E il mio maestro mi insegnò com’è difficile trovare l’alba dentro l’imbrunire.

A master without boundaries, impossible to label or confine in a single genre, a genius of Italian music, an artist with a universal vocation. Franco Battiato was all this or perhaps much more, a man who showed us beauty, his disappearance is like one of those wounds difficult to heal.

Eclectic, light but deep, at first glance his lyrics may seem a concoction of exotic words, languid quotations. But whoever has been able to go beyond, to read and enter inside those texts, among those philosophical intentions has been able to immerse himself in a unique world, in a mystical vision capable of touching poles unknown to us.

In his very long career he has delivered unforgettable songs such as “La cura”, “Centro di gravità permanente”, “Voglio vederti danzare”, but Franco Battiato has been much more than his successes, he has been a master of life, a director, a painter, a sort of muse that he has managed to bring out better than us.

A man who experimented with electronics, tried his hand at ethnic music and opera, succeeding each time in surprising us, sometimes releasing a calm and dreamy serenity, sometimes an unbridled rhythm to which it was difficult to remain impassive.

A man who is a true monument of our culture, a songwriter who changed Italian music. In such a sad day, today more than ever to remember Franco Battiato properly we have only to immerse ourselves in his deep and beautiful music, in search of that permanent center of gravity.