Early years and experimental period Battiato was born in
Ionia, the former name of the town of
Giarre-Riposto, in
Sicily, southern Italy. After graduating from high school at the Liceo Scientifico "Archimede" in
Acireale, and following the death of his father (truck driver and longshoreman in New York), in 1964 he moved first to
Rome, and then to
Milan at age 19, and soon after won his first musical contract. His single "La Torre" was released and Battiato appeared on TV to perform the song. He scored some success with the romantic song "È l'amore". After some works as a guitarist and sound engineer for popular singers, he traveled to America for a small tour where he had considerable success. After that, Battiato met the experimental musician
Juri Camisasca in 1970 and collaborated with
Osage Tribe, an Italian psychedelic-
progressive rock band. As a solo artist, he released the science-fiction single
La convenzione (
The convention), one of the finest Italian progressive rock songs of the 1970s. Starting from 1971, Battiato devoted much of his efforts to experimental
electronic music, producing a series of LPs that remained almost unknown at the time, but are now eagerly sought by collectors worldwide. Starting out with electronic
progressive rock with some emphasis on vocals, his music became increasingly experimental, gradually moving into the realms of
musique concrète and
minimalism.
Fetus, his first album, was released in January 1972, ''
L'era del cinghiale bianco ("The Era of the White Boar", 1979) was followed in 1980 by Patriots'', which reached the No 30 on the charts. It contains a few songs which have become Battiato's classics, such as "Le aquile" ("The Eagles") and "Prospettiva Nevskij" ("
Nevsky Prospect"). This new era of his music marked the beginning of his collaboration with the singer
Alice and the violinist
Giusto Pio. His next album was
La voce del padrone ("The Master's Voice"), with which he had even more success than with
Patriots. The album contains numerous songs which became classics of Italian popular music and stayed at the number one position for six months, becoming the first Italian album with more than one million copies sold in a single month. His commercial success was confirmed by ''L'arca di Noè
(Noah's Ark'') in 1982. Songs such as "L'era del cinghiale bianco" (1979), "Prospettiva Nevskij" (1980), "
Centro di gravità permanente" ("Permanent Gravity Centrepoint", 1981), "
Bandiera bianca" ("White Flag", 1981), and "
Voglio vederti danzare" ("I Want To See You Dance", 1982) established his reputation in his own country.
Orizzonti perduti (
Lost Horizons, 1983) was followed by the successful
Mondi Lontanissimi (
Faraway Worlds, 1985), which featured a solo version of the popular "
I treni di Tozeur" ("The Tozeur Trains)", originally a duet with
Alice performed at the 1984
Eurovision Song Contest.
Collaboration with Manlio Sgalambro In 1994 Battiato began to collaborate with the Sicilian philosopher
Manlio Sgalambro, who was to write almost all the lyrics of his following albums. After the tentative ''
L'ombrello e la macchina da cucire of 1995, in 1996 the duo published what is considered their best work so far, L'imboscata, containing the romantic hit "La cura" ("The care"), elected best Italian song of the year. Gommalacca (1998, with a stress on hard rock), Ferro battuto (2000) and Dieci stratagemmi'' (2004) continued on the same path, with variations mainly set by Battiato's unceasing desire for musical experimentation.
Later acts In 2003 Battiato released his first feature film,
Lost Love (Perduto amor), for which he also composed the soundtrack. The movie won the
Silver Ribbon for the best debutant director and was screened, out of competition as a Battiato request, with excellent critics in prestigious film festivals like Berlin, Cannes, Venezia, New York among others. His following movie was,
Musikanten, an experimental work about
Beethoven's last four years of life. The German musician was played by the Chilean director
Alejandro Jodorowsky. In November 2012, Battiato accepted an offer from newly elected Sicilian regional president
Rosario Crocetta to become the regional Minister for Tourism and Culture, announcing he would not receive any salary for his position, but subsequently had to resign after a controversial statement in which he defined Sicily's corrupt political elite as "prostitutes".
Final years In the 2010s he issued
Fleurs,
Fleurs 3, and
Fleurs 2, one after the other, in that specific order. They included covers of songs originally recorded by very famous Italian singers and singers-songwriters, as well as covers of French and English songs, plus three new songs. He went on releasing his music, always on a thin border between pop, rock and electronics, until 2010. He toured with Alice for the whole of 2016, but in 2017 he held his last concert in Catania. He would have continued his work, but he had to give up for health reasons. At the end of 2019, his manager announced his definitive retirement from the scene. Battiato was
vegetarian and was a follower of the ideas of
pluralism and
ecumenism. Battiato died on 18 May 2021, at his home in
Milo, Catania, surrounded by rumours about a
neurodegenerative disease,
osteoporosis or
cancer. The real cause of death remains as a secret in order to respect Battiato's last request and family petition. The following year it was revealed that the artist had been suffering of
multiple myeloma for years, diagnosed in 2017. ==Discography==