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 second single to be taken from Lovexpress 77 is the
gospel flavoured Follow Me. TTeo dug deep into the original bands samples for this song, especially the vocal and drum parts. The Lovexpress band was led by Afro-American singer Joe Boston, who here sings with Leo, the bass player in the band. As an Italian playing and performing ostensibly what was American music, it’s often hard to decipher exactly what the lyrics are. This was very much the case here! The closest TTeo could get to it was the phrase “Follow Me”, doubling up with his own vocals on top and adding singer songwriter Kristine Bogan
into the mix, who supplemented the chorus beautifully.

On the drum parts, TTeo uses many of his father’s solos and plays over the top of them using the very same kit his father played on back in the 1970s! The result is an intense and quite magical combination that, when mixed with heavenly pianos, give the track a very spiritual and uplifting feel. 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.

TTeo – Lovexpress77 out November 24th 2023.