Ludovico Einaudi
Taranta Project
Italian maestro of classical-lite turns up the volume with a Taranta dance blowout.
You may have Einaudi filed in your mental jukebox as concocter of gran-soothing Classic FM melodies. But this suite of swirling folk/world rhythms has caused fields full of Italians to dance themselves stupid. Einaudi takes his love of a hypnotic chord sequence and melds it to the high-velocity folk tunes of the Salento region of southern Italy, all flying fiddles, keening voices and giant tambourines. Tradition had it that the spinning Taranta dance cured the bite of the tarantula spider. More fuel is added to the fire by the bluesy guitar of Justin Adams, from Robert Plant’s band, and the kora of Ballake Sissoko. African rappers, Asian drummers, bagpipes and massed cellos all pile in as Einaudi joins the dots between diverse folk traditions. The results are operatic, over the top and often rather wonderful.
John Bungey