En studio (7 CD) - Testa, Gianmaria

---

---

Seven CD box set of Gianmaria Testa's Studio albums with 152-page multilingual booklet. Includes the albums Montgolfieres (1995); Extra-Muros (1996); Lampo (1999); Il Valzer di in Giorno (2000); Altre Latitudini (2003); Da Questa Parte del Mare (2006); Vitamia (2011). Gianmaria Testa was born near Cuneo (in Italy's Piedmont region) in 1958. He grew up in a farming family and was self-taught on the guitar, writing his first songs as soon as he learned his chords. Gianmaria played and sang in several local rock bands before discovering his true vocation as a solo artist. In 1993 and 1994 he won first prize at the Recanati Festival for emerging singer-songwriters, where he met a French producer (Nicole Courtois) who took a liking to his demo tape. His first CD, Montgolfières, came out on Label Bleu in 1995 and he went on to record seven studio albums and to release a further three live albums, for the French label le Chant du Monde. He became a major star in several European countries and further afield, his best-selling opus Il Valzer di in Giorno selling upwards of 80,000 units. Sadly though he never made it over to the UK before his death last year. Gianmaria's warm, husky voice tells stories of wind and memories, of the soil, the elements, of people, longing, loss and regret. His music is personal and richly melodic, flecked with accents of tango, bossa nova, habañera and jazz, but as spare and essential as a pencil sketch, imparting great beauty with simplicity and directness.