Pietro Tonolo‘s new album, “Insomnia,” is the result of a collaboration between Umberto Contarello – author of the lyrics – and Pietro Tonolo – author of the music. These are songs (or perhaps lieder?) “tailor-made” for the extraordinary performers in this work: Cristina Zavalloni, Mario Brunello, Paolo Birro and Tonolo himself. “The notes and words that are contained in this true, small musical work resonate with a feeling that sways between freedom and a dark longing. They follow lines that intertwine, recede, overlap, and long for each other. This movement helps communicate a sense of compactness and at the same time digression. Everything seems to run away and return, nothing bears the marks of a specific era. There is something deeply sentimental that keeps any easy sweetness at a great distance. Words and notes arrive unexpectedly, as if escaping each time from some sort of ambush. The ambush of definition, the ambush of canon, the ambush of “resentment.” The crystalline quality of the notes and those who play them makes this operetta a malia,” explainsUmberto Contarello.