Radicanto
Terra Arsa (corde pelli e papiri)
17.99

Listen! (more audio below)

Music that holds the heat of Salento, in southern Italy, and translates that energy into a uniquely personal statement.

More from Radicanto: Lettere Migranti (2003)

Through the use of acoustic instruments ranging from berimbau and dumbeck to standing bass, flute and from accordion to zampogna and tamburello, the interpretations of the mosty traditional songs render the spirit of this land familiar... This is music of rare beauty, performed with respect and proficiency, while simultaneously taking chances, cuddling up to jazz (an idiom that lends itself to this musical tradition), and using influences from other lands and poetry...The final, lasting impression is of a musical tradition that is one of the most melodic and beautiful of Italy and, dare I say, the whole world, and a band that succeeds in uniting the three elements that make up its name: roots, song and radicalism." - Nondas Kitsos

CD tracks: 1.Mmienz’a mmare / Canto del mare(Tradizionale/F. Greco) 4’56" 2.Rurjane (Tradizionale) 3’54" 3.Questa mattina mi sono alzato (Tradizionale) 0’47" 4.Fronni d’Alija (Tradizionale) 4’17" 5.Tarantella di Tricarico (Tradizionale) 2’54" 6.Lu Rusciu (Tradizionale) 4’42" 7.La canzone di Finella (G. De Trizio) 4’32" 8.Strummolo (M. Salvi) 3’03" 9.U Cant du Navigant (E. Delre) 5’14" 10.Valzer di Bitonto (Tradizionale)3’16" 11.La Monachelle (Tradizionale) 4’02" 12.Terra arsa (G. De Trizio) 2’28" 13.‘U Tomme (Tradizionale) 0’36" 14.Janne Janne (Tradizionale) 3’10" 15.Pizzica di Costernino (Tradizionale)2’23"

The Musicians: Enzo Granella : voice, guitar Fabrizio Piepoli : voice, bouzouki, percussions Giuseppe De Trizio : mandolin Massimo La Zazzera : flutes, chanter, piva (italian bagpipe), shawm Pierpaolo Martino : double bass Daniele Abbinante : percussions, frame drums) with guests: Antonella Genga (voice, acting, castagnole) Gigi Celestino (tammorra, tamburello, darbouka, frame drums) Gianni Gelao (flutes, shawm, piva, bagpipe) Patricia Cives (voice, chitarra battente) Adolfo La Volpe (oud, cittern)

The band's own comments from the liner notes:

"Terra Arsa" - "land burnt" by the sun: here is where the tarantella was born, during the cyclic moments of uncertainty of life in the fields, when the rhythm of nature and farm work could mean a dignified year or one of hunger and misery. In the scorching heat, Melancholy was sometimes cured by musicians with melodies which took your imagination far away from the countryside. This new record contains, amongst others, also several of these tracks, in which the theme of love became intwined with that of the passionate and conflictual relationship with the sea, whose immense waters could only placate the long thirst of the soul.

Terra Arsa gathers the sounds, images and suggestions coming from the human and musical vicissitudes we have experienced in the last few years. The result is a handful of photos which depict scenes stolen from everyday life, work songs, conversations with the sea, loneliness, secrets, sun-baked souls, partying sounds.

Our attempt as musicians and composers is that of reviving tradition via energy, inspiration, tastes which vary according to each person's sensitivity. In this second album, too, the respect and gratitude for the elderly singers who passed down our oral traditions remains very strong, however the echoes present in our music are no longer simply those of their voices and their instruments but also those of other people who mixed amongst them, who in the past were not so recognised but are today clearer thanks to the greater awareness of how different cultures have always mixed.

Terra Arsa started its journey with a rethinking of tradition and came to land, unexpectedly, with new original music, which uses our dialects as a pretext for weaving new sounds.

Credit card orders are placed on a secure server.