Marlene Kuntz was formed in 1990 by guitarist Riccardo Tesioe of drummer Luca Bergia. Not long after, the singer and guitarist Cristiano Godano joins, coming from the dissolved Jack On Fire. They arrived at the final of Rock Targato Italia in 1993 and were immediately noticed by Gianni Maroccolo. The first album, “Catartica”, was released in May 1994, and is also the first album of the newborn Consorzio Produttori Indipendenti, a legendary record label that will cease its activity in the early days of 2002, after having contributed in large part to the rebirth of Italian underground rock. The album already contains many of what will become the “classics” of the band, still in high demand by the public at their concerts. At the end of the year the disc is at the head of almost all the reader’s polls of the specialized press. CSI performs live an acoustic version of a Marlene Kuntz song, “Lieve”, and they impact it on their live album “In Stillness”.
In May 1996, “Il vile”, the first disc of an independent label, appeared in the top 50 of Nielsen. It also collects a series of songs that the band will no longer be able to give in live performances. For its realisation comes the bassist Dan Solo, who will remain with the band until 2003. From 1994 to 1997 Marlene Kuntz never ceased their live activity becoming the most appreciated and followed band of the Italian rock scene. A concrete testimony of what Marlene Kuntz live we can find in the film that Francesca Dall’Olio and Guido Chiesa have made following them on tour, the videotape “Petali di Candore“, released in 1997. 1998 saw the release of the mini album “Come di di outrage”, in which some unreleased, remixes of pieces and a long improvisation of over 24 minutes, entitled “The Escape of Impressions” are collected.
At the beginning of 1999 “I killed Paranoia”, which, in its double package, including the “Spore” album of sole improvisations, comes in sixth place on the chart of the best-selling records. The album is welcomed by the specialised press as the most mature test of the group. The album will follow a long tour of over 80 dates around Italy, totaling over 100,000 payers. All this long and happy live activity culminates in the recording of their first live album, “H.U.P. Live in Catharsis”, which comes out at the end of 1999. The title of this album contains and recalls all the previous ones: I killed paranoia (H.U.P.), Il Vile (anagram of “Live”) and Catartica (Catharsis).
On October 13, 2000 “What do you see” was released, their fourth studio album containing the famous duet with Skin “The Song I Write for You”. The public was able to follow all the processing of the disc in real time on their website, with previews, comments, videos, interaction with users, in a truly unique operation in Italy at that time. The record exceeds the threshold of 50,000 copies sold, reaching the finish line of the gold disc.
In recent years Marlene Kuntz and the film world touch each other several times: Guido Chiesa chooses their music for the soundtrack of the Babylon feature film, a couple of songs appear in Jack Frusciante is out of the group and take part in the project Material Resistant, for which a record and a documentary film are made. In 1997 it was the turn of Tutti down on the ground, a film based on the novel by Giuseppe Culicchia and shot by Davide Ferrario. In 2000 they took part in the short film When the eyes of Beniamino Catena closed, presented at the Venice Film Festival. Finally, in 2009 Cristiano Godano was invited by Davide Ferrario to play an actor in his film All Guilt of Judas.
In 2001 he released “Cometa”, mini CD.
At the end of June 2002, thirteen new songs are ready and are featured in Rob Ellis and Head (producers of the excellent Stories from the city stories, from the sea by P.J. Harvey) collaborators for the new studio adventure. The album is made between October and November in Berlin (at Tritonus Tonstudio), a city entirely appropriate to the musical and cultural suggestions of the band. The title of the fifth album becomes “Without Weight”. He will be out on February 7, will enter the top ten, and will contain a guest of absolute regard: Warren Ellis, violinist in pint of Nick Cave.
May 28, 2004: Marlene release “Fingendo la poesia”, an EP that takes up, enhancing it, one of the most beautiful songs of “Senza peso”, but above all presents the engaging reinterpretations of two masterpieces of Italian music, “Non gioco più” and “Alle taken with a green Milonga” (portraits by the repertoires of Mina and Paolo Conte), as well as two unpublished instrumental pieces. The EP enters directly in second place in the ranking, recording the highest new entry among the singles of the week.
On January 31, 2005 www.insidemarlene.com was launched, a site totally dedicated to the new album under construction by Marlene Kuntz, which focuses on it day by day all the details, gradually enriching itself with new content.
11 March 2005: “Bianco dirty”, sixth album, is released. Recorded by Riccardo Parravicini between Cuneo and Roma and produced entirely by Marlene, the new work still makes use of the contribution of Rob Ellis, former artistic producer of “Senza peso”, and Victor Van Vugt, sound engineer, mixer and producer for Nick Cave, P.J. Harvey, Beth Orton and many more. Gianni Maroccolo is a guest as a bassist. The album is preceded by the single “Bellezza”, in radio programming from 18 February 2005. To mention the formidable tour that began on April 15, 2005 with the participation of Rob Ellis on keyboards and Gianni Maroccolo on bass.
The tour continues, with extraordinary results from the public, until it slowly transforms into a new guise, called by the group “S-low”. It marks the first attempt to enlarge one’s sound to a more intimate dimension. The aim: to vary one’s creativity to avoid fossilizing in the cliché of noise bands.
On 13 October 2006 the live CD “S-Low” recorded during the acclaimed s-low tour 2006 and the DVD “Mtv Storytellers: Marlene Kuntz”, Marlene Kuntz’s first DVD recorded on November 23, 2005 in the context of the Aula Magna Santa Lucia of the University of Bologna.
13 April 2007: with the patronage of the Cinema Museum of Turin and the Cineteca di Bologna, Marlene Kuntz take a show on tour in which, improvising live, they sound the silent film of the 1920s “La Miss Else”, based on the novel by Arthur Schnitzler and organized in images by the German director Paul Czinner. The film, visionary and dramatic, is well suited to the poetics and musicality of the Marlenes, who enchant the public by involving them in an emotional journey of very particular impact.
September 14, 2007: “Uno” is released, seventh studio album. Recorded in Cuneo and produced by Gianni Maroccolo, the album sees the extraordinary participation of Paolo Conte and Greg Cohen (double bass player by Tom Waits). To further embellish the content of the album some important writers of literary Italy collaborate by offering a contribution in prose: Stefano Benni, Carlo Lucarelli, Tiziano Scarpa, Enrico Brizzi, Paolo Conte, Marco Lodoli, Gianmaria Testa, Emidio Clementi (of the Massimo Volume), Marco Bosonetto, and Babsy Jones. The album, which is a fascinating concept on love in all its facets, is characterized by the desire to continue on the path of emancipation from every cliché and from every obvious definition.
From January 25 in programming on all radios: Musa, the second single from the album. At the piano: Paolo Conte.
In the following tour at the album Uno, the Live in love tour, join the group Luca Lagash Saporiti on bass (formerly La Crus and Amor Fou) and the multi-instrumentalist Davide Arneodo.
January 16, 2008: Rizzoli’s “I VIVI” collects, a literary debut by Cristiano Godano, is released for the 24/7 series. Arrived, after only one week, at the first reprint, it is a book of six stories with a purely literary and therefore narrative background.
January 30, 2009: “Best of Marlene Kuntz” is released, the band’s first official collection. “Festa Mesta”, “Retractants”, “Song of today”, The best hate”, “Bellezza”, “Musa”, “One”, “The song I write for you” (with Skin) are some of the songs that go to compose the tracklist. There were also three covers: “Impressions of September” by PFM, “Non gioco più” by Mina, and a version of “La libertà” by Giorgio Gaber. In addition, a new unpublished song entitled “The Prejudice”.
June 2009: the Beautiful project was born, in which the Marlene, together with Gianni Maroccolo and Howie B, give life to a quintet of musical experimentation. At the Teatro Petrella in Longiano they recorded their first album, released in Italy in the summer of 2010, and bring the work around Italy on a psychedelic and hypnotic tour.
November 20, 2009: Ala Bianca Group “We were looking for silence…”, the band’s first double CD/DVD live. “We were looking for silence…” presents the concert that Marlene Kuntz held at the Teatro Sannazaro in Naples during the “UNO: live in love tour” in theatrical version. It is the first splendid testimony of the crowning of the desire of Christian Godano and associates to bring their creatures to the theaters.
2010 – 2018
May 7, 2010: Song in prison receives the nomination for best original song at the David di Donatello 2010. The song is written and interpreted by Marlene for Davide Ferrario’s film “Tutta colpa di Giuda”. The videoclip of the song (directed by Davide Ferrario himself) has been selected and awarded as “best videoclip of the year” on the occasion of Roma Videoclip 2009.
November 23, 2010: Sony Music “Virtual Hospitals and Sexy Solitudes”, eighth studio album, is released for Sony Music. Recorded at the School of High Musical Specialization in Saluzzo (CN), produced and mixed by the Scottish DJ and producer Howie B (U2, Bjork, Tricky etc), the album is characterized by having brought to the studio the sound that the band has tested in the last tours with the new five-manuating. A decisive return to the rock atmosphere. The visual part is entrusted to the Milanese video-artists Masbedo (Niccolò Masazza and Jacopo Bedoni) who realize, after a week of filming in Iceland, a project that is characterized by the realization of 4 videos (4 songs) connected by a narrative thread. A short film version is also made. The album is preceded by the single “Paolo anima salva” in radio rotation from October 22, 2010.
February 11, 2011: the tour “Virtual hospitalizations and sexy solitudes” begins, which sees the band perform for eight months throughout Italy.
February 2012: Marlene Kuntz perform for the first time at the Sanremo Festival presenting the song “Song for a child”. During the evening dedicated to international duets they are joined by Patti Smith, with whom they sing “The World Became The World”, the English version of “Impressioni di Settembre”. With this exhibition they win the Press Sala Prize for the best duet.
February 15, 2012: “Canzoni per un figlio” is released in stores, a concept album containing 12 songs belonging to the artistic career of the band completely rearranged and 2 unreleased songs, one of which “Song for a son”.
June 21, 2013: the first anticipation of the record project to be released at the end of August arrives with the summer solstice. And from this particular day takes its name the song “Solstizio”, whose video is published on the official Vevo channel of the group at dawn on June 21.
July 19, 2013: “Il Genio (The Importance of Being Oscar Wilde)” bursts onto the radio, the first single from “In your light”, the album released on August 27th. It is the ninth Marlene Kuntz album and the first to be totally self-produced by the group. The Special Edition, containing the 11 unreleased songs and a bonus track (“I’m here”) conquers – in a few hours after its release – the No. 1 on the chart of the most downloaded albums on iTunes.
11 December 2013: the video of “Seduction” is online, which sees the extraordinary participation of one of the most charismatic actresses of Italian cinema, Kasia Smutniak, co-star together with Cristiano Godano of the videoclip signed by the talented director Francesco Amato.
On August 22, 2014 “Sotto la luna” radio rotation, the single launch of the group’s new recording project: “Pansonica” out on September 16th, comes in a radio rotation. A special EP with which Marlene Kuntz want to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the release of the successful album “Catartica”. An important record, which was a dazzling beginning of career for the group.
On January 29, 2016, the tenth studio album “Lunga Prestimate” was released on Columbia/Sony Music. The release was anticipated by the release of the single “Fedety” scheduled on radios and available for digital download from January 15, 2016. Following its release, the band began their support tour for the first time at European clubs on 25 February 2016 from Paris, continuing in Brussels, London, Dublin, Amsterdam and later in Italy.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017, at the Teatro Ambra Jovinelli in Rome, is scheduled for 6 consecutive evenings The Castle of Vogelod, a silent film of 1926 directed by the famous director Friedrich Murnau. For this occasion the band sounds live the images and to give voice to the characters is the actor Claudio Santamaria. The show, thanks to the extraordinary success achieved, will race in the best Italian Theatres starting from November 2018 and will continue…
