Anime salve is the final album released by Italian singer/songwriter Fabrizio De André in 1996. It was written together with fellow Genoan Ivano Fossati. In a 2011 interview within the DVD documentary series Dentro Faber [i.e. Inside Faber] about De André's life and works, Fossati stated that he and De André composed all the music for the album by actually playing together in the latter's country house in Sardinia, working on almost-complete lyrics by De André, to which Fossati added a few lines. He is featured as a guest singer on the title track and on "Â cúmba" (which features De André and Fossati respectively as "the suitor" and "the father"). Fossati also guested in some of De André's live shows from the era, where he was introduced by the latter as "a great guy with two huge defects: he's a friend of mine, and a Sampdoria supporter."

Track listing

All songs written by Fabrizio De André and Ivano Fossati, except for the original Spanish lyrics to "Smisurata preghiera", written (as "Desmedida plegaria") by Álvaro Mutis and Fabrizio De André.

Vinyl version

Anime salve was the only album in De André's discography not to have a vinyl edition when originally released - it was issued on CD and cassette. It was released on vinyl only in 2018, as the third-to-last issue of Corriere della Sera and De Agostini's Fabrizio De André Vinyl Collection, which includes all of De André's studio albums and all of the extant live recordings from his eight concert tours (many of which, although previously issued on CD as part of Sony Music's 2012 box set I concerti, were also released on vinyl for the first time). Because of the physical space occupied by the various tracks on the two sides of the record, the tracklist on the vinyl version is different from the CD (as above):

Side A

Side B

Overview

The album, released after six years of studies, shows marked influences of Latin-American music, as well as Eastern-European and Mediterranean ones (the latter deriving from the original project, which De André had begun with Mauro Pagani). Most of the lyrics deal with the theme of solitude and diversity, often considered as a positive, free state of life: the Brazilian transsexual immigrant ("Princesa"), the Romani people ("Khorakhanè"), the poor anchovy fisher ("Le acciughe fanno il pallone"), the man in love ("Dolcenera"). The title itself, though generally translated as "Saved souls", etymologically means "Solitary spirits". Starting from late 1997, De André undertook an extensive tour of Italy to promote both this album and the later collection Mi innamoravo di tutto ["I used to fall in love with everything", a line from his 1978 song "Coda di Lupo"], which focused on his earlier work. The tour went on until 13 August 1998, when De André was forced to interrupt it because of his failing health. Two shows in the tour, held at Teatro Brancaccio in Rome on February 13 and 14, 1998, were filmed for RAI and released on DVD in 2004, as Fabrizio De André in Concerto - the very last filmed testimony of his live activity.

The songs

Personnel

The album features De André's full backing band from his live shows at the time, which includes ethnic music specialist Mario Arcari, guitarist Michele Ascolese and drummer Ellade Bandini, as well as his wife Dori Ghezzi and their daughter Luvi De André on vocals. Percussionist Giuseppe "Naco" Bonaccorso, who is also prominently featured, was tragically killed in a car accident in June 1996, shortly after completing his parts on the album.

"Princesa"

"Khorakhané (A forza di essere vento)"

Anime salve

"Dolcenera"

"Le acciughe fanno il pallone"

"Disamistade"

"Â cúmba"

"Ho visto Nina volare"

"Smisurata preghiera"

All tracks were arranged by Piero Milesi, who also wrote the orchestral arrangements.