Simon Hanes is Boston’s maestro. The New England conservatory graduate started as a major impact on Boston’s musical legacy as bassist for Guerilla Toss, then left the project a few years back to focus on Tredici Bacci, Boston’s best (and only) fourteen-piece instrumental Italian erotica outfit. Fronted by Hanes, Tredici Bacci release their third album Amore Per Tutti tomorrow, November 11, via NNA Tapes, continuing their schmaltz-y themes with intensified bravado.
Since 2013, Hanes has composed the seamless harmonies of the Italian-inspired lounge music, from steamy odes to fare amore to gut-wrenching tales of grisly heartbreak. Despite being in another language — or, more often, having no lyrics at all — Tredici Bacci soars for their ability to tell a story.
Unlike their 2015 release Vai! Vai! Vai!, which was composed as a soundtrack for a film that doesn’t exist, Amore Per Tutti refers to the work of Italian film director and screenwriter Federico Fellini. Even without visuals, Tredici Bacci paint the scenes just as well. Champagne flows in a penthouse apartment on the vigor of opening track “Columbo.” Shoes fly off feet in the ecstatic dancing craze of celebratory “Swedish Tease.” Lovers’ glances smolder in the languid waltz of “Souvenir De Beacoup D’Amor” (because French and Italian aren’t all that different, right?)
On Amore Per Tutti, Tredici Bacci takes a risk on their first tracks with English vocals; on past compositions, vocalist Sami Stevens occasionally coos in indecipherable Italian, but Amore Per Tutti features five tracks with English vocalists and lyrics, so you can understand what you’re grooving to.
“By collaborating with musicians who draw inspiration from the same influences as myself, I hope to celebrate the fact that every creative act of music is reliant on direct human relationships — relationships that are, when you get right down to it, responsible for the creation of something distinct and uniquely beautiful,” Hanes says in a press release.
Most notably, “Give Him The Gun” boasts the steely drawl of Foetus’ JG Thirlwell paired with a deliriously ominous horn section. The single is peak Tredicci Bacci: thrilling, suspenseful, and an opera for the ears.
“Every singer, songwriter, lyricist, producer, composer, arranger, and musician on this record is celebrating their shared love for the infinity of possibilities that are encompassed by the act of making music,” continues Hanes. “You’ll hear Morricone, Bacharach, Gainsbourg, the mid-1960s, the early ’70s — the rain-soaked streets of Paris, the open plains of the Wild West, the crime-ridden streets of downtown LA — pleasure, pain, sex, hate, fear, anger, blood, sweat and tears; but most importantly, I guarantee you’ll hear love for everybody.”
Listen to Amore Per Tutti in full below. Featured photo by Monika Rivard.