Muci, Dario
Talassa
TALASSAThe first album of unreleased songs by DARIO MUCIout on June 14thWith Talassa, the musician from the Salento area Dario Muci highlights, note by note, piece by piece, one single song of protest and hope, as a singing storyteller from his native land with all its contradictions.True stories, current affairs and past ones, about the sea and land, and the Salento and migrants, from the fight against gang-mastering (direct hiring of farm labour for very low wages by landowner's agents) to environmental protection: Talassa meanders and unfolds through eight world music tracks with lyrics in the Salento dialect (but also in Grico, Italian, and Arabic).Valuable collaborations enhance the album's richness: Raphael Gualazzi, arranger and interpreter of the true story behind "Mohammed". Nabil Salameh in the plea/prayer "Ommmuammare" in the Salento dialect and Arabic dedicated to the endless deaths that have occurred among the waves. Enza Pagliara who, with her archaic voice, elevates the pathos of several songs. Treble and Rocky G. Vox who, in "A Sant'Asili", a song inspired by the fight against gas pipelines in the Mediterranean, express their personal protest. Giuseppe Semeraro who wrote the lyrics to "Ulivi", a song about the Salento area hit hard by the Xylella outbreak (Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS). a bacteria that kills olive trees).Talassa is yet another labour of love dedicated to my native land. It is something that comes from my soul, which I can no longer hold back (Dario Muci).*****Eight original tracks and a new form of writing, outside traditional standards, for the musician from the Salento area Dario Muci who, after twenty-five years of activity and research, debuts with his first album of unreleased songs which he penned the lyrics to and wrote the music for. Talassa, born after a gestation period of over eight years, is his song of protest and hope, and is like a megaphone amplifying true stories about the sea and land, current affairs and past history, the Salento and migrants, and about work conditions, exploitation, pain, and the landscapes now reduced to a cemetery of olive trees and, always and in any case, about love. With Talassa, Dario Muci writes music and publishes an album in which, without waving any political flag, he highlights, song by song, the contradictions of today.The album is characterized by a sound quality that has a clear world music style, with lyrics in Salento dialect (but also in Grico, Italian, and Arabic) through which Dario Muci expresses themes such as the fight against gang-mastering or for environmental protection, as a singing storyteller (more so than even a singer-songwriter) reminiscent of Otello Profazio, Orazio Strano, Matteo Salvatore, and Rosa Balistreri, thanks to his background in traditional music and to factual, on-the-ground research and much exploration, for telling tales about characters but, above all, about real lives.The album is a melting pot of sensitivity and sounds, also thanks to a series of collaborations and guest featuring. Among them, the one with Raphael Gualazzi stands out the most, who arranged and performed "Mohammed" on the piano, a piece where a news story becomes music through Muci's lyrics which, as in "Sciurnatieri", recounts true stories about exploited (and, in the case of Mohammed, who died) farmhands, and with Nabil Salameh who in "Ommmuammare" translates into Arabic and interprets Muci's lyrics (inspired by the book Frontiera by Alessandro Leogrande), a plea to every God of the sea, but also as a rallying call for denouncing political inaction regarding the legislation on immigration and the many, too many, deaths that have occurred on the coasts and among the waves.The archaic voice of singer and researcher of oral traditions Enza Pagliara further embellishes Talassa. She is known in Italy and abroad as one of the best-known voices of traditional Italian folk music. lastly, there is the participation of Antonio Petrachi, aka Treble, among the founders of the Raggamuffin dancehall collective Sud Sound System, and the Reggae singer Rocco Nardelli, aka Rocky G. Vox, who sing lyrics they wrote in "Sant'Asili", a song inspired by the fight against gas pipelines in the Mediterranean.Two of the eight songs on Talassa come from poems written by dialect poet from the Salento Rocco Cataldi (Parabita, Lecce, 1927 - 2004), chosen and set to music by Muci: "A li furisi", a postcard from the golden years of the Salento countryside, transformed into a sort of political manifesto on current work conditions in the countryside, and "Moi ca nc'è lu sule", an invitation to celebrate beauty, hope, and hospitality, and to enjoy `light' when it is present, to multiply it when it is needed.The only lyrics on the album in Italian are by Giuseppe Semeraro, actor, director, and poet from the Salento, who, among other things, oversaw the translation of lyrics in dialect into Italian on Talassa. Muci set music to his "Ulivi", a song of hope that, with extreme sweetness, restores a new vision of beauty to the Salento area so hard hit by the Xylella outbreak. The album also contains lyrics in Grico, an ancient language still spoken by the elderly of Grecìa Salentina, a Hellenophone (Greek-speaking) enclave of the Salento area. Talassa was actually chosen to be the title of the entire album. It originated as a lyrics in Salento dialect written by Muci, it was then translated into Italian and subsequently into Grico by scholars of the latter. Talassa (from the Greek ???????, Thalassa) means the sea: according to the author, it is the sea that we all have inside us. it is our innerness, immensely large and, therefore, sometimes, yet to be discovered. Muci's viewpoint, born and raised in Santa Maria al Bagno, Nardò marina (Lecce province), which has always been a fishing community, is that thalassa also simply means love. This is how he signs his love song to the sea, which is also an ode to his beloved: a poem in which thalassa and love are love itself.The album Talassa unfurls itself onto a decidedly "urban" musical carpet, with classical, fusion, world, and dub influences. To do this, Muci has chosen to work with musicians coming from different musical backgrounds: Roberto Chiga (percussion), Giovanni Chirico (tenor and baritone sax), Vito de Lorenzi (percussion), Claudia De Ventura (vocals), Giorgio Distante (tuba, trumpet), Adolfo La Volpe (oud), Gianluca Longo (mandola and mandolin), Alessandro Lorusso (dub master), Matteo Resta (bass), Marco Rollo (piano), Marco Schiavone (cello), and Marco Tuma (wind instruments).Distante, Longo, Lorusso, and Rollo, together with Chiga also form the ensemble that will play Talassa along with Dario Muci in live presentations. Giorgio Distante from Talassa interprets the aria and, with his arrangements for wind instruments, also adds nuances as an expert in "concrete" electroacoustics (music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource). Gianluca Longo brings to the project his experience with ancient stringed instruments and his Mediterranean world language. Alessandro Lorusso colors the concert with his sounds and effects, lending atmosphere to the songs. Marco Rollo's live performance encompasses a variety of interpretative versatility, from pop to classical. Roberto Chiga, sound engineer, completes the work by handling sounds and sequences in "insert" mode (for adding effects).