If your name is Mina, there is no artificial intelligence that can scare you: “Only she can handle this technology, even her physicality is enough to bring a masterpiece to life.” This is what Saturnino, musician and historical bassist of Jovanotti, says , who is currently experiencing, as he says, “an expected revelation.” The melody is called “Abban-dono”, a song for which Saturnino wrote the music and the singer-songwriter and author Daniele Magro wrote the lyrics: it is the only unreleased song completed in Mina’s new work “Dilettevoli Eccedenze 2”. great artist continues the release of “Hidden Pearls”, including songs for film and advertising projects as well as never released versions of already known titles.
And if the song gives us new evidence of her voice, the video clip for “Abban-dono” also gives us her image, which has been out of the spotlight for a long time thanks to artificial intelligence: her face wanders between the past and the future, imprinted in many large ones Works of art history – from the Mona Lisa to Munch’s Scream – her facial features return to those of her as a child, then to those of a girl, and finally wrinkles fold into those of her older woman, jacket black skin and glasses, with tied back white hair as we could only imagine so far. Beyond the boundaries of time, the video celebrates this in a kaleidoscope of more than 30 different representations: thanks go to the Iulm AI Lab, the artificial intelligence laboratory of the University of Milan, which uses various cutting-edge software and carries out unconventional approach, the combines a humanistic side with a purely technological one.
Mina, she also confirms here, has always been fascinated by technological progress: as one of the first artists to have a website since 2000 (a new version has just gone online), she also got involved with it last year NFTs, “transform” into a digital work of art, relying on the most modern innovations every time.
Given the aura of mystery that now surrounds her, Saturnino knows that the most obvious curiosity is to know if the new song has given him the opportunity to meet her: “Mina is to be listened to, not met – he warns – .” But I had the honor and privilege of meeting her in 1997. She seemed extraordinary to me, with a speed of thought that astonished me. Meeting her in person is like having a vision.”
The story of “Abban-dono,” he explains, was “bizarre”: “I had written it for Daniele and together with Daniele, but then a few years ago I was in the car with Benedetta Mazzini, Mina’s daughter I’ve known this for some time. I let her hear the song, but only to show her how Daniele sang it, and she told me that it would have been perfect for her mother. He also called her on the speakerphone.” Then nothing more until the call from Massimiliano Pani, Mina’s other son who looks after the Pdu, the family label, with the message that he had to keep secret until today: “It is “proof that in a time when it is everyone’s wish to appear, but it is better to listen to things,” says Saturnino.
But while he is still in disbelief that “Abban-dono” “went to Her Majesty’s ear” and was sung by her, one wonders whether the wonders of AI will allow us to “see” the thousand faces of Mina : “But it’s already everywhere,” says Saturnino. You lift a stone and find Mina, you look at a tree and see Mina.