Come un cammello in una grondaia

Come un cammello in una grondaia (lit. 'Like a camel in a gutter') is the sixteenth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Franco Battiato, released in 1991. A Spanish-language version of the album, Como un camello en un canalón, was released two years later.

Background
Following his song "L'oceano di silenzio", in which he had already experimented very bare and classical arrangements, his 1988 opera Genesi and his musical score for the 1990 film A Violent Life, Battiato got the inspiration for this album from his renewed interest in the classical genre. On 16 July 1991, he took part in a classical music festival in Fermo where he performed four lieder, by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms and  Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, which Battiato considered the peak of the genre. The lieder became the second part of the album, with four compositions of Battiato occupying the first part.

Production
The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. Characterized from the absence of any rhythm section, Battiato was accompanied by Roger Chase, Anthony Pleeth,Gavyn Wright, the Astarte Orchestra of London conducted by Antonio Ballista and Giusto Pio and the Ambrosian Singers of London choir conducted by John McCarthy. The title is a citation from 11th-century Persian scholar Al-Biruni.

Release
The album was released on 8 November 1991. It peaked on the tenth place on Italian hit parade and sold over 250,000 copies.