Romina’s musical career stretches back to the late 1980s. She was first the singer with Antinomia from 1989 until 1996 and then went on to front estAsia from 1996 to 2000 having some notable success with the album “Stasi” (Polydor/ Dischi del Mulo, produced by Roberto Vernetti) which sold over 10,000 copies: a 140 date tour followed: “Without a doubt this period was the most important of my career so far” she says “They were years in which I performed a lot: in many venues and with public attention.” In 2001 she fronted Coma Berenices and then in 2003 formed RAN with whom she performed until their split in 2008.
She has had countless collaborations: “In the course of the years I have collaborated with many colleagues,” she says “Joe dei La Crus, Alessandro Grazian, Giancarlo Onorato and others: it’s always a pleasure to work with good musicians and close friends”. Additionally she has created music for two short films by Tiberio Grego: I Cannot Change, and The Heart of Things. With all these things I ask her why she isn’t performing every week somewhere, “I have realised that my music is not accessible to everyone,” she says “and in particular I don’t follow the fashion of younger generations.”
Currently she has two parallel projects: the first of these focuses on the improvisation of sound and voice, “it is particularly suitable for performances related to visual art,“ she tells me “I am working with Medriema on this project – they’re experts in electronic improvisation.” The second project is centred around her own songs: “I am working on this with Stefano Pivato, who was also part of estAsia: we got together again after many years working on our own projects; then also with Fulvio Renzi, violinist and two young musicians who are passionate about the project: Giulio Farigliosi on synths and Davide Eulogi on drums.”
Fulvio A.T. Renzi and Romina have collaborated on other projects. “Fulvio is a great violinist, unconventional, eclectic and passionate,” she says “It's a pleasure to sing with him even if sometimes it’s not easy because the violin is also a voice and sometimes it’s in unison with mine and sometimes not. Two years ago we recorded ‘The Invisible Teachers‘ in an isolated forest in the Roman hills. It’s like a soundtrack for the book by Igor Sibaldi. We recorded our improvisation at night. It was emotional and exciting.”
Romina performed over a period of two years with the dance company RBR from Verona. The collaboration started after seeing one of their shows. She was impressed by their skills, the set design, and the music chosen for the performance, so she approached the director-choreographer to listen to her songs to see if they could be an inspiration for a future show. “He fell in love with R.O.M.A.” she tells me “and from there the adventure began. I created the background music for the show ‘4’ with Stefano and Massimiliano (also ex-estAsia) and followed the group’s performances, singing in major theatres. They were two very enjoyable years.”
A further interesting collaboration, “Are You Ready?” resulted from contact with the writer Federico Romano: “he contacted me because, together with Dublino Indurance, he was creating, a compilation of songs by female artists as a presentation for his latest novel “Il bambino del mai” (“The Child of Never”). I heard the music and I created the melody and lyrics in a day. There is something just magical about that song. The song was so well liked that we also made a video.”
Surprisingly (to me), Romina has been asked to perform at the Wave Gotik Traffen goth festival in Germany this year: it seems an unlikely place for her to perform as her music could certainly not be described as “goth”. She explains that she sent a link to her website to the organisers a while ago and some time later they responded asking her to be a guest there: “Although the festival has always been famous for dark-goth music it has changed over the last few years,” she says “and now brings together all types of music, so it’s not really a surprise for me. I’m confident that the German audiences will show interest in me and my music.”
By nature, Romina is shy and introverted so I asked her how easy it is for her to perform in public: “Each time is a personal challenge,” she confesses “but if I know that my voice can strike and move even just one person, then it’s right for me to come out of my private world.” If you have not already seen Romina on stage, then you have the opportunity to see her in Germany at the Wave Gotik Traffen festival or later this year in Italy following the release of her solo CD (no current release date), “perhaps also at another event outside Italy in May” she says but declines to say more “to avoid bad luck!” And in five years where does she see herself? Well, I won’t say for the same reason.
Contacts details and links for Romina Salvadori:
website: http://www.rominasalvadori.com/
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