In introducing the double album And The Things That Remain, Ezio wrote these words:
‘And The Things That Remain is the title of a trio for violin, cello and piano that I wrote not long ago. It’s about that thought, that question that at some point we inevitably ask ourselves: what is left of everything in the end, what is left afterwards? What remains of us and what is left?’
Before becoming the title of a song and a double album, The Things That Remain began as the title of a collective project that Ezio had started about ten years ago for sharing memories and emotions.
Although it had taken on a new form in music in the guise of a double album, the idea had never abandoned its original form: ‘…I collected and am still collecting words and even testimonies, anything – even objects – that had the sense of a response for the people I was addressing: photographs, poems, letters, sounds, paintings. Perhaps the most touching things are the old photographs of the parents and I remember a phrase: “I come from that smile and I have the same smile left of them.”’
It is precisely in the name of a smile, that smile, that we want to give a new life to this project: a space on Ezio’s website open to everyone, everyone who wants to contribute with anything that remains and will remain, photographs or drawings that represent for you, for all of us, The Things That Remain, the traces that Ezio has left in our lives.
When he started the project, it was 2011, we were thinking of a book, a virtual book to be published on the web.
I asked him for an introduction, a text describing the meaning, intentions, and idea, and Ezio sent me these few lines:
‘And The things that Remains is a new project I’m working on, I’d like to share it with you and ask you to take part in the inspiration process by posting here or on my personal page a list, thoughts, photos or paintings or whatever you prefer that represents “The things that remain” for you. Would you like to play with me?’.
There, in that invitation lies the whole meaning: ‘Would you like to play with me?
Yes Ezio, yes. Shall we all play together?
Fabio Bosso
