
Entry:
During my travels, there were specific music selections I would listen to (even through wilderness) all according to how well the soul of an artist seemed to match the given environment. In the northern regions, through dark forests and cold, fogy shores, I tended towards the music of two artists most often: 70's musician Franco Falsini, and 80's music duo Diethelm & Famulari.
Perhaps it was their lack of popularity that drew me, the fact that I always have more respect for the unsung heroes than the celebrated ones; but even more likely, I think these artists had a fairytale in their sound that I identified with immediately. It wasn't the fairytale stereotype we're all used to, like prancing violinists, flute fairies and harp players, no, it was something rooted in both longing and archaic distance regardless of whatever instrument they played to do it.
Their music was sometimes dark, sometimes gay, sometimes disturbed, sometimes distant and forgotten-sounding, sometimes bursting with emotion, and other times concealing emotion, but always there was something very northern about them--epically northern. It isn't very easy to explain. And it wasn't as though other artists didn't do this for me, it was just that these three artists were the purest form of it.
To my surprise, through the years, the music of Falsini, Diethelm and Famulari has become forgotten to the point of total extinction, aside from a just handful of Internationally scattered fans. When visiting Europe in 2003, I tried to reach both Falsini and Diethelm and Famulari. Even Italian ambient musician Alio Di tried to help me find Falsini in Italy. But after numerous people had helped me try to find all three musicians, I only found Santino Famulari, him having called my after my return to the states. I lost contact with him before he could give me Diethelm's contact info. At this point I figured they were all trying to put the past, or perhaps music in general, behind them.
Left now with just their music, and a bunch of friends who have no idea who they are, I've decided to start slowly making my own videos in tribute to them (what I have time for), and using some of the footage from travels to places that their music reminds me of.
Here is the first of my tributes to Franco Falsini's only solo release, Cold Nose, from 1975. The music was originally created for an Italian movie called Cold Nose Story that was never released. The footage in this video is from a trip with my girlfriend to a cabin south of Port Orford, on the Oregon coast. -Dean De Benedictis (electronic musician)
To try and get ahold of the music of Franco Falsini, or learn more, visit the following url:
For more on Dean De Benedictis