Fetus (album)
1972 studio album by Franco Battiato
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Fetus is the debut studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Franco Battiato, released in 1972. A concept album, it tells the metaphysical development of an embryo into a human being, from conception to birth.
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| Fetus | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1972 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock[1] | |||
| Length | 30:40 | |||
| Label | Bla Bla | |||
| Producer | Pino Massara | |||
| Franco Battiato chronology | ||||
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Production
Battiato got inspiration for the album from Aldous Huxley's books Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited, and from the RAI documentary series Destinazione uomo ('Destination human').[2][3] Recording started at the REGson studios (later Officine Meccaniche) in Milan in November 1971.[2][3] Battiato was supported by Gianni Mocchetti's band Cristalli Fragili, with the EMS VCS 3 synthesizer playing a major role in music composition and arrangements.[1][2][3]
The shocking cover art, featuring a real fetus, was ideated by Gianni Sassi and photographed by Fabio Simion.[2] The internal cover features Niki de Saint Phalle's sculpture installation Hon – en katedral ('She-a-Cathedral'), depicting a pregnant woman lying on her back with her legs spread and a gate in place of her vagina.[1][3]
The album was composed by Battiato with Sassi, Sergio Albergoni and producer Pino Massara, and they were all credited under the pseudonym Frankenstein.[2] The opening song "Energia" features a fragment of David Vorhaus' composition "Canon".[2] The title song "Fetus" opens with a heartbeat, an effect later used by Pink Floyd in The Dark Side of the Moon.[2]
Release
The album was released in January 1972.[1][4] The fetus on the cover proved to be extremely controversial, leading many record shops to refuse to sell the album.[1] An English-version of the album titled Foetus was produced by Island Records, but remained unreleased until 1999, when it was published on CD by Vynil Magic.[1]
Reception
At the time of its release, Fetus sold about 7,000 copies.[4] The album has been described as "pure experimentation", "a melodic vocal in a fabric of meditative electronic sounds".[3] Battiato's colleague Eugenio Finardi referred to the album as "really innovative, different and shocking".[4] Fabio Zuffanti wrote: "With unusual sounds and a general hallucinatory feeling, [the album is] a work of mysterious and elusive fascination".[2] Former Il Mucchio Selvaggio music critic Andrea Scanzi described Fetus and the following Battiato's album Pollution as "somewhere between art music and krautrock, drenched in psychedelia and science fiction themes".[5]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Frankenstein [Sassi, Albergoni, Battiato, Massara].
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Energia" | 4:31 |
| 2. | "Fetus" | 2:39 |
| 3. | "Una cellula" | 2:55 |
| 4. | "Cariocinesi" | 1:59 |
| 5. | "Fenomenologia" | 3:51 |
| 6. | "Meccanica" | 6:11 |
| 7. | "Anafase" | 5:36 |
| 8. | "Mutazione" | 2:58 |
