"Mirto" - Simona Barbera

• artist:
  Simona Barbera
• featured artist:
  Irene Vannucci
• country:
  Italy
• release year:
  2003
• formats:
  • CD (Compact Disc)
• record submitted by:
  alba Kultur
• label:
  Heaven & Earth
• publisher:
  Heaven & Earth

The album Mirto is a homage to Simona Barbera's imaginary Sicily!
Born in Genoa to Sicilian immigrant parents, Simona Barbera grew up surrounded by music. Her grandfather's songs were still alive in the daily life of her family in the northern Italian harbor city. On Sicily he was considered - as were many other troubadours - to be a custodian of religious powers and musical master of ceremonies of the mysteries of sacred festivals and big family celebrations.
The objective of this multimedia artist is to bring truly new, fantastic life into Sicilian traditions; to give the soul of this magical island in the southernmost part of Italy a contemporary, artistic expression. On Mirto, she shows herself to be a true shaman in her work with sounds, harmonies, rhythm and language: no element of the poetic lyrics - in the ancient Sicilian language is accidental. No breath and no compositional fragment is unintentional. Everything supports the vision of driving the singing, as if in a dialogue with birds, to a climax - like the most intimate union with nature. Every icy-metallic wail avoids with soothing tenderness the stale opinions about Sicilian character, and is a modern expression of the deepest, universal suffering and pure pleasure; is devotion and ecstasy, humility and madness.

Her compositions belong stylistically to the female lamenti, whose origins lie in the Greek tradition of the island: sweet, slowly flowing melodies, fervent prayers, wailing laments, and screams bordering on madness. With great clarity Simona Barbera's strong, expressive voice winds its way toward her goal: eternal, ecstatic pain.
....but she picked up the most important element of her voice from Sicilian traditions: "the vibrato is the characteristic feature of female singing there!". And Simona Barbera has mastered it with great temperament, expressively accompanied by the sparing key strokes of her partner, pianist Irene Vannucci.
Blue Rhythm / Spring 2003, Uli Lemke

..."Mirto" is her vision of Sicily - of a land full of mysteries and
contradictions. Simona Barbera takes her audience with her on a journey to a universe in which all kinds of emotions are allowed, as long as they are authentic.

Links

• label Simona Barbera