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 latest single to be taken from Lovexpress 77 is the lo-fi yet life affirming Samba. The title partly comes from a term that Matteo uses for anything that is “nice” or “sweet”, which is quite fitting for this sugary Brazilian beauty. It’s also based on, of course, music from the Lovexpress band, and specifically their cover of the Santana song of the same name, reinterpreted in their own unique style.
Matteo sampled the band’s three part harmonies on the chorus, joining them to make up the fourth, with the other main sample taken from their version being the electric lead guitar.
New York based producer Owen Ross then worked on the song with Matteo and added Fender Rhodes into the mix, with Matteo adding live drums, as always played on the kit that his father used in the original recordings with the live band. The pair then added their own lyrics, sung by Matteo, for the two verses with the result being this very uplifting TTeo version of Lovexpress’ live take of Santana’s Samba!
By sampling, re-working and re-imagining the source material in this very unique way, TTeo is bringing 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.
Listen or download TTeo – Lovexpress77 here: http://tteo.lnk.to/Lovexpress77
