Fabrizio de Andre Canzoni

A few years ago I was in Italy with my friends from the Italian band Afterhours in a restaurant and heard something on the stereo that was totally captivating and so great and so sad sounding and I said, ‘What is this?’ And they said, ‘Oh, this is Fabrizio de Andre’ and I said, ‘This is so great!’

As I was leaving they gave me a CD of this record. I have no idea what he’s singing except vaguely on the Leonard Cohen covers but there’s one song on there which I think is translated as ‘The Song of Lost Love’ (‘Canzone Dell'Amore Perduto’) that’s so great that it makes me very emotional. I love hearing it.

My girlfriend has horses and I was listening to it on my phone at the stables and all the horses came in and she was like, ‘Oh my God! They really love that!’ They do! They were all like, ears up, completely attentive. I’ve played music round there before but nothing like this! It definitely has its charms. I don’t know if certain sounds affect animals but we were sure on the same page.