Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino Release 'Balla Nina,' First Video From New Album Meridiana

Italian world music powerhouse Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (CGS) release "Bella Nina" the first video from their newest album, Meridiana, Wednesday, June 30th.

Watch "Balla Nina" on CGS' Youtube channel below.

Directed by Gabriele Surdo and supported by Puglia Sounds, "Balla Nina" (Dance Nina!) was shot in Porto Selvaggio nature reserve in Puglia, Italy. This dramatic, cinematic video depicts the intergenerational transmission of the wild, irresistibly danceable pizzica through the eyes of a young woman entranced by an ecstatic rhythm that stretches back to antiquity.

"Past, present and future exist at the same time, connected by an indissoluble thread," says CGS' Mauro Durante. "Those who aren't here anymore meet those who aren't here yet. The pain of absence results in the vital explosion of presence. Dance Nina, live!" Created in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Meridiana was co-produced by guitarist and producer Justin Adams (long time collaborator with Robert Plant, and producer of such iconic world music acts as Tinariwen and Rachid Taha).

The album's special guests include Neapolitan avant grade composer Enzo Avitabile on "Tic e Tac", Brooklyn bhangra brass band Red Barat on "Pizzica Bhangra", and electronic producer Giacomo Greco. Meridiana is available on Ponderosa Records now. The album is supported by Puglia Sounds, and will be available on CD, Vinyl and most streaming and download services. About Meridiana Meridiana mixes the different souls of the band into a sound that is unique, contemporary, and unmistakably CGS.

The album title translates to "sundial", and its significance is apt in this global climate. "This last year especially, made us all wonder much about time," Mauro explains, "it's weight and relevance in our lives. The sundial was one of the first instruments to measure time, using light and shadow-those are strong symbols, full of meanings" Mauro explains. "Thinking about time means thinking about our lives and the people who make them worthwhile. And if, as physics scientist Feynman stated, "Time is what happens when nothing else happens", this last year gave us the chance to feel time a lot." The band's usual, hands-on, collaborative, creative process had to shift for Meridiana due to the COVID pandemic, which hit Italy hard and early. In Mauro's words: "A band is a living thing, just like its music. And we never stop experimenting and exploring our distinctiveness. But the pandemic has been really hard. It wasn't easy to meet, to make music together, to be a band in the usual way... But somehow we managed. Working with our guests was a new experience; we could only work remotely, but still we created something we're proud of. This album is proof that the desire to share, to dance together, is irresistible. Music really has no borders."

CGS is seven-piece band (including leader Mauro Durante, bandmates Giulio Bianco, Alessia Tondo, Emanuele Licci, Silvia Perrone, Giancarlo Paglialunga, Massimiliano Morabito, and sound engineer Francesco Aiello), that was founded in 1975 to revive and celebrate the traditional music and dance of the Salento, a territory of the Puglia region of southern Italy, that some call "the heel of the boot". In 2007, CGS co-founder Daniele Durante passed the leadership to his son Mauro, a conservatory-trained violinist, percussionist, and devoted student of Salentine traditional music.

CGS is especially committed to the preservation and exploration of Pizzica, an ancient tradition of music and dance the belongs to the family of the Southern Italian Tarantella. The music is traditionally played at social gatherings, religious feasts, and private parties, but was also incorporated in the ritual of tarantism, using the healing power of music and dance to cure the bite and poison of the legendary tarantula spider. Today, the Pizzica/Taranta and its legacy have become symbols of pride and redemption across Italy, and a successful example of reinventing a local tradition and taking it global.

While Pizzica is the origin of Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino's sound and vision, it's their ability to layer in other folk styles that makes CGS shine. From ballads, work songs, and field notes to lullabies and even pop songs, CGS has a knack for bringing all their references together in a cohesive narrative that is hybrid and fluid at the same time. It can be seen in their instrumentation, combining synth, electric bass, and loops with instruments from folk traditions - including the tamburella, organetto, bouzouki, and zampogna (Italian bagpipes). This amalgamation of influences not only reflects their lived experiences, but also their world view.

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