The Book of Lost Songs
Tania Giannouli: piano / composition
Maria Pia De Vito: vocals
Michele Rabbia: percussion / electronics
Guido De Flaviis: soprano / baritone saxophone
The première, The Book Of Lost Songs, a brand-new constellation with renowned vocalist Maria Pia De Vito at the centre, took off at Ludwigshafen venue Das Haus, a venue hosting a multiplicity of the festival's concerts. This Greco-Roman force with Giannouli and De Vito, Manolis Manousakis (electronics), Guido De Flaviis (soprano/bari-sax) and Michele Rabbia (percussion/electronics), went along a heaving passage of hanging tintinnabuli, dark zones of drone, roaring dragon sceneries, and solemn contemplation---a very unique Giannoulian universe of Klangfügung (interlocking of sound elements) and Klangerfüllung (sound fulfillment), a movable epic sound theatre. While Giannouli set the framing and guarded it with care, her fellow musicians went full out, igniting fireworks of burning sound modulations, heavy outbursts, mighty flow and mysterious flickering. Rabbia aroused massive sound forces, as well as subtle rustling, de Flaviis let his baritone sax speak in remarkable tongues, and Manousaki scattered sand into the gearbox by injecting all kinds of subcutaneous grinding noise.
Listeners might have thought of a southern version of Fire Orchestra or hear Southern Italian Tammurriata sounding through. At other moments you could get the impression that Arvo Pärt and Jon Hassell had sneaked in, that the mood elegance of Bernardo Sassetti shone through and in other parts Diamanda Galás and Sidsel Endresen came to mind. De Vito unleashed all registers of the human voice in driving articulation and fabulously expressive ways. The whole turned out as a vibrant ensemble of high potential for future thriving performances.
All About Jazz, December 2020
