What better way to start a music blog than with the title song, right? Muri D’Assenzio (Walls of Absinthe or in Spanish) is a song by the Italian band Ianva, from their first LP Disobbedisco! 1918-1920, one of the most interesting proposals that occurred back in 2006.
Ianva is a Genoese Neofolk band made up of members of Progressive Rock and Black Metal groups. They defined his musical project as archaeofuturist, a tribute to Italian and European music of the last forty years, in which clear references to the music of Ennio Morricone, Cabaret, martial music and an absorbing cinephile atmosphere stand out.
Disobbedisco! 1918-1920 is a concept album set in the city of Fiume during the years 1918-1920, after the end of the First World War, when Gabriele D’Annunzio proclaimed the annexation of the city to the Kingdom of Italy.
YouTube video with lyrics in Spanish for Muri D’Assenzio, by IANVA
If the Spanish lyrics of the song do not appear when you play the video, try activating the subtitles option offered by the YouTube player.
Review of Disobbedisco! 1918-1920, IANVA’s first album
The album tells the love story that arises between Major Renzi, an officer of the Arditos (the Fiuman legion), and the enemy spy Elettra Stavros. Muri D’Assenzio is the song that ends the story, the one that reaches the highest levels of epic and tragedy on the album. Although Disobbedisco is more enjoyable as a whole, there are some songs that, for me, stand out above average, such as La Ballata Dell’Ardito – included in an EP of the same name in 2005 -, or Tango Della Menade – incredible and atmospheric declaration of love.
Other IANVA albums and songs that I recommend
As of the date of publication of this entry, the Italian band has published two more albums, with which they continue to delve deeper into the history of Italy. Italy: Ultimo Atto, published in 2009, in which I could say that they focus on the Italian 70s, highlighting songs like Piazza Dei 500 (about the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini), Pasionaria (has anyone whistled Morricone?) or Luisa Ferida.
The other album is La Mano Di Gloria, released in 2012 (and whose book version was published simultaneously in three volumes), and in this case set in a near future in which Italy and Europe are under the heel of an oligarchy of illuminated, in which Edelweiss stands out (incredible song that shows that they have not reached their ceiling), Sul Mio Sangue (with a spectacular beginning) or Canzone Dell’Eterna Aurora.
Also noteworthy is the version they made of the song Amsterdam, original by Jacques Brel, which they included in their first EP.
Is IANVA a band with an ideology?
Although ignorance of the language or Italian history may be a drawback, the music, the voices and its atmosphere are sufficiently enveloping to make listening memorable. Ianva is a highly recommended band and, for those who may be wondering, they themselves answer “without any type of added ideology,” which often tends to indicate precisely the opposite: they have an ideology that begins by praising the Roman Empire and ends with people in concentration camps.
Personally, I hope and wish that this is not the case, that both on a musical level and on a personal level, no one in the band Ianva is an extreme rightist or a nostalgic, because I love their music and it would annoy me to have to try to separate the author from the work when the work looks like a potential dog’s whistle. Especially also because this blog is called Muros de absenta precisely because of the eloquence of the title of this song.
(Madrid, 1987) Novelist by vocation, SEO specialist by profession. Music lover, cinephile and reading lover, but in “amateur” mode.