Roma Amor

Femmina

Neo-Cabaret Folk Noir (Italy-2009)

Released in late 2009, this is the second album, of this wonderful Italian project, led by the unmistakable voice, ragged and passionate, of Euski, with the excellent musician Candela. It consists of 10 songs of their own compositions, sung in Italian, and some dialects of their land. The exception is Nigthporter, sung in English, whose lyrics and music are by David Sylvian.
This is a fantastic album, roaming the dark side of women, with lyrics that include female figures of Mediterranean folklore, la Femmina, the Woman, embodied in the form of short popular stories, like those that grandmothers used to tell us...
Musically it is an exquisite album, each song has its particular magic, with beautiful melodies, which have a masterly combination of elements of traditional Italian music, airs with Spanish castanets, a sublime accordion that brands tango and waltz time, acoustic guitar, cello, piano, marranzano, achieving that special sound that is masterfully done by Roma Amor, between the old cabaret and traditional homesickness.
The first song, La Guerriera, is fascinating and hypnotic. It casts a spell from the first chord, magical from the first note, to finish with a cappella phrase that echoes in the inmost heart. With a rhythmic melody of the accordion and castanets, it is a combination of tango and Spanish music. Euski's velvety and passionate voice tells the story of a young woman who decides to cut her hair and dresses like a soldier, to go in search of her lover who went to war. A thrilling song that reaches deep into the heart.
La Belda is more dark and laconic, with a waltz compass. This is a witch of Romagna (Roma Amor region), which helps a young woman, through a ritual, to win back her love...
La Zirinelda, with a tango and Spanish melody, is sung by Euski with irony and complicity. It is the story of a wicked woman, who uses stolen guts from the butcher to strangle children who pass by... This is another of the most beautiful songs of the album, and it's so brief that leaves us wanting more.
La Borda sounds like a  carousel and Neo-Cabaret, its nostalgic melody shows us a scene of night fair. It tells of the ghost of a woman who embodies the mist and kills children walking alone along the river, amid the darkness and fog.
And then comes one of the most attractive, ironic and sympathetic song of this album: Lo Lo Lo, an energetic Italian traditional music, about a set of phrases that naughty girls tell one another.
Settimane spagnole, with the usual setting of castanets and accordion, is one of the most melancholy songs, so intimate, that tells the story of a woman who can't stay with her beloved, who fights during the Spanish Civil War of 1939.
Azzurrina is a waltz with traditional atmosphere, which Euski sings sweetly about the ghost of a little girl of Montebello, near Rimini, who in medieval times had to live all her life inside her castle, because she was an albin girl and people thought that she was possessed by the devil. Suddently she disappeared.. People believe that every five years, during the spring solstice, she still screams for help.
Ela Vera, a beautiful song, with a darker hue, with the energetic and passionate singing of Euski, almost desperate, in her dialect.
Femmina, the most melancholic song of the album, sad, intimate and deep, expresses the portrait of a woman seen as a victim, as a still life.
And the album closes with the beautiful Nightporter, single sung in English, closer to the neoclassical style, by prevalence of the piano and cello. Inspired by the eponymous wonderful European film, which narrates the love between a night porter, a former Nazi soldier, and one of his Jewish victims. Note the laconic and sublime interpretation of Euski, which accurately reflects the climate of this sad story.
A flawless album with beautiful melodies, which invites to close your eyes and let your imagination undertake a magical voyage that offers an emotional meeting of traditional music with nostalgy and the female world, filling the soul of an intense intimate and passionate feeling. Exciting and beautiful master piece. Certainly recommended.
My favorite songs: La Guerriera, La Zirinelda, Nightporter, Lo lo lo, Ela Vera

Puntuaction: 10  

Review January 3, 2010

by McKland

Marcela Kruger

Volver a la Magia Radio-Show Host

REVIEW ROMA AMOR Album (2008)