Davide Ambrogio Mater Nullius the second work comes out on November 14, out Friday October 17th the single Orbi.
The Calabrian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in Cataphorìo (Aspromonte) encounters the oral tradition that profoundly marks his research. With the solo debut Evocations and Invocations (2021) enters the international sector rankings (Transglobal Music Chart, World Music Chart Europe) and wins recognition Top of the World Of Songlines. Winner, among others, of Music against the Mafia and of Loano Giovani Award (with Mother tongue), Ambrose weaves ritual instruments, voice and electronics in a contemporary but rooted language, bringing traditional Italian music into the circuits of European world music. In the new works i texts were born in collaboration with Anna Ida Cortese And Vincenzo Gaglianiwhile the sound and timbral construction bear the essential imprint of Walter Laureti (synthesizers, electronics, sound design and artistic production). Now he's back with his second album, Mater Nulliusproduced by the French label Viavox.
World music today: when the roots speak to the world
In the – often confusing – debate about what we call world music, Davide Ambrogio it is a virtuous case: not “exoticism” for export, but roots that become a lingua franca. The production is French (label Viavox), the heart is very Italian: an author and multi-instrumentalist who grew up between Aspromonte and oral tradition, capable of making ritual drums and processional songs resonate within a contemporary, visionary writing, which deserves attention well beyond the confines of the “sector” scene.
“Orbi” comes out on October 17th
Thursday 17 October comes out Orbisecond excerpt later Boscu from the new album Mater Nulliuscoming soon on November 14th digitally, CD and vinyl. Orbi brings to the foreground the figure of the blind storytellers of Palermo: it is a threshold piece, a sensorial crossing in which perception becomes a story. The voice of Ambrose guide into a “sound cave” where light deceives and darkness reveals: ritual drums, rarefied electronics, archaic dialect poetry. It is the poetics of the miniature record: getting lost to rediscover the meaning, letting the echo become memory.
The album: an internal Via Crucis
Mater Nullius – literally “mother of no one” – highlights the fracture of contemporary man from Nature and the need for a spiritual rebirth. In 14 stages like a secular Via Crucis, Ambrose interweaves rational and archetypal, present and ancestral, living language and dialect. The route starts from the percussive march of Word onecrosses the symbolic forest of Boscuthe obsessive dance of Deafthe nocturnal contemplation of Arsaup to the katabasis of Dance of devils and to the choral singing of Stabat. Vallje invoke the New Moon, Trouble! rises up against the inconsistency of power, Orbi – precisely – rekindles the myth of the blind storyteller; Vasha recomposes opposites, Miserere ends with the children's cry of Cataphorìo: the sound becomes silence.
MATER NULLIUS – TRACKLIST
I. Word one
II. Boscu
III. Deaf
IV. Arsa
V. Parties
YOU. Dance of devils
VII. Stabat
VIII. Spadi
IX. Vallje
X. Trouble!
XI. Orbi
XII. Vaiu of Nights
XIII. Vasha
XIV. Miserere
The sound: Passion instruments, electronics and resonant landscapes
The timbric heart comes from a rereading of the “tools of Passion” of Holy Week in Southern Italy: drum, troccole, chains. It's not quotationism, but code: pulsations that become patterns, oscillations that become drones, sharp blows that split environments. The voices – soloist and choral – work like plastic material, between call and response, drone and polyphony. THE'electronics (synthesizers, sound design) does not cover, but sculpts: micro-reverberations, granular breathing, bass that emerges and disappears.
The relationship with i is decisive places registration: “The Woods” of the family Courteous and the Gurfa caves to Alia (PA) they become instruments in all respects. The long queue times, the natural returns, the gaps: everything contributes to an immersive, “processional” listening experience, in which the air is part of the orchestration. The result is a clear balance between acoustic and electronicbetween ritual gesture and song form, between intimacy and collective trance.
Live stages and international setting
After the previews at Naples And PalermoAmbrogio presents the album with a concert in Paris on November 10th to The Maroquinerie for the festival Ville des Musiques du Mondethen the tour in Italy and Europe will continue. It is a coherent transition: a project born in Italy, produced in France, designed to dialogue with international audiences and circuits.
Photo by Valeria Taccone.
