Charlie Risso Rituals
3 April 2026
Sounzone
Charlie Risso: Vocals, guitar, composition and lyrics
Brian Lopez: guitar on ‘Rituals’ (track), vocals on ‘Let’s Move Somewhere Else’
Raffaele Rebaudengo: violins
Marco Ferretti: acoustic guitar on ‘Under a Spell’
Production: Charlie Risso and Mattia Cominotto
Formats: CD, vinyl and digital
Review by:
Alex Dematteis
Musicshockworld
Salford
September, 9 - 2026
“In modern life, myths arise when rituals die and lose their creative power”
Marc Augé
Very few of us take the time to observe our surroundings carefully and deeply, for various reasons, as if such dedication were a waste of time. And art and artists know this all too well, unfortunately: they often find themselves having to contend with haste, superficiality, hasty judgement, not to mention indifference. But we must cast our line into consciousness and reason in order to encounter enchantment, which is always a sudden, unexpected yet nourishing act that sows seeds, leaves its mark, carries us away and leads us into unknown realms. It is from there that experience must mature and we must grow…
Certain works possess this miraculous ability: you find yourself imbued with a different identity, a beam of light, a multitude of colours, a surge of energy that leads you to leave your old self behind and embrace those fresh fruits.
Rituals engages, overwhelms, seduces and unleashes gentle obsessions as you listen, revealing itself to be a worthy successor to the Genoese artist’s journey, yet with greater attention to sonic distinction, production and vocal interpretation – elements which, in these tracks, allow the pairing of music and voice to coexist harmoniously, in more evocative realms, a denser visual portal, a silk column rising from a world of stone where she succeeds in the difficult task of fertilising it, of bringing it back to ancient parts of memory. It is a tale that invites novels to read it, to carry it into the intimate setting of a brief afternoon stroll, with the senses ready to turn the night into a serene cradle.
Listening thus becomes a process of digestion, nourishment and the intellectual legacy of new secrets. A sweetness that often borders on bitterness, with the atmosphere shifting and evolving throughout the tracks, giving rise to multiple interpretations to convey the vocabulary of this interpreter of gestures, of approaches to warmth and the structure of slowness – here the true secret in which beauty bows and takes flight.
A linguistic procession that carries the seasons of life to the threshold of a temple through meditation and the unfolding of narratives that make it radiant (using the method of conserving energy, each track is a crumb containing fragments of the previous one’s DNA), via a unique entity with diverse wings and flights; and this, as well as being enchanting, is truly remarkable to hear. Charlie draws on the folk wisdom of dark folk to make it contemporary, feeding on subtle electronics, textures and approaches to trip-hop without actually absorbing it, as if, by merely sampling it, she could take only the most useful elements.
With music that gives expression to expansive impulses, skimming over musical genres without being influenced by them – a fleeting glance and off it goes – and, in doing so, the songs become silent spies with a notebook full of jottings. The sense of disorientation stems from the impression that this is a semi-acoustic album, with inlays that lend an emotional depth; yet, upon closer listening, one discerns that these gems belong to a truly striking sense of reason – a meticulously crafted, determined project, exhausting only for those who are hasty. The instruments are words that forge a connection to harmonic textures capable of inspiring various arts, including photography, cinema and painting – all gathered together to sip Barolo and brush against a druid’s cauldron, whilst always taking care not to overdo it.
Here it is: a brilliant album, brimming with insights and experimentation, in which the narrative is shaped by an immense approach steeped in curiosity, with stories that seem to come straight from the Nouvelle Vague, and a refined style of expression that eschews mass appeal in favour of a broad perspective on scenarios far removed from consumerism. *Rituals* is a butterfly disguised as a snail: slow, with songs that walk in order to fly, turning the listening experience into a wall upon which to reflect one’s own smile…
One gets the sense that the rhythm, the scope of the musical arrangement and the whispered vocals celebrate the maturity of a band that writes songs like a breath that knows it will never fade or die, remaining eternal; this highlights their exceptional skill in composing for the sake of art – which must never be entirely real but must be sincere – and all of this is presented here with grace, mastery and power.
The fool seeks definition, casting aside study, wearing a cardboard medal on his chest. If one approaches this diamond, one learns that musical genre labels are out of place, an avoidable nonsense: it is, rather, a cascade of flowers enveloped by a gravity that stretches from the sky into the mind, causing the body to levitate, with eyes closed that do not dream but truly see reality. I don’t think it’s a true concept album, but it resembles one for a few minutes, before breaking free from this line of reasoning to become a fairy tale far removed from any intellectual celebration: *Free to Leave* is the right track to realise that we are faced with a mutating identity, a project that has continuity and multiple, diverse demands. One experiences a beautiful sensation, an emotion akin to ivy seeking to shed its skin like a snake, using the only ‘poison’ at its disposal: sensitivity. A sensitivity that today kills people, who are so ill-equipped to deal with it and regard it as an enemy.
Charlie Risso inhabits the moon, Jupiter and Saturn; he embraces comets and descends slowly towards our embrace with semi-acoustic ballads, making little use of 4/4 time and employing the song form not as a vehicle for persuasion but as the writing of a timeless diary, providing vitamins and proteins for our auditory system. We dance whilst dreaming, we sing whilst crying, we listen to the songs as if they were partners, as friends to whom we give all our care…
Using silence with irony, with the maturity of someone who, by not shouting, avoids the risk of exclusion, is a remarkable virtue in these times, and her allusions to theatricality make her an absolute star, employing lyrics like sketches and hieroglyphs in which storytelling is not about explaining but about nurturing curiosity and commitment, leading us to decipher rather than her: she makes us work, use our minds, and that is why I was speaking of our own transformation, not hers…
It often seems as though she takes flight, yet remains, bearing witness to the world through her obsessions, wisely embodying love, cradling pain in the embrace of a nocturnal kiss. Indeed: light and darkness, afternoon and night are apparent boundaries, but the music transcends these realms and creates and invents certain new scenarios, as the Tindersticks and the Cousteaus did, even though Charlie dances across the dynamics of the stave with her voice, like an ink pen with a rainbow in his vocal cords, seeking nuances within the brevity of his recognisable style – almost geometric and yet so imaginative. France, the United States and England are the places where her soul seeks to express itself, to reveal his distinctive style, rather than mere sources of inspiration.
It is every bit as good as those acclaimed artistic scenes, and these eleven compositions form a tapestry that spans the r and longitudes of the entire globe, with a distinct ambient mood and an implicit desire to learn how to navigate the work of fellow artists. As demonstrated so well in Black Heart Procession’s track ‘When You Finish Me’: nothing resembles a cover or a cover version, but rather they are distinct mental landscapes that brush against one another, lending the track a continuous sense of allure, because art never belongs to the artists but to itself…
Do not be misled by the album cover; the climax: nothing is truly black and white; it is an embroidery, a sifting, an exploration of the feminine universe, a painting with colours arranged in order of intensity, where the raptures of intuition become cyclical fragments through the act of stitching, for a vast array of feelings taken into account that connect here, bound together by the fusion of mystery and the prayer of song.
Everything is set within a temporal space that spans the spirals of classical music (from which all modern music derives) right through to the shift towards electronic music in the 1990s, with a profound desire to make the compositions an extension of breaths, sighs and gentle inclinations towards hypnosis – towards a culture that suggests less comfortable horizons, in which no track appears to have been carefully calculated to secure widespread approval. One adores the absolute elegance of the phrasing and the minimalist vocalisation; there is no room for exaggeration in these moments that seem to last an eternity: the first and second sides, though slightly different, know how to paint a single mirror of the soul…
Charlie offers a different and certainly more mature conception of freedom – as a sense of community rather than selfishness – and, when she delves into the themes of solitude, she does so with vigour and engagement, using electronic music as if everything were a distant image, so as not to intrude or cause distress. But when the Celtic influences emerge, one then understands the depth of her study, the need not to forget, to draw on analysis and memory – the true cornerstones of every kind of ritual. She takes us into the universe as ears that see and eyes that hear, creating evocative horizons with ease, whilst embracing every unease with elegance. Indeed, for *Rituals* abounds with this element and leads us to beauty – a phenomenon now considered anachronistic – which she revives; she immerses herself in it first, before inviting us to join her.
The most striking impression one gets from these songs is that of creation as a nest, an exploration, a gift – but never a lament, never over-the-top, never exaggerated exhibitionism: art like an oil lamp, like soft footsteps, with sounds that are never mere noise but cells far beyond the reach of our microscopes. There is a vast gulf between closeness and distance, and she captures this perfectly, offering us a measure of an epoch-making change in many different aspects and forms, not by preaching, but by creating poetry in sound and casting irresistible spells, as a distinctive and inevitable choice. The tracks change with every listen, magnificent traps that render interpretation a pointless triviality: therein also lies the credibility of this work, a self-writing scroll that alters the reading and engulfs images and shivers.
The texts are brilliant narrative confetti, phrases that seem almost edible, yet the writing proves to precede the sound and embrace it with a marvellous delay, with emotional and rational layers that create a bewildering enchantment; words like sugar in flowing blood, a kiss to the sound and superb English pronunciation render them untouchable and indisputable, and, as mentioned, a story that smacks of a novel cannot fail to establish an admirable sequence of qualities. It goes beyond the message, beyond the communication of ideas and proposals, and instead offers a series of tempera-coloured bundles to be looked at, embraced and taken by the arm to visit the places she has first scrutinised, including violence and awareness.
When boulders fly far away, poetry and fascination are gods to whom we must bow, and her words inspire this marvellous act…
In conclusion: all that remains is for us to turn to the description and rediscover a little humanism – whether ancient or modern – so that we may better take in this Small Cabbage White and immerse ourselves in the Butterfly Trail, alongside Charlie…
Song by Song
1 - Bad Instinct
It gets off to a killer start: lyrics brimming with bitterness, the secrets of the night unfolding, a son at the centre of a dialogue – one doesn’t know whether it’s an inner monologue or not – all woven into a spectacularly expansive soundscape, amidst echoes and reverberations, an ambient surge that refines its form with a touch of vintage trip-hop. The voice is sombre; the singing is a treatise on nerves held in check and then laid bare in decadent exposure. The electronic element here manages to become a whisper, a supporting presence, an open letter to the heart of the night. This sense of anticipation takes you by surprise and commands your attention…
A slow and sublime apotheosis!
2 - No One Knows
Love, its rules, its lies and its constant upheavals lie at the heart of a debate within a folk-inspired, almost acoustic sound, as a synth accompanies the whole, adding pathos and colour, whilst a delicately pop-infused chorus captures the listener’s attention and expands it with its conclusion – a fade-out that encapsulates the scattering of sonic confetti like petals falling with elegance. Charlie offers her voice like a drop of salt in the sea, doubling it in the chorus to make us feel a wider embrace. It’s a composition that also embraces the fervour of dark noir American folk, with greater lightness and disenchantment, turning the track into a expanse of light on the desert sand…
3 - I’m Coming
Sensual vocals, warm, syncopated drumming, and a loop that gives way to the minor-key opening of the chorus, delivering small, lethal slashes from a guitar that then veers into a brief and marvellous solo. It all seems to stem from the psychedelic melancholy of Madrugada, pass through Elliot Smith, and then veer towards Genoa, with the bitter taste of the sea lending the song its perfection…
4 - When You Finish Me
Charlie Risso’s artistic maturity finds its centre in this reinterpretation of a track that was already remarkable in its own right, here transformed into a milestone in her commitment to a style that does not alter the meaning but celebrates its most melancholic aspect. There is a sense of being swept along, of yielding to the search for the vital core of this song by The Black Heart Procession, which astounds, instils a pleasant sense of dread in the mind and fits perfectly into the climax of her compositions.
5 - Rituals
Leonard Cohen is present, with an interpretation that leans towards the feminine, yet the pen that writes these verses and the voice that sings them seem just like a twin in need of its brother… However, the track has its own modern character, its rhythm coloured by arrangements that the Canadian bard rarely employed. Charlie does, and she does so vigorously, imbuing it with the sacredness typical of classical music, with a powerful musical presence, underpinned by vocals kept in the background, resulting in immense evocative power…
6 - Under A Spell
The album continues to evolve, taking on different forms, and achieving its aim of being both a probe and a slingshot. ‘Under A Spell’ is the most poignant moment of this work, with echoes of the French side of the 1960s, finding a new expression through a musical blend in which the acoustic and electric elements are perfectly balanced. And it is snow in the mist…
7 - The Dust
The tempo picks up, the guitar dabbles in a less thunderous form of shoegaze, and we are transported between the sweetness of an embrace and death, with a striking harmony that unites the lyrics and the music as they glide through the dance, wrapped in silk and gauze; for this track is a swift yet heavy punch, which becomes a blessing through its sincerity. In this track, Charlie slightly alters her vocal delivery, finding a slightly higher register and revelling in its power, to intoxicate us with sensuality and bitterness, in a perfect blend…
8 - Let’s Move Somewhere Else
The guitar opens with an ambient sound, and then Charlie’s voice reminds us of Sarah Cracknell and her band Saint Etienne, blending with that of Brian Lopez of Calexico, in a moment when everything seems to hang in the air, moving away briefly from what has been presented in the previous songs – but it is the need to catch one’s breath, to see the rainbow that isn’t there… A sensational track thanks to the affinities between the two artists, to the magic it conjures up and which is given depth by these arrangements, by sonic accents that, driven by a drumbeat with a leather-like texture, form a new miracle amongst miracles…
9 - Free To Leave
This track confirms that this second side offers more rhythm and muscle. But don’t be fooled: Charlie pulls a spectacular fast one on us, leading us to regard the faster-paced compositions as the most accessible, thereby exposing our own interpretative shortcomings. ‘Free To Leave’ is a thunderclap like any other, only more superficial, yet capable of revealing scratchy guitars, before slowing down and resuming with a chorus that reminds us of PJ Harvey. A disguised rock track, jolted by lyrics rougher than the music itself, with a long final tail that comes to an abrupt halt. And the Genoese artist’s combative spirit is utterly endearing; she argues, engages in conflicts and overcomes them with maturity and wisdom.
10 - Winter Games
Charlie loves nature; she experiences it, lives amongst it and makes it the centrepiece of an exploration of behavioural patterns, in which playful activities reveal gaps, weaknesses and poetic forms of confusion, skilfully capturing the essence of an 80s-style musical mood, where light-heartedness and depth shared the limelight. The irony and bitterness in this Ligurian fairy’s voice combine to create a spellbinding blend that brings tears to our eyes even amidst our winter games…
11 - Stray Dog
The album closes with a track that seems to leap straight off the album cover: an inspired emotional outpouring that draws us into the Norwegian and Danish psychedelic scene of the 1990s, with truly remarkable hints of post-rock. A tail, a feather bidding farewell, a goodbye that needs no words, a hypothetical masked music box, with a cinematic atmosphere that gently captivates us, with gentleness.
I rarely find myself in the position of listening to an album whilst fearing I might not be worthy of it: no, it is not a difficulty in listening, nor a fear of not understanding it, but rather a concern for knowing how to protect it, to nurture it with devotion and consistency, without categorising it, leaving it free to flow through the parts of me that yearn for it…
I recommend listening to and savouring this gem not only for its obvious qualities, for the secrets that can be heard but not touched, that are sensed but do not translate into clear understanding, but rather for its homage to the refined richness of lightness – which is not merely lightness, but which, by presenting itself in this way, draws us closer to the songs…
Discography:
Ruins of Memories - Album (2016)
Tornado - Album (2020)
The Light - Ep (2022)
Alive - Album (2024)
Rituals - Album (2026)
Listen to “Rituals” qui:
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/search/rituals%20charlie%20risso
• Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/search?term=rituals%20charlie%20risso
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/search?searchTerm=rituals%20charlie%20risso
• YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/search?q=rituals%20charlie%20risso%20album
• Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/search/rituals%20charlie%20risso
• Tidal: https://tidal.com/search?q=rituals%20charlie%20risso
Official video single “Rituals”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV8KH63Eiis
Links:
• Sito ufficiale: https://www.charlierisso.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlierisso
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlierisso
