One of the best known names in contemporary Italian music is Capossela, a histrionic singer-songwriter, probably the best of his generation.

A diviner of culture in constant research, with his circus tamer jacket, janissary headgear and a monocle that allows him to peer into dreams.

Born in Hanover from migrants of Irpinia, he moved to Emilia in early age, grew up listening to his father’s records and dreamed of rock’n’roll.

In high school he discovered Tom Waits and it was there that Vinicio redesigned the concept of musician in his mind.

There are in the years when in Italy the educated strum Guccini and dream of revolution, the masses instead sing Celentano and Morandi.

To admire Tom Waits is a bold thing for a young boy, let alone follow his lyrics.

Vinicio played the piano, attended the Conservatory for a short time and in 1990 debuted with “All’una e trentacinque circa”, a record that earned him his first Targa Tenco (five more followed and a Premio Tenco for lifetime achievement).

He published three more albums that smelled of 1950s nightclubs, America, mambo and jazz, a genre that guided his fingers on the piano keys.

In 1996, with “Il Ballo di San Vito”, he began to catch a glimpse of what was to become his peculiarities as a researcher.

In 2000, his first masterpiece, “Canzoni A Manovella”, a record that has the amazing ability to be out of time, a work of imaginary and imagined songs.

A container in which you find Celine, Alfred Jarry’s pataphysics, balloons and sailors trapped in a bottle at the bottom of the sea.

Capossela became the most eclectic artist on the Italian scene and found the courage to unveil his every vision, his every crazy and enchanting intuition.

His subsequent record releases become more articulated, each one can almost be understood as a concept album in which Vinicio investigates worlds and epochs ranging from Ancient Rome to Greek myths, from the epics of the sea to the quadrille rides of the land of bone. Then he goes further south where faith and magic become one and once across the sea he meets rebetiko and the cry of peoples in history.

His live shows are always full of theatricality and awe-inspiring sets.

His career as a musician now goes hand in hand with that of a writer and since 2013 he has been the creator and artistic director of the Sponz Festival in Irpinia.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of “Canzoni A Manovella”.