CantöRiöndö
Felmay fy 8241
1. Nel silenzio; 2. Cincillà; 3. Serenata medrevale di Silve...; 4. Soli mi e ti; 5. Doice tesor; 6. A riçetta; 7. Stefle, cansöin e baxi; 8. La pastora; 9. Mamma dimmi perché; 10. Vagabondo; 11. Serenatella proibita; 12. Serenata di Don Giovanni; 13. Minindé; 14. Nêutte a Boccadaze; 15. Dolce nera; 16. Senti oh Nina; 17. Oh di quei diavolo; 18. No non dirmi niente.
The release of this, their second CD, marks the 30 year anniversary of the founding of Gruppo Spontaneo Trallalero. I was very pleased to have received their first, 10 years ago, and to have written a very positive review of it in these pages. Rather than simply copying the entire first part of that, which details the form of the Trallalero genre and its origins, I would suggest that you have a read through it here. I have replaced the original RealAudio sound file for the splendid La Partenza with a more up-to-date MP3 one.
As with their Vagabondo CD, I find it very difficult to write very much about this new one other than to say that it's extremely wonderful. Listening to it in its entirity is the only real option, so I urge you to go to the Felmay website (look on 'Latest Releases') and buy a copy right now. I promise you won't regret it. The title, by the way, means 'round singing' and refers to the fact that trallalero squadre always sing in a circle, if at all possible.
But that's hardly a review, is it? So let's add that the personnel have remained more-or-less unchanged over the last 10 years, and that this CD is actually an anthology covering the group's history fron 1986 to 2016, a compilation of both new and old recordings. Old tapes, previously unreleased, run from track 1 until 8 and they cover different recording times starting from 1986. Tracks 9, 10, 11, 12 come from their preceding album Vagabondo. Tracks from 13 to 15 are also previously unreleased and were recorded between 2013 and 2014, and the last 3 tracks (16,17,18) have been recorded in May 2016. Two things are well worth noticing: the group sounds almost exactly the same in the 2016 recordings as it did maybe 30 years ago when the earliest ones were made; and that Laura Parodi frequently manages to sound exactly like the male castrati to be heard on the Lomax/Carpitella recordings from the 1950s! Both of these facts are truly anazing.
So let's have a listen to a couple of songs; first an old one - track 1 is Nel silenzio - and compare it with a new one - track 18, No non dirmi niente from 2016. And here's one showing Laura in full flight - track 6, A riçetta. 18 tracks like that for €13.50 - that can't be bad in anybody's money!
I might conclude by saying that I found myself sitting at the next table to a youngish Italian couple in a Sidmouth café a few months ago and, getting into conversation with them, I discovered that they came from Genova in Liguria! So, inevitably, I told then that I envied them their trallalero tradition ... only to find that they knew nothing about it, and hadn't even heard of the genre! They'd come to a folk festival in a foreign country, yet knew nothing of their own traditions! Does this sound familiar?
Rod Stradling - 26.9.16
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