Nidi D'Arac
Ronde Noe
CNI (www.cnimusic.it)

Nidi D'Arac is the sound of a revolution in Italian music. Led by Alessandro Coppola from Cecce, a young sociologist and ethnomusicologist who is an expert in the music from Salento, Nidi D'Arac weds traditional Italian sounds to the electric sound of Italian dance clubs. Sweet woodwinds and strings wrap themselves around breakbeats and didjeridoo like long lost family, and the bass frequencies here are low and spine-shaking. Folk purists may shrug their shoulders in dismay, but Coppola never obscures the past; hence, a tarantella rests comfortably alongside the other wild dance songs here, and it sounds just as modern. Ronde Noe is an album full of Neopolitan sophistication and warmth, and Nidi D'Arac get stranger and creepier sounding as their vision unveils itself over the course of the CD. The soundscapes are dark affairs, with Italian voices and laughter often echoing far back in the mix. Coppola's gorgeous voice soothes and strokes Nidi D'Arac across the pastoral rural/pulsing urban influences that abound here, making Ronde Noe a bold statement of neotribal roots music. - Lee Blackstone