L'Oceano del Silenzio - The Ocean of Silence

Un Oceano di Silenzio scorre lento Senza centro né principio Cosa avrei visto del mondo Senza questa luce che illumina I miei pensieri neri (Der Schmerz, der Stillstand des Lebens Lassen die Zeit zu lang erscheinen) Quanta pace trova l'anima dentro Scorre lento il tempo di altre leggi Di un'altra dimensione E scendo dentro un Oceano di Silenzio Sempre in calma (Und mir scheint fast Dass eine dunkle Erinnerung mir sagt Ich hatte in fernen Zeiten Dort oben oder in Wasser gelebt) L'Oceano del Silenzio © 1988 Franco Battiato "L'Oceano del Silenzio" is like a meditative hymn. Battiato said, "The more that music is silence, the closer it comes to God." He most certainly imbued this quiet song with a meditative spirit. The German lyrics are taken from Fleur Jaeggy's Wasserstatuen.

An Ocean of Silence runs slow, without center or principle. What would I have seen of the world without this light that illumines my black thoughts? (The pain, the standstill of life let time seem too long.) How much peace does the spirit find within? It runs slow, the time of other laws of another dimension, and I descend inside an Ocean of Silence always in calm. (And it almost seems to me that a dark memory tells me I had in distant times there above, or in water lived.) English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser Fisiognomica was released in 1988. After 1985's Mondi Lontanissimi, Battiato changed course once again and dedicated himself to working on an opera based on Genesis, a project he'd already begun in 1983. The opera was nearly all-consuming for the next two years and was finally mounted in 1987. Battiato then committed to writing another opera based on the myth of Gilgamesh. However, some non-classical songs were beginning to reappear in his writing, and he decided to produce another "pop" album (the word "pop" must always be in quotes when applied to Battiato), though one that unites pop, operatic, classical, and contemplative music. One that also places spirituality at the core, with lyrics and music that are serious, refined, intimate and more personally direct than Battiato was previously willing to be in his former years of word play, irony, hard-to-understand esoteric references, and fragmentism.

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