The Berlin band IL CIVETTO releases their single "Rio Reiser Platz" in time for the 25th anniversary of Rio Reiser's death. This is the first single from their album announced for next year. The song is inspired both by Rio Reiser's work and by an initiative to rename Heinrichplatz in Berlin Kreuzberg to Rio-Reiser-Platz. It is equally a summer hit and a substantial contribution to the gentrification debate.
The birth of modern Easy-Jetset Berlin as an international cultural metropolis could perhaps be traced back to the early 2010s of the new millennium. The special spirit that made the city's allure internationally recognized since then, that diffuse Berlin feeling where you never quite know what will happen next because not everything has been measured, meticulously planned, and regulated, was embodied at that time by the band IL CIVETTO, which actually consisted of native Berliners!
With a bit of luck, one could experience thrilling guerrilla gigs of the then-unknown band in squares, on trains, or in subway stations, often culminating in orgiastic street raves. IL CIVETTO was exactly the band that Berlin needed. With their rhythm-driven, genre-open mix of pop, folklore, Balkan beats, dancehall, and club music, they captured the vibe of the city perfectly.
A few years, two albums, and more than 400 concerts later – from the Fusion Festival to the Montreux Jazz Festival – IL CIVETTO's new and third album is soon to be released, which can already be said to be the most mature and best of the band so far. They have not lost their sense for the themes of the moment. This is evident not least in the first single "Rio-Reiser-Platz," which IL CIVETTO recorded with producer Tim Tautorat (AnnenMayKantereit, Faber, Provinz, among others) and the brass players (Jérôme Bugnon) of the group SEEED in the legendary Berlin Hansa Studios, and which is released today.
The video for "Rio Reiser Platz" can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq9TT3e0v_Y
IL CIVETTO are right at the discourse level here: "We stay in bed today and hold on to our love, set the alarm for May 1 / Forever and you, forever this night, in your room here at Rio-Reiser-Platz", sings Leon Keiditsch – and in these few words, he not only includes three references to Rio Reiser, on whose 25th anniversary the single is released. IL CIVETTO playfully conveys the boundary markings of current gentrification discourses between leftist tradition and turbo-capitalist present.
Not only with this song do IL CIVETTO dare to embrace more pop without neglecting their musical core virtues. The balancing act is achieved dreamily: After a funk-infused, clearly accented verse and an unforgettable chorus that you hear once and never forget, IL CIVETTO takes off into infinity with the brass-based bridge. One briefly thinks of Peter Fox or Manu Chao, but actually, there is no reference point for IL CIVETTO's new fusion pop. They had to create that themselves. IL CIVETTO embodies the urban, the international, the colorful, and the cosmopolitan Berlin. Now they have made the best music of their career so far.
