P atrizia Laquidara

Photo by Luigi De Frenza
Il Canto dell’Anguana
Patrizia Laquidara
Cultural history regarding the musical project
“Il Canto dell’Anguana”
This project of poetry, music and vocals came to life out of Patrizia Laquidara’s desire to sing and give with her voice a body to the mysteries of dell’Anaguana which is an all but forgotten female of the Venetian folklore tradition
which is present in other cultures. From Nordic, Mediterranean, to French
and South American.
The legend regarding anguane appears in caves, waterways, wells and springs (which acquire magic powers thanks to their presence) on the night of the
full moon while hanging up their laundry to dry they attract to attention of
passing travelers with their beauty and their song and inevitably cause them
to fall deliriously in love with them.
All of the lyrics were written in Vicentine dialect by the poet Enio Sartori. The
music is by Patrizia Laquidara and Alfonso Santimone (one of the most
active protagonists on the scene of improvisational music in Italy).
Slang Music
Via S.Francesco, 3 - 25075 Nave (BS) - Italy
Ph. +39 030 25 31 536 - Fax +39 030 25 36 348 - Mob. +39 335 67 15 992
www.slangmusic.com - info@slangmusic.com
Il Canto dell’Anguana
Patrizia Laquidara
It is a work rich with sonority, depth of intentions, research and a literary wealth where the use of multi cultural traditional instruments; mandolin, accordion,
oboe, marranzano, tamorra, flutes, bombarda, ghironde, guitar, percussion,
trombone and drums are skillfully mixed with sampling and is forged with the
splendid voice of Patrizia Laquidara who becomes, according to the song,
sweet or authoritative, prayer and enchanting, a lament or a dance.
Her voice has been defined
one of the best exponents of popular music in Italy.
The CD “Il Canto dell’Anguana” alternates sounds between Tarantella,
Balkan Fanfare and Venetian work songs with the clear intention to combine
different musical cultures and to fuse them.
As Patrizia affirms: “Because popular cultures are bastard, mestizo, migrant,
impure and myth hunters, they travel, they mix and embrace each other and
give birth to new cultures. At times with violence. Language and Music in reality contain traces of the interchanging of the masses. ‘We’ and ‘they’ doesn’t
exist. Only ‘we’ exist.”
Line-up
Patrizia Laquidara - Vocals
Giancarlo Bianchetti - Acoustic Guitar
Maria Vicentini - Violin
Thomas Sinigallia - Accordion
Davide Grattoni - Bass
Nelide Bandello - Drums
Slang Music
Via S.Francesco, 3 - 25075 Nave (BS) - Italy
Ph. +39 030 25 31 536 - Fax +39 030 25 36 348 - Mob. +39 335 67 15 992
www.slangmusic.com - info@slangmusic.com
Biography and Track List Notes “ Il Canto dell’Anguana”
The voice of Laquidara on this occasion becomes a modern Eurydice in songs like “L’aqua Fiora”
(a re-write of the French Mythological tale “Melusina”) in which sweetness and torment are forged
with the lines of accordion (Mirco Maistro) and the oboe to explode in the last few seconds of
the song with metallic sounds of cymbals which in turn meld with the throat singing of Laquidara,
becoming an almost a desperate animal lament dispersing into the dark.
Authoritative voice in the singing and disturbing starred in “Ah jente de la me tera” “Ah, jente de
la me tera” in which she transforms her singing into a screaming recital - speaking of the North
East which risks losing it’s vital lymph closing in on itself.
“La Fumana” which opens with the chorus of the “Canterine del Feo” and a ballad in five quarters
that it tastes Lusitano in the voice of Patrick and design of the guitar played by Andrew Neresini.
It is a song that speaks of the fog (la fumana in dialect) which rises from the hills and and flat lands
in the Vicentino region of Italy. The discreet presence of electronics played by Alfonso Santimone adds to the sensation of fog like the rhythmically irregular interweaving of the electronically
enhanced voice.
Here Enio Sartori recounts that during the days of the “fumana” things transform from fantasy and
imagination, transfigure and acquire an ambiguity between dream and night mare.
The voice of Laquidara, becomes languid siren in the verse of the “Reina Ombria” then pulls
up to the vortex of inflamed passion in the chorus, song inspired by the Spanish in the verse but
reaches to the other side of the Mediterranean to the Balkans.
Nymph in the beneficial powers in “Nota d’anguana”, the artist, between water games, puts the
apparition of the anguana into the scene where during the final opening is dominated by bombarda solo by Paolo Bressan and the chorus of Caterina del Feo celebrating the apparition.
The lullaby “Dormi putin” is a song of a Mother who tries to get her son to sleep. It builds to the
coda refined by accordion, oboe and melodica which frame the sung words as they become a
nursery rhymes and them a magic spell in the enchanting vocal stylings of Laquidara.
“Tiketetanda” is an untrammeled play on words, a drunken dance in the style of UR-MALO (of
Luigi Meneghello a writer who is also from the same town of Malo where the writer Enio, Laquidara and most of the musicians on “Hotel Rif are from) where Laquidara’s voice dresses festive and
with liquid enthusiasm, mixing with the voice of Puccio Castrogiovanni and Caternina del Feo.
This renders the atmosphere of the town Fair.
“Livergon” is a ballad which recalls nursery rhymes where the canto is metaphysical and suspended and the softly burning guitar braids with the subtle haunting electronica sampling.
Slang Music
Via S.Francesco, 3 - 25075 Nave (BS) - Italy
Ph. +39 030 25 31 536 - Fax +39 030 25 36 348 - Mob. +39 335 67 15 992
www.slangmusic.com - info@slangmusic.com
Photo by Luigi De Frenza
Il Canto dell’Anguana
Patrizia Laquidara
Notwithstanding the extreme sweetness of the singing, the tune tells all the
modern Ulysses that because of the conditions their dramatic lives, abandon
their land to marry the waters of the sea - putting own lives at risk so the water, like l’anguana are a symbol of life but also of death.
The devilish Taranta of “L’anema se desfa” is rhythmically carried by the
drums of Nelide Bandello and the percussion of Andrea Ruggeri permitting
Laquidara to bring to light the power and authority of her voice in an almost
Messianic rite which recounts the dissolution of the anguana. Souther Italy is
represented by the sound of the Marranzano played by Castrogiovanni and
the Tamorra played by Alfio Antico.
Rhythmically “La Tita Tata” unites South American suggestions with Middle
Eastern colors brought out by accordion and horns. It is a legend from Altovicentino which tells of the death of dell’anguana called Tita Tata.
In this song a Knight on a white horse appears and sweeps Tita Tata away
to the world of “inferi”. The death of dell’anguana is here an allegory that is a
risk for everyone today runs within our society.
When the distance is lost of an object of desire in the name of immediate
satisfaction - there lies the risk of losing not only the desire, eros, but also the
poetry, the song of imagination of the self same creator.
All of these original songs, except this last track “Il
canto dei battipali” true
and proper manifestation of
the workers of the Laguna
of Venice..., it opens with an
all male choir, made up of all
the musicians who played
on the “Hotel Rif” session
without overdubbing.
When track 4 opens we
hear Caterina del Feo, with
a choir of 5 women using
antique vocalizations then
mix the sound of voices
from Bulgar and folk from
Venetian extraction - here is
where the magic of this cd
is which will talked about for
a very long time.
Slang Music
Via S.Francesco, 3 - 25075 Nave (BS) - Italy
Ph. +39 030 25 31 536 - Fax +39 030 25 36 348 - Mob. +39 335 67 15 992
www.slangmusic.com - info@slangmusic.com
Press
“A marvelous CD” Music.it
“Venetian folk revisited: tasty ballads dressed Balkan winds and hard lands which combat the
cold. At moments one feels the descendants of Goran Bregovich and Caterina del feo is there too
- a vocal formation spanning seven generations is in this music animated like Bulgarian voices in
Ederlezi” Internazionale
“The new Patrizia Laquidara CD, ‘Il Canto dell’Aguana’ is simply of embarrassing beauty”
Fullson
“With this CD Laquidara confirms to be one of the most interesting and constantly growing vocal
realities in Italy” JAM
“An irresistible album. I vote 8 and a half”. L’inchiesta
“With this album Patrizia confirms that she’s a rare race of artist. ‘The Canto dell’anguana’ goes
straight to the heart of the listener, surpasses language barriers, a pleasure for the north and the
south” Attik Music
“Decidedly a visionary album which frees the senses leaving room for the mind to go to far off
magic lands” Lo Specchio
“This is a true and proper work in which the rounded musicality of the dialect lets us explore Africa,
the Balkans, the South (whether Italian or not) and the North along with the director from Venice
to Naples and from the Mediterranean to Andalusia. A penetrating force at maximum level”
Davide Ielmini - writer
“Shall we waste a few adjectives? Formidable! A Potent CD, of water and land” Le Bielle
“An artist of great personality and versatility, Patrizia Laquidara has already demonstrated from
the beginning of her career a deep interest and love for popular music as well as Italian music, for
Brazilian, Portuguese, Cape Verde and Mediterranean’s music up to the center of Europe and its
regions, the Balkans”. Quotidiano D’Abruzzo
“A very beautiful disc, refined and visceral at the same time. One of her strong points is the ability
to alternate different moments: from a tarantella, which creates confusion, to the country dance,
until soft, slow, night time stories. Her voice is of arcane beauty” Accordo.it
Slang Music
Via S.Francesco, 3 - 25075 Nave (BS) - Italy
Ph. +39 030 25 31 536 - Fax +39 030 25 36 348 - Mob. +39 335 67 15 992
www.slangmusic.com - info@slangmusic.com