Alice (Italian singer)

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Alice


Img_capt =
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Carla Bissi
Alias = Alice Visconti, Alice
Born = birth date and age|1954|9|26
Forlì, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
Died =
Origin =
Instrument = singing
piano
keyboards
Voice_type = contralto
Genre = Vocal
Pop
Rock
Classical
Folk
Experimental
Ambient
Electronica
Occupation = songwriter
Years_active = 1971–present
Label = CBS Records, EMI, Warner Bros. Records, NUN Music
Associated_acts = Franco Battiato
URL =
Notable_instruments =

Alice (pronounced|ali:tʃɛ) a.k.a. Alice Visconti, born Carla Bissi in Forlì, Italy on September 26, 1954 is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist, active since 1971. Alice had her breakthrough after winning the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Per Elisa" in 1981, followed by European hit singles like "Una Notte Speciale", "Messaggio", "Chanson Egocentrique", "Prospettiva Nevski" and "Nomadi" and albums like "Gioielli Rubati - Alice Canta Battiato", "Park Hotel", "Elisir" and "Il Sole Nella Pioggia" charting in both Continental Europe, Scandinavia and Japan. In 1984 she represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest with "I Treni Di Tozeur", a duet with longtime collaborator Franco Battiato. In her more recent career Alice has explored a diverse range of musical genres including classical, contemporary jazz, electronica and ambient and has collaborated with a large number of renowned English and American musicians. Her latest album "Viaggio In Italia" was released in 2003.

Biography

Early career

Bissi started taking piano lessons at the Forlì Conservatory and singing privately at age of eight. Her career in music started at the age of seventeen as she won the 1971 Castrocaro Festival under her birth name Carla Bissi, with an interpretation of the song "Tanta voglia di lei", originally composed and recorded by classic Italian rock band Pooh. The following year saw her winning another music award, "La gondola d'argento" in Venice, with the song "La Festa Mia" as well as making her debut in the important Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il Mio Cuore Se Ne Va" in the Newcomers category, also her debut single, the song did however not qualify for the finals. Two further singles on the Carosello label released as Carla Bissi followed in 1972 and 1973, both faring relatively unnoticed by the Italian audiences.

In 1975 she quit her dayjob at a design studio and took the stage name Alice Visconti as she was signed by the Italian subsidiary of CBS Records and released her debut album "La Mia Poca Grande Età". The album consisted of material written by some of Italy's most successful composers and lyricists of the era and among the musicians contributing were in fact members of Pooh. The singles "Piccola Anima" and "Io Voglio Vivere", both in the fairly traditional Italian easy listening genre, became minor chart successes in late 1975 and early 1976, the latter also a modest hit in France.

A second album on CBS followed in late 1977, "Cosa Resta... Un Fiore", recorded with the same team of producers, composers and musicians as the debut, including the singles "...E Respiro" and "Un'Isola" which also met with moderate commercial success.

Commercial breakthrough

In late 1979, shortly after her contract with CBS had expired, Bissi met a man with whom she would go on to collaborate with for the next three decades with great success, the experimental, unconventional and highly productive composer and singer Franco Battiato who was just on the verge of having his Italian breakthrough in the pop genre with the album "L'era del cinghiale bianco" ("The Era of the White Boar"), released in 1979. Battiato secured Bissi a contract with his label EMI and the two began working together with his producer Angelo Carrarra on what was to become her first proper hit single, the dark and despairing "Il Vento Caldo Dell'Estate" ("The Warm Summer Wind") and the following album "Capo Nord" ("North Cape"). Co-written and arranged by Battiato, the album saw Bissi making a dramatic change in musical direction as it combined influences from contemporary rock and New Wave and a musical landscape with prominent use of synthesizers and distorted electric guitars. At this time Bissi also dropped the Visconti part of her stage name and the "Capo Nord" album was the first to be credited simply as Alice. It was also Bissi's debut as a composer, with her writing the majority of the songs. Over the course of the following albums Bissi would become increasingly involved in the production of her music, both as composer, lyricist, musical arranger and sound engineer.

In early 1981 she returned to the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Per Elisa", composed by Bissi herself, Franco Battiato and his longtime co-writer, classical violinist Giusto Pio. The song was both lyrically and musically a modern paraphrase of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Für Elise" but it was by no means an archetypal sentimental Sanremo ballad. The rough rock track had lyrics which dealt with jealousy, betrayal, anger and revenge and included lines like "With Elisa you don't mind windowshopping for hours but when you're with me you can't even be bothered to pick up the morning paper. - - She's taken everything from you, even your diginity. - - Alive, alive, alive, you're no longer alive. - - You can't even fake it anymore, you can't even breathe without her - and worse, she's not even beautiful." For the live performance at the contest Bissi made full use of her extraordinary vocal strength and range, the song is partly sung in falsetto and thus covers close to four octaves, and the unorthodox Sanremo entry managed to make a strong impression on both the juries and the TV audiences. "Per Elisa" won the contest, becoming one of the very first up-tempo rock tracks to do so and it became Bissi's commercial breakthrough not only in Italy but also in the rest of Continental Europe, topping the charts also in West Germany, Switzerland and Austria as well as becoming a Top 10 hit in most other parts of Western Europe including Scandinavia. An album titled "Alice" followed a few months later (released as "Per Elisa" outside Italy) including follow-up single "Una Notte Speciale" ("A Special Night") and the same year Bissi set out on her first European tour.

The following years saw the release of the albums "Azimut" ("Azimuth") and "Falsi Allarmi" (a play on the expressions 'false alarm' and 'crocodile tears'), again mainly composed by Bissi herself, but also including further songwriting collaborations with Battiato and Giusto Pio, and both albums produced by Angelo Carraro. The albums spun off further popular single releases like "Messagio" ("Message"), the nonsensical French/Italian/German/English language "Chan-son Egocentrique" ("Selfcentred Song", a duet with Battiato), "A Cosa Pensano" ("What Are They Thinking"), "Notte A Roma" ("Night in Rome"), "Solo Un'Idea" ("Just A Thought") and "Il Profumo Del Silenzio" ("The Scent of Silence"). Bissi became especially successful in West Germany, resulting in her recording the German/Italian language duet "Zu Nah Am Feuer" with the singer Stefan Waggershausen in late 1983, also recorded in English as "Close to the Fire". The single which sold nearly a million copies in West Germany alone was also a number one in Switzerland and Austria. The duet made her one of the best-selling Italian artists on the German-speaking markets of the mid-eighties and it has been said that she actually sold more records in these countries, the Benelux and Scandinavia than in her native Italy.

In May 1984 Alice and Franco Battiato represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest with the highly unconventional song "I Treni Di Tozeur" ("The trains of Tozeur"), again composed by Battiato, Giusto Pio and lyricist Rosario Cosentino. The mid-tempo synth-driven ballad was based around a very brief excerpt from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" and was performed on stage in Luxembourg with three classically trained mezzosopranos. Despite being tipped to win and rapturous applauds from the audiences on the night as well as receiving the coveted "twelve points" from countries as diverse as Spain and Finland Alice and Battiato found themselves beaten to the trophy by the Swedish song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley", and finished 5th out of 19 entries. "I Treni di Tozeur" however became that year's bestselling entry in Continental Europe, and paradoxally enough also a Top 20 hit in Sweden. The song is also in fact one of the very few Italian Eurovision entries ever to become a commercial success in Italy itself - even topping the Italian singles charts - the country has not participated in the contest since 1997. [http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/hp_weeks/index.html] Both Alice and Battiato have since recorded several interpretations of the song, and in 2005 it was included in the Eurovision 50th anniversary CD/DVD box set "Winners and classics".

In 1985 Alice followed up the success of the "I Treni di Tozeur" single with a full-length tribute album entitled "Gioielli Rubati - Alice Canta Battiato" ("Stolen Jewels - Alice sings Battiato"), including nine of the composer's best-known songs. Angelo Carrara's production of the album, recorded in Milan and mixed at The Power Station Studios in New York, accentuated Battiato's influences from composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart and Johannes Brahms by juxtaposing modern sequencer-programmed synthesizers and drum machines against a classically arranged string section, just like in the case of "I Treni di Tozeur" courtesy of the opera La Scala in Milan. The album's opening track "Prospettiva Nevski" ("Nevsky Prospekt") became Alice's best-selling single in Continental Europe and Scandinavia since her breakthrough with "Per Elisa" and was followed by "Summer on A Solitary Beach", "Il Re Del Mondo" ("The King of the World") and "Luna Indiana" ("Indian Moon", based on Mozart's Moonlight Sonata) and introduced Battiato's music to a wider European audience. In Italy the "Gioielli Rubati" album won Alice the award Premio Tenco for Best Interpretation the following year.

In 1986 Bissi changed musical direction as she returned to the charts with the album "Park Hotel", her first project with keyboardist, arranger and producer Francesco Messina, with whom she was to collaborate extensively over the next two decades. The album which included material co-written by Bissi herself, Messina, as well as prolific Italian lyricist, composer and singer Juri Camisasca was also Bissi's first proper international venture as it was entirely recorded with a four-piece band consisting of Italian keyboardist Michele Fedrigotti plus three internationally acknowledged and highly influential musicians: American bassist Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Yes, Lou Reed etc.), American drummer Jerry Marotta (Orleans, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, Tony Levin Band etc.) and British guitarist Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd etc.). The album was notably different to the preceding "I Treni Di Tozeur" and "Gioielli Rubati" as it mainly focussed on blues-tinged melancholy and suggestive ballads with airy soundscapes giving plenty of room for the musicians to display their respective talents and for Bissi to use her vocal skills in a new musical environment. "Park Hotel" was promoted by the lead single "Nomadi" ("Nomads"), an epic ballad by Camisasca, followed by "Il Senso dei Desideri" ("The Sense of Desire"), "Viali di Solitudine" ("The Boulevards of the Lonely") and "Volo di Notte" ("Fly by Night"). "Park Hotel" was a considerable success both critically and commercially, reaching the Top 20 in most parts of Continental Europe, peaking at #13 on the Swedish albums chart and it also became her breakthrough on the Japanese market - despite the fact that all lyrics still were entirely sung in the Italian language. (The song "Nomadi" was however only a moderate success in Italy, it was later covered by none other than Franco Battiato on his 1988 album "Fisiognomica" and is in Italy therefore mostly associated with him.)

A tour in Continental Europe and Scandinavia followed on which Bissi performed tracks from the "Park Hotel" album alongside reworked arrangements of songs from her earlier repertoire; the romantic "Una Notte Speciale" became an up-tempo rock track, debut hit single "Il Vento Caldo Dell'Estate" was given an updated synthesizer and drum-machine treatment while songs like "La Mano", "Rumbarock" (retitled "Hispavox") and "Notte A Roma" were performed "unplugged" with acoustic guitars and sparse percussion. After the completion of the tour six of these interpretations were recorded in studio and released on the 1987 album "Elisir" ("Elixir") which also included two previously unreleased songs, the opening track "Nuvole" ("Clouds") and a cover version of Lennon & McCartney's "The Fool on the Hill", released as the lead single. "Elisir" was later awarded the prestigious prize "Goldene Europa" for sales on the German speaking markets. In Japan the album was released under the title "Kusamakura" and then included the new recording "Le Scogliere di Dover" ("The reeves of Dover").

Musically and vocally versatile and unwilling to be categorized or defined 1988 saw Bissi setting out on a low key tour at smaller venues and classical concert halls in Italy and Switzerland accompanied solely by herself and Michele Fedrigotti on pianos and keyboards, performing not her pop hits but works by fin de siècle composers Gabriel Fauré, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel. The partly instrumental concert was later recorded in studio and released as "Mélodie Passagère - Alice Canta Satie, Fauré & Ravel" ("Fleeting Melody - Alice sings Satie, Fauré & Ravel") on EMI.

In 1989 Bissi returned with another pop album, "Il Sole Nella Pioggia" ("The Sun in the Rain"), which was proof of further musical development and evolution as it was clearly influenced by contemporary British artists in the experimental and alternative rock genres such as Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and David Sylvian and among the all-star line up of musicians contributing to the project were in fact several who previously had collaborated with these: drummer Steve Jansen and keyboardist Richard Barbieri (Japan, David Sylvian, Holger Czukay etc.), guitarist Dave Gregory (Peter Gabriel, XTC, Porcupine Tree etc.), trumpetist and multi-instrumentalist Jon Hassell (Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, David Sylvian etc.), Turkish flutist Kudsi Erguner (Peter Gabriel, Jean Michel Jarre, Didier Lockwood etc.) as well as renowned Italian trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player Paolo Fresu. The album closes with the English language track "Now and Forever", a duet with British progressive rock singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. The mainpart of the songs were collaborations between Juri Camisasca and pianist, violinist and composer Marco Liverani [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=324865106] including the lead single "Visioni" ("Visions"), follow-up single and title track "Il Sole Nella Pioggia", "Tempo Senza Tempo" ("Time Without Time") and "Le Ragazze di Osaka" ("The Girls in Osaka"). Side two of the original vinyl album however opened with a multilayered accapella interpretation of the medieval French folk song "Orléans" on which Alice again showed her vocal capability by singing all harmonies covering four octaves, followed by the acoustic "Anìn A Gris" sung in the Friulian language. "Il Sole Nella Pioggia" also included a reworking of the track "Le Scogliere di Dover", originally released on the Japanese "Kusamakura" album, provided with new lyrics and retitled "I Cieli del Nord" ("The Skies of the North"). The album was another critical and commercial success followed by another sold-out European concert tour.

The 1990's

After a three year absence from the music scene Bissi returned with the album "Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi" ("Noon in the Alps") in 1992, her most experimental and mature work to date, again recorded with a number of distinguished international musicians such as Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, Dave Gregory, Paolo Fresu as well as double bass player Danny Thompson (Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Richard Thompson etc.), drummer Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson etc.) and bassist Jakko Jakszyk (Dave Stewart, Tom Robinson, Level 42 etc.) "Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi" displayed Bissi's effort to steer away from being a commercially oriented Mediterranean pop act to a much more ambitious performer and marked an increasing expansion into electronics, expressed in colourful synth sounds, occasional drum loops and subdued ambient passages as well as influences from contemporary jazz. The material was mainly co-written by Bissi and producer Francesco Messina with contributions from Richard Barbieri, Paolo Fresu and Rosario Cosentino but the album also included an English language cover version of Tim Buckley's "Blue Melody" and the single track "In Viaggio Sul Tuo Viso" incorporates the Hungarian folk melody "Istenem Istenem". The album also saw Bissi interpreting more complex lyrics, such as on the track "La Recessione" ("The Recession"), originally a poem by controversial Italian cinematographer, intellectual and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, set to music by Mino Di Martino. Despite receiving generally positive reviews from music critics and a following sold-out European concert tour the "Mezzogiorno Sulpe Alpi" album itself was only a moderate commercial success compared to Bissi's previous efforts and this would eventually result in both artistic and legal complications with her record label, the Italian subsidiary of EMI (see EMI aftermath).

The years 1993 and 1994 saw Bissi embarking on the tour project "Art et Decoration" with the Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra, intepreting works by composers such as Reynaldo Hahn, Charles Ives, Maurice Ravel, Xavier Montsalvatge, Geni Sadero, Gabriel Fauré, Ivor Gurney, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Unlike "Mélodie Passagère" the "Art et Decoration" project was not recorded by EMI and still remains unreleased.

In 1995 Bissi signed a five-year contract with the WEA/Warner Music label and released another pop album, the introspective and contemplative "Charade" featuring contributions from musicians like King Crimson's Trey Gunn, several tracks with British improvisational solo violinist and arranger Stuart Gordon (Peter Hammill, The Korgis, Tori Amos, Massive Attack, Alison Moyet etc.) and acoustic tracks with the American/Belgian/Japanese California Guitar Trio. "Charade", which included single releases "Dammi La Mano Amore" ("Give Me The Hand Of Love") and "Non Ero Mai Sola" ("I Was Never Alone"), was very much in the same vein as 1992's "Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi" but further developped the use of minimalist ambient/avant-garde backgrounds, fractured guitars and woodwind, muted trumpets and accordion set against programmed TR-808 rhythms, influenced by contemporary dance music genres like electronica and trance, fused with world music samples and looped vocals.

On the following European "Charade" tour in 1996 Bissi performed with a four-piece band consisting of Robby Aceto (The Club, Talking Heads, David Sylvian etc.) on electric and acoustic guitars, former No-Man member Ben Coleman on violin and the two ex-Japan members Steve Jansen on drums and Mick Karn on bass guitar and bass clarinet. The same year she also appeared as singer and co-writer on Trey Gunn's solo album "The Third Star", performing the title track. In 1997 she and producer Francesco Messina, Gavin Harrison and Juri Camisasca among others were part of the collaborative crossover/ambient/fusion project "Devogue", with Bissi singing lead vocals on five of the thirteen titles - two of which in fact ambient dub remixes of tracks from her own studio albums. The same year she recorded the duet "Troppe Emozioni" ("Too Many Emotions") with Italian progressive rock band Bluvertigo, included on their album "Metallo non Metallo".

In 1998 Bissi released "Exit", her most pop-oriented and melodic studio album since the late 1980s. The album included three single releases, "I Am A Taxi", "Dimmi Di Sì" ("Tell me yes") and "Open Your Eyes", an English/Italian language duet with Skye Edwards, lead singer of British band Morcheeba. The promo video of the latter shows the two singers performing the track sitting in a rowing boat on a sunny summer's day in London's Hyde Park. "Exit" also included a second duet with Bluvertigo's Morgan, "L'Immagine".

1999 saw Bissi on another low-key tour project with a six-piece acoustic band, exploring and interpreting sacral - but not exclusively religious - music, performing in smaller venues and churches in the North of Italy. "God Is My DJ", which also was recorded and released by Warner Music, comprised works by composers as diverse as Arvo Pärt, David Crosby, Popol Vuh, Eleni Karaindrou, Gavin Bryars, Franco Battiato and Jane Siberry as well as eleventh and fourteenth century hymns sung in Ancient Greek and Latin.

The 2000's

In the Spring of 2000 Bissi returned to the San Remo music festival, nineteen years after the victory with "Per Elisa", this time in the category for established artists, "I Campioni". The song she performed, Juri Camisasca's "Il Giorno Dell'Indipendenza" ("The day of independence"), was also the opening track on the career retrospective "Personal Jukebox". The album contained four single tracks from 1998's "Exit" and 1995's "Charade", the original versions of "Visioni" from 1989's "Il Sole Nella Pioggia" and "In Viaggio Sul Tuo Viso" from 1992's "Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi" as well as new interpretations of tracks from her early repertoire, including "Chanson Egocentrique" (another duet with Bluvertigo), "Prospettiva Nevski", "A Cosa Pensano", "Nomadi", "Il Vento Caldo Dell'Estate", a technofied take on "Per Elisa" and an orchestral solo version of "I Treni Di Tozeur". "Il Giorno Dell'Indipendenza" was one of three new recordings, the other two being "Tutto È Niente" ("All Is Nothing") and an Italian language cover version of David Bowie/Pat Metheny Group's "This is Not America".

In 2001 Bissi launched the tour project "Le Parole Del Giorno Prima" ("The Words of The First Day"), an hommage to some of Italy's foremost singer-songwriters and lyricists, among them Ivano Fossati ("La Bellezza Stravagante"), Fabrizio De André ("Un Blasfemo"), Francesco De Gregori ("Atlantide"), Pier Paolo Pasolini ("Al Principe"), Franco Battiato ("É Stato Molto Bello") and Giorgio Gaber ("Non Insegnate Ai Bambini"), mainly covering material from the 1970s and the early 1980s but interpreted with contemporary musical arrangements and an emphasis on the lyrical qualities of the songs. The common thread was poetry in popular music and it later developped into including two English language titles, on the following album both sung as duets with English singer-songwriter Tim Bowness from the progressive rock band No-Man; Peter Sinfield and Robert Fripp's "Islands" and James Joyce's poem "Golden Hair", as set to music by Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett. The project was marred by further problems with record companies but eventually evolved into "Viaggio In Italia" ("Journey In Italy"), released in 2003 on the independent label NUN. The album opens with a solo interpretation of the new composition "Come Un Sigillo" with music by Battiato and lyrics by philosopher Manlio Sgalambro, originally recorded as a duet with Bissi and the composer on his 2002 album "Fleurs 3".

"Ecco I Negozi" on the "Viaggio In Italia" album was another duet with Bluvertigo's Morgan and in 2004 the two among other noted Italian artists also appeared on the collaborative album project "Zerouno", with Bissi singing lead vocals on the track "Sospesa" ("Suspended").

The years 2006 and 2007 saw Bissi touring Italy with "Lungo La Strada" ("The Long Road"), performing in both classical auditoriums, churches and concert halls interpreting material from her musically rich and varied repertoire which now spans over three decades, as well as new compositions yet to be released. The musicians on the tour were Steve Jansen, Marco Pancaldi and Alberto Tafuri.

With a past in art and design herself, Bissi has always paid close attention to the visual side of her musical career. As of the late 1980s most album covers are for example collaborations with noted American-British fine art photographer Sheila Rock. [http://www.watermarkfineart.com/portfolios.cfm?a=27&t=collector] [http://www.terrimanduca.co.uk/photographers/sheila_rock/sheila_rock.htm]

Alice is held in high regard among fellow musicians from all over the world, as witnessed by the many distinguished colleagues guesting on her albums and tours. In her native Italy she is known as an artist with an uncompromising sense of musical integrity and her work defies both categorisations, labels, language barriers - and also the commercial powers of today's music industry.

Alice has recorded sixteen studio albums to date and has released some forty singles.

Alice currently resides in the North-Italian region Friuli.

EMI aftermath

After the comparatively low sales of albums "Mélodie Passagère - Alice Canta Satie, Fauré & Ravel" (1988) and "Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi" (1992) the EMI label declined to release or even record the 1993/1994 project "Art et Decoration" with the Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra. Instead they released a "greatest hits" compilation in 1994 entitled "Il Vento Caldo Dell'Estate", taking its title from the artists first Italian hit single and mainly focussing on material recorded in the early 1980s. The compilation was issued without the knowledge or approval of Bissi herself. The hits package included a Eurodisco remix of the 1982 track "Chanson Egocentrique", originally a duet with Franco Battiato. The remixed version of the track, also released as a single, however surprisingly omitted all lines sung by the composer himself - again this was done without the knowledge or approval of either Bissi or Battiato. The two subsequently considered taking legal action against the label to have the compilation and the remix single withdrawn - only to find that they legally had no control over the use of their respective bodies of work recorded for EMI. This subsequently led to both artists leaving the label after a fifteen year long and highly successful collaboration.

Bissi's contract however stipulated that she was to deliver one final studio album to the label before the end of 1995. As a compromise she agreed to take part in the production of another hits compilation - this time under her supervision. Unlike the first version "Viaggiatrice Solitaria - Il Meglio Di Alice" ("Solitary Traveller - The Best of Alice") covered tracks from all eras of her career on EMI, including selections from her more recent works "Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi" and "Il Sole Nella Pioggia". The remix of "Chanson Egocentrique" was omitted from the track list. Despite this the 1994 collection - including the unapproved disco remix without Battiato's vocals - still remains in print, some fifteen years later.

After Bissi's parting ways with EMI the label and its Dutch mid-price subsidiary Disky Communications have continued to capitalise on the rights to her back catalogue, issuing a large number of hits compilations in various price ranges under titles like "I grandi successi di Alice", "Collezione", "Le signore della canzone", "Made in Italy", "Studio Collection", "The Best of Alice", "Collezione Italiana" etc. - again mainly including early 1980s hits. The year of 2006 alone saw EMI releasing no less than four of these "best of" packages in Continental Europe, Scandinavia and Japan.

Bissi's following five year tenure on the Warner Music label has also resulted in the release of unapproved compilations. 2006 saw the label issuing a "greatest hits" package entitled "Le Più Belle Canzoni Di Alice" (paradoxally and confusingly the exact same title as one of the four EMI compilations released the very same year) which includes seven tracks recorded for the CBS label in 1975 and 1977 coupled with seven of her best-known 80's hits such as "Per Elisa", "Prospettiva Nevski" and "Nomadi", the latter are however re-recordings dating from the 2000 album "Personal Jukebox" - which the compilation fails to mention in the liner notes.

Discography

Carla Bissi

*1972 - "Il mio cuore se ne va" / "Un giorno nuovo" (single)
*1972 - "La festa mia" / "Fai tutto tu" (single)
*1973 - "Il giorno dopo" / "Vivere un po' morire un po'" (single)

Alice Visconti

*1975 - "La Mia Poca Grande Età" (CBS)
*1978 - "Cosa Resta... Un Fiore" (CBS)

Alice

*1980 - "Capo Nord" (EMI)
*1981 - "Alice" (released under the title "Per Elisa" in certain territories) (EMI)
*1982 - "Azimut" (EMI)
*1983 - "Falsi Allarmi" (EMI)
*1985 - "Gioielli Rubati - Alice Canta Battiato" (EMI)
*1986 - "Park Hotel" (EMI)
*1987 - "Elisir" (EMI)
*1988 - "Mélodie Passagère - Alice Canta Satie, Fauré & Ravel" (EMI)
*1989 - "Il Sole Nella Pioggia" (EMI)
*1992 - "Mezzogiorno Sulle Alpi" (EMI)
*1995 - "Charade" (WEA/Warner Music)
*1998 - "Exit" (WEA/Warner Music)
*1999 - "God Is My DJ" (WEA/Warner Music)
*2000 - "Personal Jukebox" (WEA/Warner Music)
*2003 - "Viaggio In Italia" (NUN Music)

Compilations

*1979 - "Mi Chiamo Alice" (Record Bazar)
*1984 - "Alice" (CGD)
*1986 - "Alice" (EMI)
*1988 - "Kusamakura" (Japan) (Odeon/EMI)
*1994 - "Il Vento Caldo Dell'Estate" (EMI)
*1995 - "Viaggiatrice Solitaria - Il Meglio Di Alice" (EMI)
*1997 - "Alice Canta Battiato" (EMI)
*1998 - "I Primi Passi" (On Sale Music)
*2000 - "I Grandi Successi Di Alice" (The Netherlands) (Disky)
*2001 - "Collezione" (EMI)
*2003 - "Le Signore Della Canzone" (EMI)
*2004 - "Made In Italy" (EMI) (Copy-protected, track listing identical to "Collezione")
*2005 - "Studio Collection" (EMI) (2 CD's, copy-protected)
*2005 - "The Best of Alice" (EMI) (Copy-protected, track listing identical to disc 1 of "Studio Collection")
*2006 - "Le Più Belle Canzoni Di Alice" (WEA)
*2006 - "Le Più Belle Canzoni Di Alice" (EMI) (Copy-protected)
*2006 - "Collezione Italiana" (EMI) (2 CD's, copy-protected, track listing identical to "Studio Collection")
*2006 - "D.O.C." (EMI) (Copy-protected)
*2006 - "The Best Of - Platinum" (EMI) (Copy-protected)
*2007 - "Solo Grandi Successi: Alice" (EMI)
*2008 - "Per Elisa: The Capitol Collection" (EMI)

Collaborations and guest appearances

*1984 - Stefan Waggershausen: "Tabu" (Ariola Records), duet on track "Zu Nah Am Feuer", extended mix also released on 12" single, English version "Close To The Fire" released as 7" single and included on album "Falsi Allarmi" in certain territories
*1984 - Franco Battiato & Alice : "I Treni Di Tozeur"/"Le Biciclette Di Forli" (EMI), duet single and Eurovision Song Contest entry
*1994 - Claudio Rocchi: "Claudio Rocchi" (Mercury Records), duet on track "L'Umana Nostalgia"
*1994 - Various Artists: "Quando... Tributo A Luigi Tenco" (WEA/Warner Music), tribute album, lead vocals on track "Se Sapessi Come Fai"
*1995 - Various Artists: "Tributo Ad Augusto" (CGD), tribute album, lead vocals and keyboards on track "L'Auto Corre Lontano, Ma Io Corro Da Te"
*1996 - Trey Gunn: "The Third Star" (Discipline Records), co-writer and lead vocals on title track "The Third Star"
*1997 - Bluvertigo: "Metallo non Metallo" (Columbia Records/Sony Music), duet on track "Troppe Emozioni"
*1997 - Devogue: "Devogue" (CNI), lead vocals on tracks "Midnight Bells", "In Piedi Su Uno Specchio", "Le Condizioni Del Tempo a.m.", "Palmenhaus" & "Il Cielo Sopra Il Cielo"
*2002 - Franco Battiato: "Fleurs 3" (Columbia Records/Sony BMG), duet on track "Come Un Sigillo"
*2004 - Various Artists: "Voli Imprevedibili - Tributo A Franco Battiato" (NUN Music), tribute album, lead vocals on track "È Stato Molto Bello"
*2004 - Zerouno: "Zerouno" (Mescal), lead vocals on track "Sospesa"

ources and external links

* [http://www.rockol.it/musicaitaliana.com/biografie/alice.html Rockol.it biography]
* [http://rockol.it/musicaitaliana.com/artisti/alice/ Musica Italiana biography]
* [http://www.archivio.raiuno.rai.it/schede/9022/902251.htm RAI Uno biography]
* [http://www.radioitalia.it/web/bio.php?id=103 Radio Italia biography]
* [http://www.alicewebsite.it/pages/biography.html Alicewebsite.it biography]
* [http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:anftxqejldfe~T2 All Music Guide discography]
* [http://www.lavocedelledonne.it/cantante.aspx?id_cantante=82 Lavocedelledonnet.it]
* [http://www.siebenpunkt.com/index.php?id=1014&L=2&MP=3-120 Siebenpunkt Verlags biography]
* [http://www.temposenzatempo.it/ Temposenzatempo.it biography]
* [http://web.tiscali.it/aliceweb/ Aliceweb biography]
* [http://alicesito.altervista.org/ Alicesito biography]
* [http://www.europopmusic.eu/Italy_pages/Alice.html Alice's page on Europopmusic.eu (English)]
* [http://www.cinziaricci.it/filmes/musica-alice.htm Cinzaricci.it biography]
* [http://lacasadeglielfi.altervista.org/alice/Biografia.html La Casa Degli Elfi biography]
* [http://www.playmusic.it/detail/1694/biografia-di-alice.html Playmusic.it biography]
* [http://www.sanremostory.it/canali/festival/biografia/509/alice/ San Remo Story biography]
* [http://lexikon.web.de/wiki/Alice_(Sängerin) Web.de biography]
* [http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/index.html Hit Parade Italia, Italian charts site]
* [http://www.waggershausen.de/ Stefan Waggershausen, official site, biography]

Persondata
NAME=Alice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Italian singer/songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH=1954-9-26
PLACE OF BIRTH=>Forlì, Italy
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=