Daniele Luppi

Daniele Luppi’s love for – and devotion to – vintage Italian films and their music scores hearkens back to his earliest, most cherished childhood memories. So it was like a dream come true when a synchronistic opportunity dropped into his lap: unprecedented access to a vintage library of literally thousands of recordings put together by some of Italy’s top session players of the 60s, 70s and early 80s – the Italian equivalent of the Wrecking Crew. In this case, for Daniele’s experimental album ‘Wilma,’ there are cues and tracks culled from a myriad assortment of scores from obscure Italian films. The theme of the album is the universal love saga we all dream about, but also delves deep into the idiosyncrasies of ‘modern love.’ Daniele explains, “As far as my role? The closest I can relate to is a film documentarian. There are many parallels as I was working with existing footage which are the vintage tracks. And I am adding new faces, which are my singers, plus writing a script, which is my lyrics… The difference, though, is - unlike a documentarian - I created a totally new original story with the found material.” To bring ‘Wilma’ into fruition, Daniele needed collaborators and chose truly unique talents: Michael Kiwanuka and Orion Sun. The songs also feature lyrical contributions from singer Shungudzo, Daniele’s trusted poetic confidant.