“The herons don’t turn to look at us, they are focused on something important that we can’t even imagine.”
A six-handed written book capable of making smells of a time gone by, and of the present one that flows away between the fingers without us noticing. To these are added the true flavor of nature to push on the palate, and the mechanical sound of what is created by man. This is Floating souls, a title very well chosen.
The authors are two prominent exponents of the Italian music scene (Vasco Brondi and Massimo Zamboni), to which is added the photographer Piergiorgio Casotti, to leave a different visual trace of the story.
From an idea thrown there by chance, and collected with a boyish impetus, the three decide to go down a raft along the Tartaro Canalbianco canal, one of many in the Polesine area which connects Mantova to seaside. A slow navigation, to reconcile the reflections and love for the territory. New rhythms that cannot be found in the crazy everyday life of small and large cities, to which many are no longer used to.
Physically, the book is divided into two parts, with the two authors who individually tell their respective approaches to the adventure undertaken and the vision of the journey. In the descriptions of events and landscapes, the specific weight of the difference in age and experience of the two authors stands out. A deep game of crossed perspectives in which it is nice to get lost.
Places and people slide on the pages, with the same slowness of the raft on the water, and it could not be otherwise. Conceptually distant but physically close to the contemporary world. Thus each person met becomes part of the landscape and continues its mutation. Hyper-organized German fishermen, Romanians full of goodwill, Italians looking for a corner of tranquility flow away with the flow of water. And perhaps this is precisely the ultimate meaning of the adventure undertaken by the two authors before it became a book.
Reading was a beautiful surprise, able to entice us to go and discover some corners of Italy that have never really been valued. With a load of history and unique emotions.
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Vasco Brondi, Massimo Zamboni, Floating souls, La nave di Teseo, Milano, 2016
