Track By Track : Alex Carpani - Microcosm
By John A. Wilcox



Microcosm is a refreshing slice of progressive rock. Alex Carpani gives us solid & memorable precise tunes with tasty playing with emphasis on composition. The chops are definitely there but they serve the songs. Carpani takes us through the album track-by-track...

Track 1: Starless
AC: Concept: The deep darkness, the absence of stars and light, the eyes turned within to look at the darkness, from which a new light could born.
Music: I wanted to rearrange only the first part of the song, in an electronic and modern key, without wanting to redo or simulate the crazy and unique digression of the second part because that belongs to that period and to that particular line-up of KC and it would not have made sense to redo it.

Track 2: Kiss And Fly
AC: Concept: One last kiss before leaving for a trip, before the spell is broken. A love lived by chance in an instant.
Music: This song immediately had the characteristics of the single of the album, and as I wrote it it reminded me of something from the 80s Yes. So it was inevitable to ask the Yes singer to sing it!

Track 3: God Bless Amerika
AC:Concept: The disillusionment in discovering that the 'promised land' does not exist and that the only thing we can do is to try to grasp the best of this imperfect world.
Music: This song has many contrasts between energetic rhythm and more intimate moments and this is perhaps one of the features of the whole album. Piano and sax are definitely the protagonists.

Track 4: The Mountain Of Salt
AC: Concept: Swimming on a mountain of salt, as in a dream, feeling the grains of salt instead of water, supporting your body like an ocean of small crystals.
Music: A simply rock, square, linear piece, which alternates the groove with more suspended moments.

Track 5: We Can't Go Home Tonight
AC: Concept: An evening that seems to never end, where time stopped for two people living their love in that night, pulling down a blanket of stars to cover themselves.
Music: In this song the sax and the voice duet in an overwhelming crescendo and the atmosphere is sensual, romantic and nostalgic at the same time.

Track 6: Footprints In The Heart
AC: Concept: Everything we do leaves footprints, traces of our existence on earth: footprints on the snow, in the mud and... in the heart, left by the people we have made enter.
Music: A very catchy piece, sometimes funky and jazzy, flowing smoothly. Voice and sax go arm in arm.

Track 7: Prime Numbers
AC: Concept: Prime numbers can only be divided by themselves and by 1. All prime numbers are odd except for 2, which is also the smallest in the series. They are not distributed without criteria, but seem to respond to unexpected rules, like our lives...
Music: Probably the most jazzy piece of the album, a bit mysterious, a bit Spanish and oriental. All the instruments dialogue with each other in a choral way, with sax, guitar and synth solos as well.

Track 8: What Once Was
AC: Concept: A presence that no longer exists, that is recognized through its absence, the emptiness he left and the indirect signs of his passage.
Music: a bass and guitar riff that unfolds throughout the song, giving a rock and string cadence, on which sax, guitar and synth solos are grafted.

Track 9: When The Tears Fall Down
AC: Concept: Tears sometimes fall like rain drops that wash away the pain from our path, bringing us back to the light, to the sun and to the warmth.
Music: This piece was written expressly for David Cross' electric violin. I wanted to create an atmospheric and evocative piece on which his violin would play like a human voice.

Track 10: The Outer World
AC: Concept: The outside world, the 'whole' where we exist together with billions of people, where we fight every day to affirm and defend our freedom and right to live.
Music: The song alternates very sweet melodies with very energetic grooves, to represent the contrast between the known world and the unknown that awaits us out there.

Track 11: Redemption
AC: Concept: A path of redemption after hitting the bottom, thanks to which to acquire a state of physical and moral freedom through the liberation from guilts and causes of unhappiness.
Music: This piece is created on a continuous texture of the piano, above which the voice emerges with many echoes of second voices, to represent the change, the passage, the difficult redemption.

Track 12: Microcosm
AC: Concept: Life, reason, the meaning of things, the sounds that run through the spaces where we live, the wind and rain that also reach the most remote places of our inner world, of our microcosm.
Music: The closing track that summarizes a bit various elements emerged in the album: the contrasts, the light, the dark, the vital energy, the strength of emotions, hope, fear, madness, life.



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