Info

category: CD album

label: Sugar/Universal Music
(from 2006 Sugar/Warner Music Italia)

original release date: 2000

released in: Italy

artwork: Lucrezia Russo (Vitamina)

art direction: Massimo Pitis (Vitamina)

photo: Simon Fowler

Notes

Asile's World is Elisa’s second album and is released in 2000.

At this time Elisa's music world was changing in search of new sounds and horizons to explore. Influences of this period included The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, PJ Harvey, Björk, Aphex Twin, and many others.

After the success of 'Pipes & Flowers' and between August 1998 and March 1999, Elisa wrote on her own the new songs. In the meantime she studied how to better manage her voice.

In April 1999 she pre-produced every track at her home studio in Monfalcone before going to London for five weeks between May and June to complete the pre-production with Darren Allison (Spiritualized, Divine Commedy, and the former Skunk Anansie), with whom she had already worked for the single 'Cure Me'.

Returning home, she immediately had to leave again since Scottish genious producer Howie B was impressed by her work and agreed to produce part of her material. After working with Björk and producing the album 'Pop' by U2, he decided to work again with a new female voice who was able to evoke overwhelming emotions through her music. So, here it goes! And 'Seven Times' and 'Come & Sit' were the result of several sessions at the Whitfield studio with him in June of 1999.

Some months later, between September and October 1999, Elisa returned to London to collaborate with producer Roberto Vernetti for 'Gift' and 'Happiness Is Home'. A prestigious team of men as Paul Cook, William Orbit's programmer, Trevor Morais, creator of Björk and Underworld's rhythms, Chris Taylor of Helmet, and Aidan Love, formerly with New Order and 808 State were involved in these tracks that appeared to be a composite of sounds traveling from Spain (Morais) to New York (Taylor).

The remaining eight songs of the album took shape in Italy, in Bologna, where Elisa set up a nest in the studio of Mauro Malavasi's (Dalla, Bocelli, Change, etc) from November 1999 to March 2000. There she meets Leo Z (Bocelli, Josh Groban, Dalla, etc), a young arranger and producer collaborating with Malavasi. It's a meeting between talents who see no musical boundries, between nomads of sound. The music at first just dreamed of soon takes shape and is a magmatic and organic mix of material generated by technology.

So the world of music is redrawn on the reverse and Elisa becomes Alice in wonderland: it is a world similiar to a mirror of water, an iridescent surface where she places a finger to make circles.

The album includes all that has happened over the last two years, her wish of being transparent, of freedom, of dreams, and of wonder. It's a breath of fresh air. The pursuit of essential things.

Elisa is invited to participate in the Sanremo Festival but she needs a song in Italian language. Yet Elisa had never written lyrics in Italian. At that time one of the songs she was still working on was called 'Come speak to me'. Due to the encouragement and the help of her mother, Elisa translates it into Italian giving life to 'Luce (Tramonti A Nord Est)'. A little cameo comes from Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari who participates in the writing of the chorus. Corrado Rustici is called to produce the new track. As a result, Elisa won the Sanremo Festival of 2001. A new edition of 'Asile's World' is distributed with the addition of 'Luce (Tramonti A Nord Est)', 'Come Speak To Me', and the remix of the song 'Asile's World'.