Vinicio Capossela

VINICIO CAPOSSELA

His discographic career

Phantasmagorical singer-songwriter, poet, writer, but also illusionist, showman, and band-builder. He debuted in 1990 with the album All'una e trentacinque circa, winning Targa Tenco Opera Prima, an award he would be given another four times in the following years for the Best Album. After the first albums - which are Modì (1991) and Camera a sud (1994) - rooted in jazz and South American rhythms, came the telluric Ballo di San Vito with Marc Ribot and Evan Lurie, the explosive Live in Volvo with the balcanic brass band Kocani Orkestar, followed by the pataphysique Canzoni a Manovella (2000). After that, he shifted his attention to more universal themes, often inspired by classical literature, from Melville to Céline, Dante and Homer. Works such as Ovunque Proteggi, Da Solo and Marinai, Profeti e Balene have been staged as total works of art. Ovunque Proteggi, in particular, has been ranked at #2 in Mojo's Top Ten World music albums in 2007. Still in 2007, he played a few special concerts, interpreting Michelangelo's sonnets, a project that is still unreleased.

In 2004 he wrote his first book, Non si muore tutte le mattine (Feltrinelli), which gave rise to a shadow play performance and the Radiocapitolazioni broadcast by Radio 3.  

He dedicated several works to Greece and rebetiko music: the album Rebetiko Gymnastas, recorded in Athens (Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for the Best Worldmusic album in 2013), a documentary made with the filmaker Andrea Segre and the book Tefteri, published by Saggiatore and translated in Greek and Spanish. In 2013, he also started a new project with Banda della Posta, an elderly but still wild bunch of frontier serenaders, between Buena Vista Social Club and the Pogues, whom Capossela produced and toured with in Italy and abroad. 2015 and 2016 are very important years for Vinicio: his book “Il Paese dei Coppoloni” (finalist at Premio Strega and winner of Dante Alighieri Society's Prize), the docufilm “Nel Paese dei Coppoloni” and his studio album “Canzoni della Cupa”, are the result of a deep elaboration about Irpinia, the Land of the Fathers. In 2017, he was awarded the Premio Tenco for his career.

In 2019, he released Ballate per uomini e bestie, an album that focuses on Middle Ages and the plagues of current times, followed by 2020 Bestiario d'amore, a four songs EP whose title-track is the translation and adaptation of a poem by the 13th century French troubadour Richard de Fournival. His latest work is the book Eclissica, published in 2021 by Feltrinelli; it focuses on Capossela's last fifteen years of career and life. He released a new album in 2023, called Tredici canzoni urgenti. He spent the last three months of the same year touring with a show inspired by the themes of the record: urgencies of today’s society.

Touring abroad

Vinicio Capossela made his first appearance outside Italy in 1995, while touring in support of his album Camera a sud. He played a sold out concert at Théatre de la Ville in Paris in February, then he toured Switzerland in 1996, after the release of Il ballo di San Vito. But it is in 2006 that he starts creating a stable presence abroad: in fact, he released Ovunque proteggi in Spain and then he embarked for his Minotour, during which he played in Europe (Greece, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg) and America, for the first time (Canada and USA). After the 2008 release of Da solo, an album that has been partly recorded in Tucson (Arizona, USA), Capossela started Solo Show, a long tour that, in 2009, touched also European capitals (three concerts in Berlin, then Zurich, Paris, London, Luxembourg, Bruxelles) and, in 2010, Canada (with shows in Toronto and Montréal), United States (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco) and Portugal (two performances in Lisbon). Before the New York show, he presented the film La faccia della terra, directed by Gianfranco Firriolo; it shows the back stories of Da solo's recording process. In the same year, the English label Nonesuch Records released Capossela's first compilation of songs, called The story faced man. He toured Europe again in 2012, in support of Marinai, profeti e balene, which also was released in the UK and in France, and in 2013, in support of Rebetiko Gymnastas. Besides shows in Germany, Belgium, France, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain and England, he he also performed for the first time in the Middle East, with shows in Beirut (Lebanon) and Istanbul (Turkey).

2015 marked Capossela's twenty-five years of career: he celebrated with a particular tour called Qu'Art de Siècle. Each show was unique as it featured different musicians: e.g., Marc Ribot took part in the London show, or Pascal Comelade, along with Mario Brunello, performed at Les Bouffes du Nord in Paris. During this tour, he also presented his book Il paese dei Coppoloni in Bruxelles and Berlin. After two years of stop, in 2017 Canzoni della Cupa was released in Germany, Austria, France and Spain, and so he toured these countries too, in May and July, with shows in clubs, theaters and festivals, such as Les Nuits de Fourvière in Lyon (FR). In September, supported by the Italian Embassy, he played in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with shows in Mostar, Sarajevo and Banja Luka's National Theaters. In Autumn he embarked for another tour in Europe's biggest cities and capitals. In February 2018 he played two concerts in South America (Buenos Aires and Santiago del Chile), followed by three shows in Indonesia in March (Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Jakarta); he came back to Europe and toured Spain in April with Folk Trio (Alessandro “Asso” Stefana and Victor Herrero), proposing Canzoni della Cupa's songs. This album, like Da solo, was also partly recorded in the United States.

In May 2019, before the release of Ballate per uomini e bestie, he performed four “preview” shows in the United States, playing in important venues such as the Georgetown University in Washington and the Kennedy Center in New York. During the summer, he played the so-called “atti unici” (single acts) at the well-known Roskilde Festival in Denmark, then in Madrid and again at Les Nuits de Fourvière, with Lyon's Opera Orchestra. In 2020, he released his last discographic work, Bestiario d'amore, on Valentine's Day and presented it on the same day in London's Union Chapel. He played Bestiale Comedìa, a show inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, in Bruxelles in September 2021 and in Dubai, at Expo's Italian Pavillion, in November 2021. He performed there again in March 2022. After a show in Barcelona in September, the final months of the year are the richest of abroad touring: in November he embarked for the Balkangiro, a series of concerts in the Balkan area (Albania, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo); then in December he performed his Personal Standards in European capitals such as London, Paris, Berlin, Lisbon and Bruxelles.