ODE
ODE
Ode is a hymn to the sea. It seeks to celebrate the charm and the peculiarity of the South through the element that defines it most deeply: the hypnotic face of the Mediterranean.
This contemplative immersion becomes then the only possibility to give thanks to a contradictory natural element, able to inspire and mislead, to attract and repel, to nourish and kill. As we abandon ourselves to it, we are led on a twofold sonic path, which expresses itself in the merger of electronic minimalism and traditional repertoires.
Heavily inspired by Italian sociologist Franco Cassano’s Southern Thought, this endeavor encounters its elective soundscape in Apulian folk music. In this cultural dimension, we find the idea that the “Sea is first of all (…) meditation, a sky redoubled and turned earthy, a wrecked wall, a freed border, a horizon that reminds us of something precisely because it escapes us».
In this Ode, the sea is shown in its frailty. It is a desolate, empty and dangerous sea. It is not the pleasant summer sea, but the sea of the whole year. It is a sea that kills those who cross it, but it cares for men and cradles them. Environmentally speaking, it is the sea we are destroying. It’s everybody’s sea, yet nobody’s sea.
The liberatory chant of La ninna (il sogno), the dance of 81 (il vento), and the prayer of La Madonna del mare are responses to emotional hints enticed by the sea. Travelling Puglia through music, heading north from Salento to Gargano, means discovering once again the relationship that binds together man and sea. In the words of Cassano,
Tracklist
I - LA NINNA (IL SOGNO)
La Ninna (il Sogno) is a song based on a preexisting melody. Anna Palmisano’s voice opens up the gate for an escape from reality. This bitter lullaby is a subdued outburst of a woman who is forced to the yoke of daily toil. The harmonic texture of the pedal steel guitar rising around her eventually enfolds her, paving the way for dreams, oneiric possibilities of forgetting the present. In the rhythmic hypnosis that recalls the gentle rocking of water, fatigue can melt away and finally leave room for rest.
II - 81 (Il vento)
81 (il Vento) is an instrumental song divided into three sections. It deals with the necessity of movement, a necessity that belongs both to the sea and mankind. The perpetual motion of the undertow caused by the wind echoes the fully human need to dance. In this harmonic space where past and present crosstalk, with an original tarantella and the echo of the Muntanara, a lyre weeps gently.
III - LA MADONNA DEL MARE
La Madonna del mare is a ballad that evokes an intimate atmosphere. The lyrics are sung in the Salentino dialect. Folk sonorities cross effortlessly with electronics, melting with the lulling mesh of the strings into an arrangement of neoclassical flavor. Out of this fusion, stems the feeling of drifting on the water, of belonging to the undertow that rocks the keel of the boat and those inside of it. All we can do is stay afloat while letting our fears sink, as we wait for the last stream to drag us towards the only possible conclusion – abandoning ourselves completely to its will.
I - LA NINNA (IL SOGNO)
La Ninna (il Sogno) is a song based on a preexisting melody. Anna Palmisano’s voice opens up the gate for an escape from reality. This bitter lullaby is a subdued outburst of a woman who is forced to the yoke of daily toil. The harmonic texture of the pedal steel guitar rising around her eventually enfolds her, paving the way for dreams, oneiric possibilities of forgetting the present. In the rhythmic hypnosis that recalls the gentle rocking of water, fatigue can melt away and finally leave room for rest.
II - 81 (Il vento)
81 (il Vento) is an instrumental song divided into three sections. It deals with the necessity of movement, a necessity that belongs both to the sea and mankind. The perpetual motion of the undertow caused by the wind echoes the fully human need to dance. In this harmonic space where past and present crosstalk, with an original tarantella and the echo of the Muntanara, a lyre weeps gently.
III - LA MADONNA DEL MARE
La Madonna del mare is a ballad that evokes an intimate atmosphere. The lyrics are sung in the Salentino dialect. Folk sonorities cross effortlessly with electronics, melting with the lulling mesh of the strings into an arrangement of neoclassical flavor. Out of this fusion, stems the feeling of drifting on the water, of belonging to the undertow that rocks the keel of the boat and those inside of it. All we can do is stay afloat while letting our fears sink, as we wait for the last stream to drag us towards the only possible conclusion – abandoning ourselves completely to its will.
CREDITS
The music is entirely produced by Walter Laureti. This Ep came into being with the contribution Massimiliano Morabito (traditional lullaby recording) and of Filippo de Laura (Pedal Steel, Fusion Tar), Davide Ambrogio (Cretan Lyre, Guitar), Francesco Neglia (Guitar), Valeria Taccone (Voice), Julian Bellisario from Nidi D’Arac (Drums) and Claudio Laureti, Maddalena Fogacci Celi and Laura Pascali (Strings).
The tracks were produced, recorded, and mixed by Walter Laureti at Catalea studio in Rome. The mastering was done by Stefano Manca at Sudestudio in Guagnano (Lecce, Italy). The artwork, pictures, and promotional videos are by Gianvincenzo and Alessandro Pugliese.