Francesca Burattelli - Battle Fatigue (2022)

There is a battle going on and a wish to end it - endurance has already been proven. ‘Battle Fatigue’ is Italian singer and composer Francesca Burattelli’s most expressive and sculpted work to date. It stands as a honest and virtuoso statement on the battle of love and life.

Dismantling the theme of heartbreak in her debut album 'Condition', Burattelli evolves to a broader conceptual spectrum on ’Battle Fatigue’. The more abstract patchwork compositions from 'Condition' have settled to more well defined pop tracks, co-produced by Villads Klint (Minais B) and Albert Hertz (Aper, Senso). The 11 songs of the album all feature Burattelli’s voice either singing, rapping, speaking or chanting. She does this in both english, danish and her italian mother-tongue, with the slang and dialect of southern Italy appearing in adlib yells and calls throughout the album. Burattelli has a unique way of portraying the bends of love in her compositions. On tracks like ‘Argento Vivo’ and ‘Rebound’ gentle guitar work creates an enchanting backdrop to her vocal melodies, while deconstructed strings, drowsy horns and jarring percussion forms the sonic landscape on tracks like “Keen'' and “Torrent”.

The album is a reflection upon the theme of love and pain, examining romance as a game with a certain set of rules and a battle to take place. This image is rewritten into an existential questioning - a universal reflection on themes like resistance, discipline, morality, courage and resilience to whatever one's battle might be. The songs are built up almost as ‘levels’ and largely refer to the aesthetics of gaming. It is a way to formulate thoughts on vulnerability and shame, but mainly the acknowledgment of fighting one's own demons.

With Burattelli’s roots in a catholic culture, the 'archetype of suffering' is always under the surface of the music, appearing through the aesthetics of drama: romanticizing resilience, purity, the grandeur of pain and its spiritual and physical release. The universe is built up by fragments from childhood memories that again appeal to the game-frame, as images of emotional status quos and the nostalgic urge to 'come home' to those conditions. The visual universe of the album was created in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Ville Vidø and stylist Lea Wilbrand, featuring mini-versions of Burattelli crawling into her own body or facing her bigger self.