With his first album, called “E mail to Emily”, Raul set to music lyrics taken from a collection of poems by Emily Dickinson. The penultimate song, the one giving its title to the album, is inspired by a poem with the same name, “My letter to the world”, in which the poet says “This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me”. The idea behind the song was answering with this musical tribute, a proof that someone beyond time listened to Emily’s voice, answering to her plea.

Later, with the help of his friends Jim Potts and Klaus Knopp, respectively English and German, Raul worked on a trilogy of concept albums dedicated to “the most important things in life”, as he called the subjects he intended to tackle: Love, Death and unfulfilled expectations, that is the disappointment met by those living on dreams and illusions, as it’s often the case with young people.

This is the genesis of Neuromantics – explorations of love, Beyond – In Aenigmate-necromantics e Failed expectations.

At the same time, to pay homage to those friends with whom he had played – and still played now and then – in different groups at the beginning of the new millennium, Raul recorded COOKING FRIENDS. The album includes 12 songs, some of his own composition, others by Jim Potts and Dave Green, and a piece written by Raul together with Peter Papageorgiou. Raul took also care of the musical arrangements, while mixing and post production were etrusted to Alberto Mompellio, the friend from Milan with whom Raul had played from the ‘70s until the first years of the ‘80s. After beginning to compose again on the island, Raul had got back in touch with his old friend, starting a new musical collaboration with him.

During a cultural festival organised in 2008 in ABELONAS, one of the most evocative landscapes of “MESSIS”, the central region of Corfu, Raul presented Neuromantics and NEUROVISION, a collection of videos inspired by the subjects of the songs. On that occasion, the videos were projected on a big screen with Kaliroe Raouzeou singing behind Raul. The videos had been realised by an assorted team of graphics, video makers, drawers, comic-strip illustrators, etc; friends living and working all around the world who had chosen to “adopt” a song and work on it.

Finally, the last concept album left unfinished is a double cd dedicated to animals called MINIMANIMALIA, which Raul was completing when his illness started getting worse. Here you can see only the cover draft.

We will talk about Raul’s love for animals, and of his concrete commitment on behalf of the last ones, those who cannot speak for themselves, in the section dedicated to his friends.