Together with the Neapolitan Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, this long-established Italian band, has always associated the composition of the originals to the values conveyed by the revival folk of the 70s , which had opened the door to the successive and wider current world music’s movement and to the research, recover and reworking of the Sicilian folk musical tradition. The songbook of the band represents coherently this tradition’s perpetuity.

On one hand, we could affirm that the group performs Sicilian folk music because it has open itself not so much to other musical influences and cultures during its activity; on the other hand, however, the Sicilian tradition is the result of a mix of Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, Norman musical influences…so it has to be considered yet as world music.

Among all the band’s albums, L'Anima du Munnu (The Soul of the World) shows the highest expressiveness, creativity and technical ability of the Taberna. The front line is of fine quality and consists of Luciano Maio (voice, guitars, mandola, mandolin and the project core), Tanino Lazzaro (accordion and voice), Giuseppe Greco (classic guitar, bass, mandola), Massimo Laguardia (percussions), Giancarlo Parisi (bagpipe and wind instruments), Nando La Rosa (castanets and marranzano). The ten tracks are all of good make and at least two deserve the praise of the critique: Lampabbò... Lampà!!, an imaginative multi-rhythmic revision of a typical folk song sang in the Trapani tuna nets and the delicate Cu Jé, a ballad inspired by folk words about the meaning of life.

Maio and Lazzaro (authors of all the compositions and reworking) have given this song an aching melody along with the clear and simple features of a masterpiece.

Taberna Mylaensis

L'Anima du munnu

Pan Records

CD

Total Time 48:48

1998