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La Ciapa Rusa
Diario di Bordo (Folkclub Ethnosuoni,Italy)
$17.99
One of Italy's most influential bands is back on CD in this 'compilation' of live performances of songs that spans their 20 year career, recorded in their official farewell concert recorded live in Casale Monferrato, July 12th 2003. One of the Italian bands I most get requests for, this band was at the forefront of the new roots music movement in Italy for a long time, and their various members have gone on to carry that zeal to a dozen other notable bands and projects. But sometimes you just need to go back to the origins. This excellent collection also includes a detailed history of the band, in Italian and English, with lots of photos, on the CD ROM portion of the disc. Essential listening.
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Listen:
Draghin
L'e stato vento
Bisangna
Il gutterino...
Questua della uova
Frate cappuccin
Tracks:
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Musicians:
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Maurizio Martinotti on La Liapa Rusa:
It would have been difficult to imagine that a band coming from a little city in deep-rooted Piedmont should become one of the most renowned and loved ensembles of the European folk revival: I often wonder if we really deserved it and at these times I recall a lovely zen tale about a harpist and his best friend, who was in possession of the most rare quality of "knowing" how to listen: well, what I think is that the existence of La Ciapa was possible because there were people who loved our music, and – it goes without saying – we greatly enjoyed letting ourselves be listened to!
At a certain point, after having spent many years in burning out mile after mile, head bent down, we realised the circle was closing up and the magic was gone: each of us was taking a separate path, the peculiar interests of each member of the band
were getting the best of it and perhaps we were even losing one of the essential spurs: we didn't enjoy ourselves as we used to anymore. So, in the autumn of 1997, we decided the time had come that we took leave of our public.
Six years later, on the occasion of the twentieth edition of Folkermesse, the traditional music festival that was born like us in Casale Monferrato, we thought it fair to gather together on the same stage the largest part, if not the whole, of the musicians who had followed one another in La Ciapa.
The show has been designed in a way as to retrace the twenty-year-long history of the band, in its subsequent "embodiments": from the first ensemble, with its acoustic and, as a matter of fact, trad-oriented sound, to the last, positively open to more lavish and elaborate arrangements, also including at the end of the concert the musicians of Tendachënt, the band who has lately taken up the legacy of La Ciapa (besides me and Bruno Raiteri, the members are Enrico Negro, Sergio Caputo, Luciano Alì, Gerardo Savone).
We are happy to have acted for so many years as ambassadors of our musical tradition, but we are also persuaded that a rightful and deeply-felt pride for belonging to a specific culture must develop into an instrument of respect for anyone else, for different customs, tastes and beliefs. We hope we have always been able to pass on this simple message to our public, and therefore to preserve our music (and ourselves) from any worthless and undue manipulation by political parties preaching sterile, anachronistic, dangerous and laughable micronationalisms. All the musicians have decided to devolve the royalties they will get from this record to Médicins Sans Frontières.
La Ciapa Rusa was a beautiful adventure which lasted twenty years. There were, of course, difficult moments: routes too long and tiresome or – a real threat to a quiet life in common – low-budget tours, horrible dinners and unsound accomodations; we even suffered a dangerous car accident in Holland, which turned out very badly for our van but luckily well for its passengers. Seeing it all at a distance, however, what stands out (and endures) are the beautiful memories of a stimulating and highly satisfying experience.
The splitting up of La Ciapa Rusa was never truly official: now, with this live record, it is.
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