Lucio Battisti
 

An Italian singer/songwriter. His music is definitely a bit poppy, with a lot of 'ambiance' and has this very much 80s synth vibe, a little bit similar to say...Ultravox or maybe talk talk would be a better reference (I don't think Ultravox is a good comparison though). pop with a tinch of experimentation to it.
Needless to say, this was much more earlier, during the 70s. The lyrics are completely in Italian, and some of it can be very cryptic. I don't quite understand 40% of it though, as I'm not all that familiar with the language.

Albums worth listening to(or that's all I've heard so far) -
Emozioni
Il mio canto libero
Il nostro caro angelo
Anima latina

Anima latina is definitely his best. The language might be a barrier here, but try and ignore that. A thread like this fails without any means of a listen. so, clickty click. I'll post lyrics translation if I find any. Line by line translation is needed here, more than just generally describing it.

You rarely post anything that does'nt deserve a few moments of my time. I will give this a listen.

Ahh well, let me know what you think. Robert Wyatt might be the closest I could compare him to, but I can't stand Wyatt's vocals. Of course this has the cultural side as well, and might lean more towards the so called "world music" term than pop.

Sounds very interesting, I'll definitely be keeping an eye peeled for this fella.

I take it you've heard of Celso Fonseca, Sabrina Malheiros and Cibelle before? If not I'll send a link your way (that goes for anyone else who's curious as well) - they're a lot more contemporary, but I reckon you'd dig them if you like this chap.

I've listened to a couple of Cibelle tracks before, but don't really have any releases by any of those artists. I have quite a bit of Brazilian popular music, but most of it is older stuff. Definitely interested :D.

Good stuff - expect a PM in the near future :)

as italian i would also suggest Fabrizio de Andrè who reminds a lot the "chansonniers" like Brel...

I love Brel although I have a VERY hard time understanding/translating what he says. It's not that non-english lyrics put me off. Sometimes, understanding it can enhance the experience even more, which is certainly the case in Brel's as well as a lot of chanson music :). Think I'll investigate this guys work. Thanks for the heads up.

Finally listened to it. The vocals are a little off putting but not hugely so but is very good and at times reminds me of soundtracks to really cool 70's Euro thrillers! A keeper for me and hopefully the vocals will grow on me.

Don't worry about the vocals - A lot of these artists from different countries just have an accented voice and takes time getting used to. A lot of Brazilian and French vocalist sound the same to me, but I've got used to it by now. If you liked what you heard, then some Brazilian artists like Milton Nascimento and Elis Regina might interest you. But lets talk about that later. Too much music to go through as it is :D.