Cicciolina is the pseudonym of Ilona Staller, who has recently been referenced in songs by Erika Vikman—who (unsuccessfully) attempted to enter the 2020 Eurovision contest with a track dedicated to the former porn star—by the German gabber-wave group Brutalismus 3000, and by the appropriately named band cumgirl8. This unexpected renaissance of the Italian superstar, who retired from the adult film industry in the late 1980s, married artist Jeff Koons, and became internationally active as a (sort-of) left-wing politician, can most likely be traced back to the reappraisal of her 1980s musical output by Cinedelic’s Mondo Groove sublabel. Avec Toi follows up 2023’s Muscolo Rosso (»Red Muscle«—take a wild guess) and is released alongside Perversion—like Avec Toi, a compilation of assorted tracks written and produced for Staller by Paolo Rustichelli a.k.a. Jay Horus, who also worked with other actresses-turned-singers, some of them from the adult industry, such as Moana Pozzi.
Rustichelli crafted simple pieces that largely followed tried-and-tested Italo disco formulas, and it’s more than clear that songs like Cicciolina’s »Animal Rock«—of course, featuring samples of barking dogs—and her Italian-language cover of Sting’s »Russians« were conceived as novelty hits. Staller is far from a competent singer, too. So why the massive reissue campaign? Would anyone care about these recordings if they hadn’t been sung by Cicciolina? Probably not—but a good number of them are still a lot of fun. The opener »Inno alla trasgressione« (»Ode to Transgression«) is a borderline eerie synth-pop gem; »Living in my Paradise« wouldn’t feel completely out of place on the Twin Peaks soundtrack; and »San Francisco Dance« offers an above-average take on the Hi-NRG formula from an Italian perspective. While a single LP collecting the best of Staller’s brief music career would arguably have sufficed, Italo disco revivalists may still appreciate the label’s completionist zeal.
