TTeo is the pseudonym of Matteo Capreoli – a half German, half Italian singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer with a deep musical heritage. Fernando Antonio Capreoli, his father, left Salento in southern Italy for Germany in 1970, before forming disco-funk-rock outfit Lovexpress, made up of mainly Italian and Scandinavian musicians, playing drums in the band and touring Norway, Sweden and Denmark from 1974 to 1979.
TTeo himself signed to Sonar Kollektiv in 2020, releasing the Salento EP, named after the place of his father’s birth. More recently, though, he was serendipitously handed a batch of cassettes by his dad of some of Lovexpress’ live shows from the late 1970s. TTeo was deeply impressed by the quality of the music and got his father to digitise them immediately! These recordings form the basis of, and the inspiration for, his latest LP – Lovexpress77, and are the only known recordings of the band who never quite made it into the studio to lay down an album.
The first single to be taken from Lovexpress77 is the haunting yet foot friendly 42H. Fittingly, it’s a song that goes right back to the roots of TTeo’s father’s influence. It’s inspired by his home town of Salento where “life is easy” and also by a friend who lives there telling him the story of spending 42 hours in bed with a woman and professing that “it was really love”!
The sounds on the single are deliberately warm and humid to evoke the literal and emotional temperature of his father’s birth place. Sizzling synths and piano combine with TTeo’s woozy yet balmy vocals to conjure up life in this southernItalian haven. Added to that are the drums, which have a special story of their own. The kit that TTeo plays on 42H, and on the Lovexpress 77 album as a whole, is none other than the same one that his father played on in the original recordings! This takes the paternal significance to another level and is a unique way to bring the impact of his father’s original club sounds to a whole new audience.
Matteo is now back living in his family’s home town of Salento once again and sees this project as “closing a circle” both musically and personally. Although he may be opening a new one if rumours of getting the Lovexpress band back together and recording that missing studio album come to fruition! Only time will tell.
TTeo – Lovexpress77 out November 24th 2023.
Listen or download TTeo – 42H here: http://tteo.lnk.to/42H
