Eugenio Bennato
Sponda Sud

Regarding Sponda Sud, Bennato declared: «This new work is a continuation of the previous path, it is an expansion of the Mediterranean horizon to farther latitudes, and particularly to the intense and mysterious Africa, where I place a mythical shore that guards the source of all legends, and the secret of a primitive beating sound that travels and spreads across deserts and seas, reaching us, to our shores, which thus resonate with ancient tambores and guitars, in lands rich in art and culture. From Naples to Gargano to Calabria, those voices, those melodies, and those dances bring me to Algiers, to Oran, to Casablanca, and then further to Cairo, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Every stop is a discovery and recognition, along the thread of an emotion and an idea, in an alternative path against the devastating logic of business and globalizing flattening, against which silently fight the drums of every village.»”

SPONDA SUD (2007) The album opens with the title track “Sponda Sud,” a heartrending ballad about the beauty of sailing and enriching oneself through the contact with different cultures within the Mediterranean and Africa; musically, it's a ballad with few classical guitar chords surrounded by an orchestra and a children's choir of various nationalities: personally, I consider it one of the absolute peaks of the Neapolitan master's work. “Ritmo di contrabbando” is a mid-tempo built on a bed of percussion and an electric guitar riff (the chorus might be a bit cloying, but the song works quite well); textually, the theme remains the same, the rediscovery of folk tradition against globalized flattening. “Canzone per Beirut” is a slow and sad song about the Lebanese-Israeli conflict of 2006, hoping for new peace for that nation. Musically, it is built with classical guitar and orchestral accompaniment. “Lucia e la Luna” is a ballad that describes a magical encounter between a girl and the Moon, which informs her of her three riches (her name, her beauty, and the gift of dancing the Taranta); musically, it is a very rhythmic song, with the refrain featuring the arpeggio of a battente guitar and a female counterpoint (singer Sonia Totaro). “Ogni uno” is a cheerful song about the wealth of diversity; musically, it features an electric guitar accompanying the voices of Maghreb singers and that of B. (voices very often present in B.'s pieces). “Italia minore” is a slow ballad dedicated by B. to the great Apulian singer-songwriter Matteo Salvatore, who passed away in 2005: the song brings together the fate of the singer-songwriter with his music, the folk genre, in recent years always sidelined compared to more “visible” genres (rock, pop, etc.).

Musically, it presents a very simple melody, played with classical guitar and accompanied by an orchestra. “Verso il Sole” is a cheerful song inspired by the sunny climate of the Southern world and features a swallow that migrates towards the Sun; musically, it incorporates ethnic instruments and Mediterranean voices. “Luna napolitana” is another slow ballad that narrates the images evoked by the Neapolitan Moon; musically, it is accompanied by a violin and a very sensual female voice. “Alla festa della taranta” is a rousing ballad introduced and interspersed with a decisive and penetrating violin solo and female voice, later underlined by a rock guitar that inserts various solos; textually, it describes a rather deserted Taranta festival, but despite this, kept alive by a few diehards like the “maestro on the pedestal who hustles and makes ammuina” and the “uaglione miezz’a via” who “is playing his drum\he’s playing his madness.” The album closes with “Angeli del Sud,” a song dedicated to all African children and another heartrending and sweet ballad for guitar, percussion, and female choirs.