it and forgive again the long post,
-
Marco

I saw this last night on my iPad, and didn't respond because the damned thing is too hard type on!

I'm surprised that no one's commented on this release, since the line-up is pretty stellar. Any compilation that has new tracks with Alan Vega, Swamp Dogg and Gavin Friday is going to be purchased by me, even if everything else looks horrid - which, happily, isn't the case here! Beyond that, the actual songs chosen are mostly great (there's a couple I don't know), and the fact that it's all for a good cause makes this a no-brainer.

I'm super busy now, Marco, but I'll e-mail you soon with a few people who might be worth contacting. Do you have American distribution?

Today got a little distracting in the news, I admit. This does look very great!

hi, Marco (fellow J. Cope fan). I don't have anything to offer by way of useful networking info at the moment, but with that line-up, and Rough Trade distribution, I sure hope this will make a splash. on a personal note - Donaggio and Alessandro Stefana AKA Asso (meaning, 'ace') on the same disc! wow!

I have some FB 'friendship' links to some notable Italian musicians (Eraldo Bernocchi, Alessandro Grazian, Alberto Scotti from Maisie, all the ex CCCP/C.S.I. et al, Marco Parente, Andrea Chimenti, Amelia Cuni etc.) and some Italian indie journalists (Renzo Stefanel from rockit.it), so I will more than gladly do my job. I also know some musicians and radio types in Istria (western Croatia), and I think this could interest them, as well.

off the top of my head - try contacting Eraldo Bernocchi at rarenoiserecords.com for suggestions - he curated a fund-raising tribute album for Japan's Mick Karn some time ago, so maybe he'd be of help to you as logistics and such go.

also, please keep us informed about Giona's progress, if you're so inclined.

Thanks everyone for the tips!
Max, are you Italian? (by the way I know well Renzo)

oh, good! sì : )

Hi Marco. I have no useful tips, I just wanted to say that this is so great. All best wishes to your family, and well done putting it all together.

yeah, ditto - good luck with everything!

As promised (menaced?), here comes Alan Vega singing our version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I hear Voices".
Hope you can like it (password is "promo"):

http://www.abnegat.com/universal_daughters.php

More to come soonish!

For those who can be interested, the whole album in streaming:

http://videodrome-xl.blogautore.repubblica.it/2013/04/03/universal-daughters-why-hast-thou-forsaken-me/

Nice! Are things going well?

Thanks Ned!
Here everything's okay but we're quite busy with lots of things (most of them hopefully good)