Alice (singer)
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Carla Bissi (born 26 September 1954), known professionally as Alice () or Alice Visconti, is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist who began her career in the early 1970s. After releasing three albums by the end of the decade, her breakthrough came in 1981 when she won the Sanremo Music Festival with the song " Per Elisa". This was followed by European hit singles like "Una notte speciale", "Messaggio", "Chan-son Egocentrique", "Prospettiva Nevski" and "Nomadi" and albums like '' Gioielli rubati'', '' Park Hotel'', '' Elisir'', and '' Il sole nella pioggia'' which charted in Continental Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan. In , she represented Italy in the
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
with " I treni di Tozeur", a duet with longtime collaborator Franco Battiato. In her more recent career Alice has explored a diverse range of musical genres including classical, jazz,
electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
and
ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...
, and has collaborated with a large number of renowned English and American musicians. Her latest album '' Samsara'' was released in 2012.


Biography


Early career (1970s)

Born in Forlì, Alice started taking piano lessons in the local Conservatory and singing privately at the age of eight. Her career in music started at age 17 when she participated in the 1971
Castrocaro Music Festival The Castrocaro Music Festival, also known as Concorso per Voci Nuove, is an Italian musical contest which takes place every year in the town of Castrocaro Terme e Terra del Sole, near Forlì, from 1957. The competition is exclusively reserved for ...
under her birth name. She went on to win the contest with an interpretation of the song " Tanta voglia di lei", originally composed and recorded by classic Italian rock band Pooh. The following year saw her winning another music award, ''La gondola d'argento'' in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
, with the song "La festa mia" as well as making her debut in the important Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il mio cuore se ne va" in the Newcomers category, also released as her debut single, the song however failed to qualify for the finals. Two further singles on the Carosello label credited under her birth name Carla Bissi followed in 1972 and 1973, both going relatively unnoticed by Italian audiences. In 1975 she quit her day job at a design studio and took the stage name Alice Visconti as she was signed by the Italian subsidiary of CBS Records and released her debut album '' La mia poca grande età''. The album consisted of material written by some of Italy's most successful composers and lyricists of the era and among the musicians contributing were in fact members of Pooh. The singles "Piccola anima" and "Io voglio vivere", both in the fairly traditional Italian easy listening genre, became minor chart successes in late 1975 and early 1976, the latter also a modest hit in France. A second album on CBS followed in late 1977, '' Cosa resta... Un fiore'', recorded with the same team of producers, composers and musicians as the debut, including the singles "...E respiro" and "Un'isola" which also met with moderate commercial success.


Commercial breakthrough (1980s)


Capo Nord

In late 1979, shortly after her contract with CBS had expired, Alice met a man with whom she would go on to collaborate with for the next three decades with great success, the experimental, unconventional and highly productive composer and singer Franco Battiato who was just on the verge of having his Italian breakthrough in the pop genre with the album '' L'era del cinghiale bianco'', released in 1979. Battiato secured Alice a contract with his label EMI and the two began working together with his producer Angelo Carrara on what was to become her first proper hit single, the dark and despairing "Il vento caldo dell'estate" ("The Warm Summer Wind") and the following album '' Capo Nord'' (" North Cape"). Co-written and arranged by Battiato, the album saw Alice making a dramatic change in musical direction as it combined influences from contemporary rock and new wave and a musical landscape with prominent use of synthesizers and distorted electric guitars. At this time she also dropped the Visconti part of her stage name and the ''Capo Nord'' album was the first to be credited simply as Alice. The album also marked her debut as a composer, with her writing the majority of the songs and over the course of the following albums she would become increasingly involved in the production of her music, both as composer, lyricist, musical arranger and sound engineer.


Per Elisa

In early 1981 Alice returned to the Sanremo Music Festival with the song " Per Elisa", composed by herself, Franco Battiato and his longtime co-writer, classical violinist Giusto Pio. The song was both lyrically and musically a modern paraphrase of Ludwig van Beethoven's " Für Elise" but it was by no means an archetypal sentimental Sanremo ballad. The rough rock track had lyrics which dealt with jealousy, betrayal, anger and revenge. For the live performance at the contest, she made full use of her vocal strength and range; one of the singer's trademarks is the exceptionally low register of her contralto voice. "Per Elisa" is also partly sung in
falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...
and thus covers close to four
octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
s. The unorthodox entry and Alice's delivery of the song while dressed in tight jeans and a leather jacket made a strong impression on both the juries and the TV audiences; "Per Elisa" won the contest, becoming one of the first up-tempo rock tracks to do so and it became her commercial breakthrough, not only in Italy but also in the rest of Continental Europe, becoming a Top 10 hit also in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and Austria and most other parts of Western Europe, including Scandinavia. An album titled ''
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'' followed a few months later (released as ''Per Elisa'' outside Italy) including follow-up single "Una notte speciale" ("A Special Night") and the same year Bissi set out on her first European tour.


Azimut – Falsi allarmi

The following years saw the release of the albums '' Azimut'' ('' Azimuth'') and '' Falsi allarmi'', again mainly composed by Bissi herself, but also including further songwriting collaborations with Battiato and Giusto Pio. Both produced by Angelo Carrara, the albums spun off further popular single releases like "Messaggio" ("Message"), the nonsensical French/Italian/German/English language "Chan-son Egocentrique" ("Selfcentred Song", a duet with Battiato), "A cosa pensano" ("What Are They Thinking"), "Notte a Roma" ("Night in Rome"), "Solo un'idea" ("Just a Thought") and "Il profumo del silenzio" ("The Scent of Silence"). These became especially successful in West Germany, which led to her recording the German/Italian language duet "Zu nah am Feuer" with singer Stefan Waggershausen in late 1983, an English/Italian version was later also released in certain territories under the title "Close to the Fire". The single which sold nearly a million copies in West Germany alone was also a number one in Switzerland and Austria. The duet made her one of the best-selling Italian artists on the German-speaking markets of the mid-1980s and it has been said that she at this stage of her career even sold more records in these countries, the Benelux and Scandinavia than in her native Italy.


I treni di Tozeur

In May 1984 Alice and Franco Battiato represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest with the for its genre highly unconventional song " I treni di Tozeur" ("The trains of Tozeur"), again composed by Battiato, Giusto Pio and lyricist Rosario Cosentino. The mid-tempo synth-driven ballad was based around a very brief excerpt from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera '' The Magic Flute'' and was performed on stage in Luxembourg with three classically trained
mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...
s. Despite being tipped to win and arguably the best reception from the audiences on the night as well as receiving the coveted "twelve points", the full mark, from countries as diverse as Spain and Finland, Alice and Battiato lost out to the Swedish song " Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley", and finished 5th out of 19 entries. "I treni di Tozeur" however became that year's bestselling entry in Continental Europe, and paradoxically enough also a Top 20 hit in Sweden. The song is also in fact one of the very few Italian Eurovision entries ever to become a commercial success in Italy itself – even topping the Italian singles chart, and some twenty-five years later it still remains the best-selling single in Bissi's career to date. Both Alice and Battiato have since recorded several solo interpretations of "I treni di Tozeur", both with contemporary and classical arrangements, and the song also appears on the CD set of Eurovision ''Winners and Classics'' produced to coincide with the '' Congratulations'' 50th Anniversary special of late 2005 as well as on the accompanying DVD.


Gioielli rubati

In 1985 Alice followed up the success of the "I treni di Tozeur" single with a full-length tribute album entitled '' Gioielli rubati – Alice canta Battiato'' (''Stolen Jewels – Alice Sings Battiato''), including nine of the composer's best-known songs. Angelo Carrara's production of the album, recorded in Milan and mixed at The Power Station Studios in New York City, accentuated Battiato's influences from classical masters such as Johann Sebastian Bach,
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
and
Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
by juxtaposing modern sequencer-programmed synthesizers and drum machines against a classically arranged string section, just like in the case of "I treni di Tozeur" courtesy of the opera house
La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
in Milan. The album's opening track "Prospettiva Nevski", minutely detailing a cold winter's day at Saint Petersburg's Nevsky Prospect in the early twentieth century, became Alice's best-selling solo single in Continental Europe and Scandinavia since her breakthrough with "Per Elisa" and was followed by "Summer on a Solitary Beach", "Il Re del Mondo" ("The King of the World") and "Luna indiana" ("Indian Moon", loosely based on Beethoven's " Moonlight Sonata") and introduced Battiato's music to a wider European audience. In Italy the ''Gioielli rubati'' album won Alice the award Premio Tenco for Best Interpretation the following year.


Park Hotel

In 1986 Bissi changed musical direction as she returned to the charts with the album '' Park Hotel'', her first project with keyboardist, arranger and producer Francesco Messina, with whom she was to collaborate extensively over the next two decades. The album which included material co-written by Bissi herself, Messina, as well as prolific Italian lyricist, composer and singer Juri Camisasca was also Bissi's first proper international venture as it was entirely recorded with a four-piece band consisting of Italian keyboardist Michele Fedrigotti plus three internationally acknowledged and highly influential musicians: American bassist Tony Levin, American drummer Jerry Marotta and British guitarist Phil Manzanera. The album was notably different from the preceding "I treni di Tozeur" and ''Gioielli rubati'', as it mainly focussed on
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
-tinged, melancholy and suggestive ballads with airy soundscapes giving plenty of room for the musicians to display their respective talents and for Bissi to use her vocal skills in a new musical environment. ''Park Hotel'' was promoted by lead single "Nomadi" ("Nomads"), an epic ballad by Camisasca, followed by "Il senso dei desideri" ("The Sense of Desire"), "Viali di solitudine" ("The Boulevards of the Lonely"), "Volo di notte" ("Fly by Night") and a remix of the up-tempo track "Conoscersi" ("Knowing Yourself"). ''Park Hotel'' was a considerable success both critically and commercially, reaching the Top 20 in most parts of Continental Europe, peaking at No. 13 on the Swedish albums chart and it also became her breakthrough on the Japanese market, despite the fact that all lyrics still were entirely sung in the Italian language.


Elisir

A tour in Continental Europe and Scandinavia followed in 1987 on which Bissi performed tracks from the '' Park Hotel'' album alongside reworked arrangements of songs from her earlier repertoire; the romantic "Una notte speciale" became an up-tempo rock track, breakthrough single "Il vento caldo dell'estate" was given an updated synthesizer and drum-machine treatment while songs like "La Mano", "Rumbarock" (retitled "Hispavox") and "Notte a Roma" were performed unplugged with acoustic guitars and sparse percussion. After the completion of the tour six of these interpretations were recorded in studio and released on the album '' Elisir'' which also included two previously unreleased songs, the opening track "Nuvole" ("Clouds") and a cover version of Lennon and McCartney's " The Fool on the Hill", released as the lead single. ''Elisir'' was later awarded the prestigious prize '' Goldene Europa'' for sales on the German-speaking markets. In Japan the album was released under the title '' Kusamakura'' (''Grass Pillow'') and then included the new recording "Le scogliere di Dover" ("The cliffs of
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
"), with which Alice participated in the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo in early 1988.


Mélodie Passagère

Musically and vocally versatile and unwilling to be categorised or defined, 1988 saw Bissi setting out on a low-key tour in smaller venues and classical concert halls in Italy and Switzerland accompanied solely by herself and Michele Fedrigotti on pianos and keyboards, performing not her pop hits but arias and
lieder In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...
by fin de siècle composers
Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...
,
Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...
and
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
. The partly instrumental concert was later recorded in studio and released as ''
Mélodie passagère ''Mélodie passagère – Alice canta Satie, Fauré & Ravel'' is the tenth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released in 1988 on EMI Music. After the commercial success of the pop albums '' Park Hotel'' (1986) and '' Elisir'' (19 ...
on EMI.


Il sole nella pioggia

In 1989 Bissi returned with another pop album, '' Il sole nella pioggia'' (''The Sun in the Rain''), which was proof of further musical development and evolution as it was clearly influenced by contemporary British artists in the experimental and alternative rock genres such as Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and David Sylvian and among the all-star line up of musicians contributing to the project were in fact several who previously had collaborated with these: drummer
Steve Jansen ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...
and keyboardist Richard Barbieri, guitarist Dave Gregory, trumpetist and multi-instrumentalist Jon Hassell, Turkish flutist Kudsi Erguner as well as the Italian trumpet and
flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...
jazz player Paolo Fresu. The album closes with the English language track "Now and Forever", a duet with British progressive rock singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. The mainpart of the songs were collaborations between Juri Camisasca and pianist, violinist and composer Marco Liverani including lead single "Visioni" ("Visions"), follow-up and title track "Il sole nella pioggia", "Tempo senza tempo" ("Time Without Time") and "Le ragazze di Osaka" ("The Girls in Osaka"). Side two of the original vinyl album however opened with a multilayered
a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
interpretation of the medieval French folk song "Orléans" on which Alice again showed her vocal capability by singing all harmonies covering four octaves, followed by the acoustic "Anìn A Grîs" sung in the Friulian language. ''Il sole nella pioggia'' also included a reworking of the track "Le scogliere di Dover", originally released on the Japanese ''Kusamakura'' album, provided with new lyrics and retitled "I cieli del nord" ("The Skies of the North"). The album consolidated her position as one of Italy's leading artists and was followed by another successful European concert tour.


Experiments (1990s)


Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi

After a three-year absence from the music scene Bissi returned with the album ''
Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi ''Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi'' is the twelfth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released in 1992 on EMI Music. Three years after the commercial success of ''Il sole nella pioggia'' Alice returned to the music scene with her most matur ...
'' ("Noon in the Alps") in 1992, her most experimental and mature work to date, again recorded with a number of distinguished international musicians such as Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, Dave Gregory, Paolo Fresu as well as double bass player Danny Thompson, drummer
Gavin Harrison Gavin Richard Harrison (born 28 May 1963) is an English musician. He is best known for playing with the progressive rock bands Porcupine Tree (2002–2010; 2021–present), King Crimson (2008, and 2014–present) and The Pineapple Thief (2 ...
and bassist Jakko Jakszyk. ''Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi'' displayed Bissi's effort to steer away from being a commercially oriented Mediterranean pop act to a much more ambitious performer and marked an increasing expansion into electronics, expressed in colourful synth sounds, occasional drum loops and subdued ambient passages as well as influences from contemporary jazz. The material was mainly co-written by Bissi and producer Francesco Messina with contributions from Richard Barbieri, Paolo Fresu and Rosario Cosentino but the album also included an English language cover version of Tim Buckley's "Blue Melody" and lead single "In viaggio sul tuo viso" incorporates the Hungarian folk melody "Istenem Istenem". Despite receiving generally positive reviews from music critics and a following sold-out European concert tour the ''Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi'' album itself was only a moderate commercial success.


Art et Décoration

The years 1993 and 1994 saw Bissi embarking on the tour project ''Art et Décoration'' with the
Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...
Symphony Orchestra, interpreting works by composers such as Reynaldo Hahn,
Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...
, Maurice Ravel, Xavier Montsalvatge, Geni Sadero, Gabriel Fauré, Ivor Gurney,
Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
, and
Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...
. Unlike ''
Mélodie passagère ''Mélodie passagère – Alice canta Satie, Fauré & Ravel'' is the tenth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released in 1988 on EMI Music. After the commercial success of the pop albums '' Park Hotel'' (1986) and '' Elisir'' (19 ...
'' the ''Art et Décoration'' project was not recorded by EMI and still remains unreleased.


Charade

In 1995 Bissi signed a five-year contract with the WEA/ Warner Music label and released another pop album, the both musically and lyrically introspective and contemplative '' Charade'' featuring contributions from musicians like King Crimson's Trey Gunn, several tracks with British improvisational solo violinist and arranger Stuart Gordon and acoustic tracks with the American/Belgian/Japanese California Guitar Trio. ''Charade'', which included single releases "Dammi la mano amore" ("Give Me Your Hand, My Love") and "Non ero mai sola" ("I Was Never Alone"), was very much in the same vein as 1992's ''Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi'' but further developed the use of minimalist ambient/avant-garde backgrounds, with fractured guitars and woodwind, muted trumpets and
accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
set against programmed TR-808 rhythms, influenced by contemporary dance music genres like electronica and trance, fused with world music samples and
looped ''Looped'' is a play by Matthew Lombardo about an event surrounding actress Tallulah Bankhead. It had a Broadway run in 2010, after two previous productions in 2008 and 2009, all three of them featuring Valerie Harper. Plot Based on a real even ...
vocals, but again with the main focus on the esoteric and evocative lyrics. On the following European ''Charade'' tour in 1996 Bissi performed with a four-piece band consisting of Robby Aceto (The Club, Talking Heads, David Sylvian etc.) on electric and acoustic guitars, former No-Man member Ben Coleman on violin and the two ex-
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
members Steve Jansen on drums and Mick Karn on bass guitar and
bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...
. After fifteen years of alternately composing, recording, promoting her work in the media as well as extensive touring, the ''Charade Tour'' marked Bissi's final major European concert venture. Later in 1996 she appeared as singer and co-writer on Trey Gunn's solo album ''The Third Star'', performing the title track. In 1997 she and producer Francesco Messina, Gavin Harrison and Juri Camisasca among others (
Stefano Battaglia Stefano Battaglia (born 1965 in Milan) is an Italian classical and jazz pianist. He performed as a soloist with the European Youth Orchestra in Barcelona (1981). He won the J.S. Bach Festival award in Düsseldorf for best new pianist of the yea ...
, Bruno Romani, etc.) were part of the collaborative crossover/
ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...
/ fusion project ''Devogue'', with Bissi singing lead vocals on five of the thirteen titles, two of which in fact ambient dub remixes of tracks from her own studio albums. Later that same year she teamed up with Italian progressive rock band Bluvertigo for the duet "Troppe emozioni" ("Too Many Emotions"), included on their album ''Metallo non-metallo''.


Exit

In 1998 Bissi released '' Exit'', her most pop-oriented and melodic studio album since the late 1980s, again clearly influenced by urban dance music genres like electronica and contemporary R&B; or as Allmusic wrote in their review "the album often suggests Sarah McLachlan in a duet with Enigma". The album spawned three single releases, "I Am a Taxi", "Dimmi di sì" ("Tell me yes") and "Open Your Eyes", an English/Italian language R&B duet with Skye Edwards, lead singer of British trip hop band Morcheeba. The promo video of the latter shows the two singers performing the track sitting in a rowing boat on a sunny summer's day in London's Hyde Park. ''Exit'' also includes a second duet with Bluvertigo's Morgan, "L'immagine" ("The Images"), and closes with a cover version of French singer-songwriter
Leo Ferré Leo or Léo may refer to: Acronyms * Law enforcement officer * Law enforcement organisation * '' Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky * Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Arts a ...
's "L'Etranger" ("The Stranger"), with lyrics based on a poem by influential French nineteenth century poet, critic and translator
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
.


God Is My DJ

1999 saw Bissi on another small-scale tour project with a six-piece acoustic band, exploring and interpreting sacral and spiritual – but not exclusively religious – music, performing in smaller venues and churches in the North of Italy. ''
God Is My DJ ''God Is My DJ'' is the fifteenth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released in 1999 on WEA/Warner Music. After the release of two pop albums, ''Charade'' in 1996 and '' Exit'' in 1998, Alice again changed musical direction and se ...
'', which also was recorded and released by Warner Music, comprised works by composers as diverse as
Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...
, David Crosby, Popol Vuh, Eleni Karaindrou, Gavin Bryars, Franco Battiato and Jane Siberry, French, Hungarian and Livonian traditionals, as well as 11th and 14th century hymns sung in Ancient Greek and Latin.


New projects (2000–2005)


Personal Jukebox

In the Spring of 2000 Bissi returned to the Sanremo music festival, twenty-eight years after her debut with "Il mio cuore se ne va" and nineteen years after the victory with "Per Elisa", and this time in the category for established artists. The song she performed, Juri Camisasca's "Il giorno dell'indipendenza" ("The Day of Independence"), qualified for the finals and finished in an honourable ninth place and was also the opening track on the career retrospective '' Personal Jukebox''. The album contained four single tracks from 1998's ''Exit'' and 1995's ''Charade'', the original versions of "Visioni" from 1989's ''Il sole nella pioggia'' and "In Viaggio Sul Tuo Viso" from 1992's ''Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi'' as well as new interpretations of tracks from her early repertoire, including "Chanson Egocentrique" (another duet with Bluvertigo), "Prospettiva Nevski", "A cosa pensano", "Nomadi", "Il vento caldo dell'estate", a technofied take on "Per Elisa" and an orchestral solo version of " I treni di Tozeur". "Il Giorno dell'indipendenza" was one of three new recordings, the other two being "Tutto è niente" ("All Is Nothing") and an Italian language cover version of David Bowie/ Pat Metheny Group's " This is Not America".


Viaggio in Italia

In 2001 Bissi launched the tour project ''Le parole del giorno prima'' (''Words of the past day''), an
homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...
to some of Italy's foremost cantautori, singer-songwriters and lyricists, including Ivano Fossati, Fabrizio De André, Francesco De Gregori, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Battiato and Giorgio Gaber, mainly covering material from the 1970s and the early 1980s but interpreted with contemporary musical arrangements and an emphasis on the lyrical qualities of the songs. The project was marred by further problems with record companies but eventually evolved into '' Viaggio in Italia'' (a title shared with Goethe's "Italian Journey" and Rossellini's "Journey to Italy"), released in 2003 on the independent label NuN. The album opens with a solo interpretation of the new composition "Come un sigillo" with music by Battiato and lyrics by philosopher Manlio Sgalambro, originally recorded as a duet with the composer on his 2002 album ''Fleurs 3''. The ''Viaggio in Italia'' album brought Alice back to the Top 20 in Italy, peaking at No. 16 in September 2003.


Recent career (2006–present)

In recent years Bissi has periodically toured with the project ''Lungo La Strada'' (''Along the Road'') with Steve Jansen, Marco Pancaldi and Alberto Tafuri, performing in both classical auditoriums, churches and concert halls in Italy. A recording of a concert at Basilica San Marco, Milan, in 2006, was released in 2009 as ''Lungo la Strada Live''.


EMI aftermath

After the comparatively low sales of albums ''Mélodie Passagère – Alice Canta Satie, Fauré & Ravel'' (1988) and ''Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi'' (1992) the EMI label declined to release or even record the 1993/1994 project ''Art et Décoration'' with the Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra. Instead they released a ''greatest hits'' compilation in 1994 entitled ''Il vento caldo dell'estate'', taking its title from the artist's first Italian hit single and mainly focussing on material recorded in the early 1980s. The compilation was issued without the knowledge or approval of Bissi herself. The hits package included a Euro disco remix of the 1982 track "Chan-son Egocentrique", originally a duet with Franco Battiato. The remixed version of the track, also released as a 12" single, omitted all lines sung by the composer himself – again this was done without the knowledge or approval of either Bissi or Battiato. The two subsequently considered taking legal action against the label to have the compilation and the remix single withdrawn – only to find that they legally had no control over the use of their respective bodies of work recorded for EMI. This subsequently led to both artists leaving the label after a fifteen-year-long and highly successful collaboration. Bissi's contract however stipulated that she was to deliver one final studio album to the label before the end of 1995. As a compromise she agreed to take part in the production of another hits compilation, this time under her supervision. Unlike the first version, ''
Viaggiatrice solitaria ''Viaggiatrice solitaria – Il meglio di Alice'' is a compilation album of recordings by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released by EMI Music in 1995. Unlike EMI Italiana's 1994 ''best of'' package ''Il vento caldo dell'estate'', which mainly ...
'' covered tracks from all eras of her career on EMI, including selections from her then more recent works ''Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi'' and ''Il sole nella pioggia''. The remix of "Chan-son Egocentrique" was omitted from the track list. Despite this, the 1994 collection – including the unapproved disco remix without Battiato's vocals – still remains in print, some fifteen years later. After Bissi's parting ways with EMI, the label and its Dutch mid-price subsidiary Disky Communications have continued to capitalise on the rights to her back catalogue, issuing a large number of hits compilations in various price ranges under titles like ''I grandi successi di Alice'', ''Collezione'', ''Le signore della canzone'', ''Made in Italy'', ''Studio Collection'', ''The Best of Alice'', ''Collezione Italiana'' etc., again mainly including early 1980s hits. The year of 2006 alone saw EMI releasing no less than four of these ''best of'' packages in Continental Europe, Scandinavia and Japan. Bissi's following five-year tenure on the Warner Music label has also resulted in the release of unapproved compilations. 2006 saw the label issuing a ''greatest hits'' package entitled ''Le Più Belle Canzoni Di Alice'', paradoxically and confusingly exactly the same title as one of the four EMI compilations released the very same year, which includes seven tracks recorded for the CBS label in 1975 and 1977 coupled with some of her best-known 80s hits such as "Per Elisa", "Prospettiva Nevski" and "Nomadi", the latter are however not the original versions but re-recordings dating from the 2000 album ''Personal Jukebox'', which the compilation fails to mention in its liner notes.


Discography


Studio albums


Carla Bissi

*"Il mio cuore se ne va" / "Un giorno nuovo" (1972, single) *"La festa mia" / "Fai tutto tu" (1972, single) *"Il giorno dopo" / "Vivere un po' morire un po'" (1973, single)


Alice Visconti

*'' La mia poca grande età'' (1975) *'' Cosa resta... Un fiore'' (1978)


Alice

*'' Capo Nord'' (1980) *''
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'' (released under the title ''Per Elisa'' in certain countries; 1981) *'' Azimut'' (1982) *'' Falsi allarmi'' (1983) *'' Gioielli rubati'' (1985) *'' Park Hotel'' (1986) *'' Elisir'' (1987) *''
Mélodie passagère ''Mélodie passagère – Alice canta Satie, Fauré & Ravel'' is the tenth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released in 1988 on EMI Music. After the commercial success of the pop albums '' Park Hotel'' (1986) and '' Elisir'' (19 ...
'' (1988) *'' Il sole nella pioggia'' (1989) *''
Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi ''Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi'' is the twelfth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released in 1992 on EMI Music. Three years after the commercial success of ''Il sole nella pioggia'' Alice returned to the music scene with her most matur ...
'' (1992) *'' Charade'' (1995) *'' Exit'' (1998) *''
God Is My DJ ''God Is My DJ'' is the fifteenth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released in 1999 on WEA/Warner Music. After the release of two pop albums, ''Charade'' in 1996 and '' Exit'' in 1998, Alice again changed musical direction and se ...
'' (1999) *'' Personal Jukebox'' (2000) *'' Viaggio in Italia'' (2003) *'' Samsara'' (2012) *'' Weekend'' (2014) *'' Eri con me: Sedici canzoni di Franco Battiato'' (2022)


Live Albums

*''
Lungo la Strada Live Lungo (Italian for "long") is a coffee beverage made by using an espresso machine to make an Italian-style coffee – short black (a single espresso shot) with more water (generally twice as much), resulting in a larger coffee, a ''lungo''. A n ...
'' (2009) *'' Live in Roma (Franco Battiato e Alice)'' (2016)


Compilations

*''Mi chiamo Alice'' (1979) *''
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'' (1984) * ''
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'' (1986) *'' Kusamakura'' (Japan, 1988) *''Il vento caldo dell'estate'' (1994) *''
Viaggiatrice solitaria ''Viaggiatrice solitaria – Il meglio di Alice'' is a compilation album of recordings by Italian singer-songwriter Alice, released by EMI Music in 1995. Unlike EMI Italiana's 1994 ''best of'' package ''Il vento caldo dell'estate'', which mainly ...
'' (1995) *'' Alice canta Battiato'' (1997) *''I primi passi'' (1998) *''I grandi successi di Alice'' (The Netherlands; 2000) *''Collezione'' (2001, copy protected, track listing identical to ''I grandi successi di Alice'', alternative cover art) *''Le signore della canzone'' (2003, copy protected) *''Made in Italy'' (2004, copy protected) *''Studio Collection'' (2005, 2 CDs, copy protected) *''The Best of Alice'' (2005; copy protected, track listing identical to disc 1 of ''Studio Collection'') *''Le più belle canzoni di Alice'' (2006, EMI, copy protected) *''Le più belle canzoni di Alice'' (2006, Warner Music) *''Collezione italiana'' (2006, 2 CDs, copy protected, track listing identical to ''Studio Collection'', alternative cover art) *''D.O.C.'' (2006, copy protected) *''The Best Of – Platinum'' (2007) *''Solo Grandi Successi: Alice'' (2007) *''Per Elisa: The Capitol Collection'' (2008) *''Made in Italy'' (2009, re-issue, track listing identical to ''I grandi successi di Alice'' and ''Collezione'', alternative cover art) *''Alice: The Best of Platinum'' (2009) *''Per Elisa: The Capitol Collection'' (2009, re-issue, slidepack) *''Capo Nord'' / ''Alice'' (2011, 2 CD's, digipack) *''Alice canta Battiato'' / ''Park Hotel'' (2012, 2 CD's, digipack) *''Made in Italy – New Version'' (2012, second re-issue, track listing identical to ''I grandi successi di Alice'', ''Collezione'' & ''Made in Italy'', alternative cover art) *''Essential'' (2012) *''The Platinum Collection'' (2012, 3 CD's)


Collaborations and guest appearances

* Stefan Waggershausen: ''Tabu'' (1984, duet on track "Zu Nah Am Feuer", extended mix also released on 12" single, English version "Close to the Fire" released as 7" single and included on album '' Falsi allarmi'' in several countries) * Franco Battiato & Alice: " I treni di Tozeur"/"Le biciclette di Forli" (1984, duet single and
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
entry ) *
Claudio Rocchi Claudio Rocchi (8 January 1951 – 18 June 2013) was an Italian progressive rock singer-songwriter, musician and radio host. Born in Milan, at young age Rocchi was a bassist in the group Stormy Six, with whom he recorded their first album in ...
: ''Claudio Rocchi'' (1984, duet on track "L'umana nostalgia") *''Quando... Tributo a Luigi Tenco'' (1994, tribute album, lead vocals on track "Se sapessi come fai") *''Tributo ad
Augusto Augusto is an Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish given name or surname. Notable people with the name include: *Augusto Aníbal *Augusto dos Anjos *Augusto Arbizo *Augusto Barbera (born 1938), Italian law professor, politician and judge *Augusto Bene ...
'' (1995, tribute album, lead vocals and keyboards on track "L'auto corre lontano, ma io corro da te") * Trey Gunn: ''The Third Star'' (1996, co-writer and lead vocals on title track "The Third Star") * Bluvertigo: ''Metallo non-metallo'' (1997, duet on track "Troppe emozioni") *Devogue: ''Devogue'' (1997, lead vocals on tracks "Midnight Bells", "In piedi su uno specchio", "Le Condizioni del tempo a.m.", "Palmenhaus" and "Il cielo sopra il cielo") * Franco Battiato: ''Fleurs 3'' (2002, duet on track "Come un sigillo") *''Voli improvedibili – Tributo a Franco Battiato'' (2004, tribute album, lead vocals on track "È stato molto bello") *Zerouno: ''Zerouno'' (2004, lead vocals on track "Sospesa")


Sources and external links


Official HomepageMusica Italiana biographyRadio Italia biography
* Allmusic discographybr>Lavocedelledonnet.itSiebenpunkt Verlags biographyAliceweb biographyAlicesito biographySan Remo Story biographyWeb.de biographyStefan Waggershausen, official site, biographyAlicefans.seDiscogs.com discography


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alice 1954 births Living people Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Italy Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1984 Italian musicians Italian women singer-songwriters Italian singer-songwriters Italian pop singers Sanremo Music Festival winners People from Forlì