Lo Sciamano
Storia eretica di Francesco d'Assisi
(The Shaman: A Heretical Story of Francis of Assisi)
Storia eretica di Francesco d'Assisi
(The Shaman: A Heretical Story of Francis of Assisi)
Lo Sciamano (The Shaman) is a work in seven scenes that weaves poetic texts and musical composition into a single experience: a “heretical story” in which Francis of Assisi speaks in the first person and moves through his own life as a rite, a vision, a theatre of the soul.
Here, “heretical” does not mean merely transgression or disobedience, but the radical courage to say “I” without compromise. It is a gaze that chooses its own point of view, that slips free of the conventions of society, culture, and habit. In this perspective, the heretic is one who knows how to step outside time and build bridges between the visible and the invisible: for this reason he becomes a shaman, a traveler of the unknown, an explorer of otherworldly realms.
The Shaman is also an invitation: a “poetic manual” for learning how to cross the thresholds of the invisible. Guiding the journey is the greatest shaman whose name we still remember: Francis of Assisi.
A different Francis: actor, seer, man on the threshold
In this work, Francis is not the meek and comforting saint of the hagiographies: he is a living man, restless, contradictory, and free. An artist.
His voice resurfaces like a memory that asks for no proof. And when listening grows deeper, that voice ceases to be a story and becomes a threshold, a passage, an opening, because what is authentic cannot be defined without losing its force: it can only be invoked, as music does, as poetry does.
Voice and clarinet: a shamanic dialogue
At the heart of the work is a narrative and sonic duet:
Francis of Assisi is embodied by the baritone voice of Alessandro Ciacci, and his co-protagonist is the clarinet of Alessio Zanovello, which converses with him, planting doubts, shedding light, contradicting, unveiling the interplay of ritual and fiction, like a contemporary witness to the story of the Shaman of Assisi.
Around them, a rich instrumental and vocal landscape (lute, theorbo, tanpura, synthesizers, percussion, voices, portative organ…) and field recordings made in the actual Franciscan places (Assisi, Mount La Verna, Egypt).
The 7 scenes
The work is composed of seven scenes, like seven symphonic-theatrical movements.
1. Seraphim (more)
On Mount La Verna: the descent into shadow, the wound, the beginning of the journey.
Release online: January 23, 2026.
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2. Augurium (more)
The flight of birds, the voice of water, remembrance.
Release online: February 13, 2026.
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3. Divinatio (more)
The oracle-book, the Sibyl, the future entering the Middle Ages.
Release online: March 6, 2026.
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4. Arbor (more)
The forest, the wolf, the tree as a star map and the alchemy of life.
Release online: March 27, 2026.
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5. Claritas (more)
The conflict with power, weapons, the order becoming institutionalized, the struggle for the name.
Release online: April 17, 2026.
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6. Solitudo (more)
Beyond identity: absolute freedom, silence.
Release online: May 8, 2026.
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7. Laudes (more)
The Canticle of the Creatures.
Release online (last track + album): May 29, 2026.
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The book
Lo Sciamano. Storia eretica di Francesco d’Assisi it is also a book + CD, to be released over the course of 2026.
It contains the seven scenic texts of the audio tracks, a listening guide and an introduction to the work’s philosophy (titled Beyond the Border), which describes the compositional process and the hidden meanings concealed in the text and the music, and an in-depth historical essay (Madonna of the Angels or Lady of the Birds?) edited by Andrea Armati, a scholar of medieval magical symbolism, which opens further perspectives on Francis as “shaman,” amid symbols, ancient cults, and the survivals of paganism in the Middle Ages.
At the beginning of each scene you will find a QR code that leads directly to the corresponding track: you can follow, word by word, what happens, or let the music guide you and return to the verses for a personal reading. Davide Resani’s illustrations accompany the journey like playful, jester-like visions, in a game of theatrical fictions, on the threshold between the visible and the invisible.
Historical research
Although it was born as a work of poetic and musical imagination, Lo Sciamano (The Shaman) is not the product of pure invention: it is rooted in rigorous research, carried out on the sources, on history, on Franciscan iconography, and on its symbolic languages. Many turning points of the narrative — places, rites, images, and the layers where Christian and pre-Christian elements overlap — derive from a sustained work of study that accompanied the writing of both the texts and the music over a long period.
In this journey, the studies of Andrea Armati, a scholar of medieval magical symbolism, were decisive. He has proposed a radical, well-documented re-reading of Franciscanism, bringing to light continuities, survivals, and transformations of archaic imaginaries within the Franciscan cult. Particularly fundamental were his two volumes devoted to these themes — Lo stregone di Asssisi (The Sorcerer of Assisi) and Le stimmate dello sciamano (The Shaman’s Stigmata), published by Eleusi Edizioni —which form an indispensable historical foundation on which this work could take shape.
Credits
Voice of Francis of Assisi: Alessandro Ciacci.
Clarinet: Alessio Zanovello.
Voices of the Sybil: Alessia Ambrosi e Pietro Ambrosi (track n. 3).
Lute and theorbo: Luciano Bernardi (tracks n. 2, 3, 4, 5 e 7).
Tanpura: Mauro Bove (tracks n. 2 e 4).
Synths, percussions, harpsichords, portative organ: Carlo Matti.
Sopranos: Paola Comerio e Chiara Scotti (tracks n. 4 e 7).
Tenor: Mario Giaccoboni (tracks n. 3, 4 e 7).
Baritones: Marco Grattarola e Andrea Manstretta (tracks n. 7).
Lyrics, music composition, mix e mastering: Carlo Matti.
Acknowledgements
A work as rich and complex as The Shaman is possible only thanks to the support of a capable and courageous publisher, willing to believe in an œuvre that moves across genres, languages, and forms. Raighes Factory deserves the most important thanks: for the trust, the care, and the freedom with which it accompanied every phase of the project.
My heartfelt thanks also go to everyone who took part in the recording and production, musicians, voices, and technical and artistic collaborators. Every meeting and every presence has left a mark, because in a work like this everything becomes part of the shamanic journey.