{:en}PRESS RELEASE (06/23/2017)
The jury of the City of Loano National Award for Italian Traditional Music awarded the Best Album Award 2016 to the disc “Singing Venice. Boat Songs.” (Note Records) of Rachele Colombo.
The award to the best 2016 music production was decreed by a prestigious jury consisting of more than sixty music journalists.
“Combining archival research, historical contextualization and a model for current re-presentation is what Rachele Colombo has done. From the precious and almost unknown patrimony of the Eighteenth-century Venetian Boat Songs, based on the studies and collaboration of Paola Barzan and Guglielmo Pinna, Rachele Colombo “extracts” 40 exemplary songs that she reinterprets in 2 CDs, proposing them with updated scores. A sort of modern songbook for an ancient repertoire that in some ways has been forgotten but which it is essential to enhance.”.
“Cantar Venezia”, in short, represents an important milestone, not only for Rachele Colombo's career. In her journey, centuries-old threads are knotted, a way of writing and singing in the boat is allowed to be handed down that should by no means be lost. Definitely, a project in tune with the intent of the Prize.
Also awarded by the management and organization of the City of Loano Award were the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Cultural Reality Award 2017.
The 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award will be delivered to the Mancuso Brothers on the following grounds:
“The Sicilian tradition, understood as an open treasure chest mixed with the Mancuso Brothers' personal, biographical travels and experiences, has made them a unique musical and cultural element in safeguarding and making popular music ever more alive in Italy.
In their long history, in the midst of awards and important collaborations, participation in concerts, soundtracks, and highly relevant outreach and teaching projects, the sense of belonging always stands out, not only insular, but above all human, to a history that makes travel an essential element and roots the necessary component for moving forward.”.
The Cultural Reality Award 2017 will be awarded to Blogfoolk on the following grounds:
“A project that combines a deep curiosity with an equally deep knowledge of popular music and beyond. Blogfoolk's horizons have transcended the simple format of the blog to embody a true, meticulous, passionate, cultural newspaper. In the hands of its founder, Salvatore Esposito, and editor Ciro De Rosa, this project has traversed ever wider areas, restoring even in Italy to the word folk its necessary third dimension”.
The Premio City of Loano, born 13 years ago, with the artistic direction of John Vignola, promotes and enhances the contemporary production of traditional music with Italian roots through the involvement of artists, record labels, journalists and cultural workers.
The City of Loano Award is organized by the’Society of the Curious Association in collaboration with the’Department of Tourism and Culture of the City of Loano and with contributions from the A. Foundation De Mari. The awards will be presented at the festival, which will take place in the Ligurian resort from July 26 to 28, 2017.
The ranking of the 2016 Best Album Award
1st place
Singing Venice. Boat Songs. (Note Records) Rachele Colombo
2nd place
Voltarelli sings Profazio (Imbalances) Peppe Voltarelli
3rd place
Com un soldat (Microscopes/Tronos) Claudia Crabuzza
4th place
Infinite Lot (Sony Music) Enzo Avitabile
Halls (The Fairies Publisher) Carlo Muratori
6th place
Ancient (Origin Records/Believe Digital) Alfio Antico
7th place
In the midst of a long history (Imbalances) La Macina
Songs of the Cupa (La Cupa/Warner Music) Vinicio Capossela
9th place
In ‘sta via (Atelier Calicanto/Felmay) Roberto Tombesi
10th place
Clay Ballads (self-production) Giuseppe D'Avenia D'Andrea
Flower of nothing (Goodfellas) The Singing Wall
Endemic Music (Marduk/Self) Lou Dalfin
50 years of good company (FoxBand/Edel) New Folk Singing Company
Fiumerapido (Finisterre) Bagpipes
The Award Jury
Maurizio Agamennone, Giovanni Alcaini, Ricky Barone, Marco Boccitto, Loris Bohm, Michele Bovi, Raffaello Carabini, Pietro Carfì, Giordano Casiraghi, Gianni Ciaccio, Aldo Coppola Neri, Valerio Corzani, Giandomenico Curi, Enrico de Angelis, Paolo De Bernardin, Flaviano De Luca, Ciro De Rosa, Paolo Del Ry, Enrico Deregibus, Salvatore Esposito, Gerardo Ferrara, Massimo Ferro, Guido Festinese, Mario Giovannini, Jonathan Giustini, Ezio Guaitamacchi, Federico Guglielmi, Marco La Viola, Felice Liperi, Marco Lutzu, Ignazio Macchiarella, Giorgio Maimone, Maurizio Marino, Tiziano Menduto, Giorgio Meneghetti, Gaetano Menna, Marco Miconi, Beppe Montresor, Anna Nacci, Alessandro Nobis, Giancarlo Nostrini, Rosario Pantaleo, Riccardo Piaggio, Massimo Pirotta, Massimo Poggini, Alessandro Portelli, Ezio Riberi, Alessandro Rosa, Roberto Sacchi, Vincenzo Santoro, Annalisa Scarsellini, Federico Scoppio, Stefano Starace, Jacopo Tomatis, Federico Vacalebre, Gianluca Veltri, John Vignola, Antonio Vivaldi, Enrico Zagnagnoli, Paolo Zara, Giorgio Zito.
Rachele Colombo
Born in Vicenza, Padua by adoption, Rachele Colombo after embracing different musical currents (Italian rock, electronic, ethno-rock) and being involved in art-therapy and disability, since the early 1990s, fascinated by African and Middle Eastern culture, she studied percussion with Joshua Bamibe, M. Metzler, A. Demirbag, Burhan Ocal and Marco Catinaccio. Over the years she takes courses on vocality with Jonathan Hart Makwaia (Roy Hart Theatre), Romert method and Nada Yoga.
A performer of folk songs, for years she has dedicated herself to the study of the musical and vocal traditions of the Veneto and Istro-Veneto area, collaborating in particular with ethnomusicologist Paola Barzan, a professor at the University of Padua. Established as a member of the folk revival group Calicanto (’94/’99), she performs concerts, participates in record productions, radio-TV (Roxi Bar, Caterpillar, Help, Rai stereo 2, Rai 3 Sconfini), cinema (“The Girl on the Bridge” by Leconte, “Les enfants du siecle” with Luis Bacalov and Juliette Binoche).
Founder in 2000, with Corrado Corradi, of the Archedora project, she publishes, for the Compagnia Nuove Indye label, the CDs “Archedora” and “Descalso” dedicated to dialect and the innovation of Venetian music. From 2002 to 2008 with Ketti Grunchi of the Teatro Stabile di Innovazione La Piccionaia he plays on stage, composes music for children (Rai Sat and Stregagatto ’05 award) and the opera “Aqua Granda” dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the flood in Venice. Since 2004 he has collaborated regularly with Gualtiero Bertelli and La Compagnia Delle Acque in civil theater shows with journalists and writers (Gian Antonio Stella, Moni Ovadia, Fabrizio Gatti, Tommaso Cerno, Edoardo Pittalis).
Participates, as percussionist, in the CD and tour “Cristiani di Allah” by Massimo Carlotto with Maurizio Camardi, Mauro Palmas, and Patrizia Laquidara. He writes music and soundtracks for Francesco Lopercolo's Multivisione and for contemporary dance by Laura Scudella, Yuri Roverato, and Sandra Zabeo. Musical projects with gender themes with Giuseppina Casarin and the Trio Tera e Aqua. He has collaborated with Giovanna Berti and her Barueco Quartet, with Il Fondaco dei Suoni interpreting Jewish music, with Antiqua Celtica ensemble of Irish music and with sculptor Alessandra Urso.
Of 2009 is the participation as percussionist in Mauro Palmas“ CD and tour ”I Colori del Maestrale“ as well as in the CD ”Energie Positive,“ a project by Maurizio Camardi and Massimo Carlotto with the Paul Klee Quartet, for which he composes the song ”L'Airone.“ From 2010 are the show and CD ”Bambole Offline“ dedicated to the female universe and respect for women's bodies. The following year Colombo curated the artistic direction and musical reworking with Sandra Cattaneo of ”Care Ragazze. Memory and actuality of the Feminist Songbook of the Committee for Wages at Domestic Work in Padua," a workshop/performance/DVD promoted by the SPI-CGIL in collaboration with historians of the movement.
Of 2013 is the soundtrack of the show “Lost in Veneto - The inner torment of a bewildered Veneto” by Massimo Carlotto and Loris Contarini, the debut of “Inferno” show by Tommaso Cerno with music by Bertelli/Colombo/Favorido as well as the audio production of “Mitincanto - Myths of the Venetian tradition in the national and European context.” 2014 saw the birth of the Duo Rachele Colombo-Miranda Cortes and the show “Un inevitabile incontro”; participation in the CD of Istrian musician Dario Marusic “Istrad Marusic - Music for Minorities and Losers”; artistic collaboration and recording of the new CD of Tiratirache; invitation to represent Veneto at the Music Festival of Italian Regions, organized at the National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions in Rome.
From 2016 are the debut of the new show “The Table and the Power” by and with G. A. Stella, G. Bertelli and the Compagnia Delle Acque and the soundtrack of the show “Burano Point. Women on the Thread of Lace” as well as the music for the documentary “Investigation of Lace. History evolution and disappearance” presented at the 73rd Venice Film Festival. She is a guest on Maurizio Camardi's new CD “Cacciatore di Sogni.” Also in 2016 is the release of the new CD “‘Ndar” with accordionist Miranda Cortes and the double CD “Cantar Venezia. Canzoni da battello - dai manoscritti originali una nuova riproposta,” with texts by Paola Barzan, Guglielmo Pinna and the support of Ass. Culturale Arte-Mide.
The Mancuso Brothers
Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso Were born in Sutera. Around the 1970s they emigrated to London and worked there for eight years in a factory. Back in Italy in 1981 they settled in Città della Pieve. In 1986, in collaboration with J. Diaz in Spain, they recorded the album ’Nesci Maria“ and in 1990 ”Romances de alla y de aca.“ In 1993 they collected together with their own compositions, the songs of their village, editing the CD ”Sutera, the musical tradition of a village in Sicily.“ In 1994 they published ”Ali di carta,“ a collection of lyrics of their compositions. In 1993 they won the Recanati Prize and record the CD “Bella Maria.” In 1998 they participate as actors and compose two songs for the soundtrack of the film “The Talented Mister Ripley” by British director Anthony Minghella. They record “Italian Odyssey” for Putumayo World Music Records, in worldwide distribution in 2000. In 1999 they sing at the Tenco Prize. In 2001 they composed the closing title of the fiction “Women of the Mafia” by director G. Ferrara. In 2002 they star in the live concert on Rai Radio 3 from the Cappella Paolina of the Quirinale. In 2003 the CD “Cantu” was released and in parallel they composed the music for the show “Medea” directed by Emma Dante, produced by the Teatro Mercadante in Naples. In 2004 they recorded, in Spain, the CD “Trazzeri.” In December of the same year, live from the Pauline Chapel on Radio 3 they performed the concert of Sicilian novenas. The following year at the Teatro Antico in Taormina they perform. “Natale nel verso e nel canto” accompanied by the Messina Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maestro Carlo Pedini, Mauro Pagani, Roberto Fabbriciani and Arnaldo Vacca. On May 31, 2006, they returned after a few years to perform at the Konzerthaus in Vienna. In September of the same year they sing at the Teatro Bellini in Catania in the opera “Sette storie per lasciare il mondo,” directed by Roberto Andò and music by Marco Betta. In June 2008 they recorded the CD “Requiem” with the Amiata label, and in the same year the volume “L'isola timida” with photographs by Antonino Pennisi, with their lyrics and music attached on a DVD, was released by the Squilibri publishing house in Rome.
In November 2009 they recorded Luciano Berio's “Naturale” for Radio France together with violist Christophe Desjardins. In December of the same year they are Radio Three Suite hosts a live concert of theirs entitled “The Naked Voice.” From May to July 2010, for the Ravenna Festival and Teatro delle Albe, they composed and performed the incidental music for two plays, “Cercatori di tracce” and “Rumore di acque” directed by Marco Martinelli. In 2012 they performed the concert live on Rai Radio 3 from the Quirinale and received the The Stranger Award. The year 2013 is full of important events for the Mancuso Brothers. They open the Ravenna Festival with the concert “La via dolorosa” and compose and perform the music for two black-and-white short films from 1909 for the Cineteca Comunale di Bologna. They compose the soundtrack for the film “Via Castellana Bandiera,” directed by Emma Dante and produced by Rai Cinema and Vivo Film, in competition at the 70° Exhibition of the Venice Cinema, as part of which they receive the award SoundTrack Stars. And still in Palermo is presented “Chifteli,” a film directed by Dario Guarneri that tells the story of their personal and artistic life. Also in 2013 they received the 2013 Anct (National Association of Theatre Critics) Critics Award in Lecce .
In early 2014 they perform on a month-long tour at La MaMa Theater in New York City, give a concert lecture at Montclair University, Bard College in Annandale On Hudson, and the Links in Chicago. In May 2014, they were nominated for the Globo d'Oro and Nastro d'Argento film awards for the soundtrack of the film “Via Castellana Bandiera” and were awarded at the Turun Theatre Festival (Poland) for the stage music for the play “Verso Medea” directed by Emma Dante. In the same year they participate in the opera “L'ultima notte di Scolacium” directed by Cristina Mazzavillani-Muti, music by Nicola Piovani. And they are guests in Melpignano (Lecce) of the Taranta Night in an evening broadcast live on Rai 5 and Rai Radio 2.
In 2015 they composed the soundtrack for the film “Triokala” directed by Leandro Picarella for the Centro sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and composed and recorded music for La Compañìa Nacional de Teatro Clàsico in Madrid for the opera “El Alcalde de Zalamea” directed by Helena Pimenta.
In 2016, they participate with Gaetano Colella and the Crest Theater of Taranto in the opera “With Sunset on a Shoulder.” And they stage “My name may be, Ali. - Cantata inspired by a prophecy of Paolo Pasolini”, text by Sandro Cappelletto, music Matteo D'Amico and Fratelli Mancuso at Teatro Cucinelli in Solomeo. They also go on stage with “Verso Medea” at the Teatro des Buoffes du Nord in Paris and compose the music for the opera “Almanacco Siciliano” by Roberto Alaymo, directed by Vincenzo Pirotta, a production of the Teatro Biondo in Palermo.
The year 2017 opens with the composition and performance of the stage music for the opera “Assassina” by Franco Scaldati directed by Vetrano and Randisi. In June 2017 they were awarded by the University of Messina the Doctorate Honoris Causa in Cognitive Science.
Blogfoolk
Since its inception in April 2010, in just a few years, blogfoolk.com has turned into an established music information outlet. Created by Salvatore Esposito, an essayist and journalist, blogfoolk.com immediately received positive feedback from insiders and fans. In the magnum sea of the web, under the guidance of its creator, blogfoolk.com begins to benefit from prestigious collaborations. A little more than a year after its birth, the turning point comes with Ciro De Rosa, already a veteran of other publishing initiatives, who marries Esposito's project.
So, an editorial initiative that was born in the South, in Campania, on the Naples-Caserta axis, becoming, in a short time, a registered national newspaper, acquiring the structure of an always open information laboratory, which has subverted the editorial concept of a thematic site and especially that of a specialized newspaper, assuming the role of a flexible, immediate and fast information and cultural dissemination tool, but also a real cultural platform for in-depth analysis and meeting for insiders as well as fans. The number of contributors has grown and a stable editorial staff has been created.
Encapsulated in the magazine's polysemic name is the editorial project. Foolk, with the doubled vowel “o,” inevitably refers back to folk, configuring itself as the expression of a shouter or salesman in a multi-ethnic market. What is more, in its essence it also contains the word fool, which in English means mad, insane, but there is an obvious reference to the Shakespearean fool, especially in its cheerfulness and lucidity. The addition of the “k” embodies a concept of a non-prescriptive, non-essentialist folk, open to experimentation.
Since its first steps, Blogfoolk has favored confrontation with the world of research and academia, precisely in order to provide readers with the most complete and exhaustive panorama of what is popular music (which is also popular) in Italy, without neglecting a look toward the composite scenarios of so-called world music.
Blogfoolk deals as much with the most important productions of the world and traditional scene as it does with self-produced records; songwriting, those closest to the popular world, the jazz universe and borderline musics also find space in the pages of the site, just as the unavoidable live dimension and the editorial and essayistic dimension are not neglected, always looking with great interest at the world of research and academia. A scientific committee has also been formed that includes prestigious scholars in cultural anthropology and ethnomusicology.
There are many columns in the magazine; in addition to interviews, record reviews and live music, “Cantieri Sonori” opens the window on musical instrument makers, where “Memoria” brings personalities and witnesses of the oral tradition to the center of attention, as well as field research and monographic essays. In “Readings,” Italian and international, scientific and popular publications on the world of traditional and popular musics are analyzed. The intent is to offer readers the right stimuli to pique their cultural curiosity.
Blogfoolk offers an in-depth space in which “other” music information, the kind that cannot be found in newsstand magazines (or can be found very little) or on the many specialized online sites, can converge.
Over the years Blogfoolk has also begun to move as an all-round cultural agitator, organizing presentations, concerts, conferences, panel discussions, and show cases. In collaboration with publisher Squi[books], it edited the e-book Viaggio in Italia, dedicated to themes of popular culture and traditional music in Italy. A volume that collects contributions from different generations of musicians, researchers and scholars.
There are numerous international media-partnerships (Fira Mediterrània de Manresa in Catalonia, Babel Med Music in Marseille, with the Sommelo Festival in Finland and Russia, Druga Godab in Slovenia). In Italy, numerous partnerships have been activated with major world and folk festivals.{:}
