Fossati also guested in some of De André's live shows from the era, where he was introduced by the latter as "a great guy with two huge defects: he's a friend of mine, and a Sampdoria supporter.

Because of the physical space occupied by the various tracks on the two sides of the record, the tracklist on the vinyl version is different from the CD (as above): The album, released after six years of studies, shows marked influences of Latin-American music, as well as Eastern-European and Mediterranean ones (the latter deriving from the original project, which De André had begun with Mauro Pagani).

Most of the lyrics deal with the theme of solitude and diversity, often considered as a positive, free state of life: the Brazilian transsexual immigrant ("Princesa"), the Romani people ("Khorakhanè"), the poor anchovy fisher ("Le acciughe fanno il pallone"), the man in love ("Dolcenera").

[citation needed] The album features De André's full backing band from his live shows at the time, which includes ethnic music specialist Mario Arcari, guitarist Michele Ascolese and drummer Ellade Bandini, as well as his wife Dori Ghezzi and their daughter Luvi De André on vocals.

[10] Percussionist Giuseppe "Naco" Bonaccorso, who is also prominently featured, was tragically killed in a car accident in June 1996, shortly after completing his parts on the album.