The opening cut from their Top of the World-charting Meridiana long-player, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino's 'Balla Nina' (which translates as 'Dance Nina') is a polyrhythmic life-affirmer delivered in a tumble of ebullient voices over accompaniments of frame drums, synth-bass, fiddle and organetto.

Explaining the meaning behind 'Balla Nina, bandleader Mauro Durante says: "Past, present and future exist at the same time, connected by an indissoluble thread. Those who aren't here anymore meet those who are yet to arrive. The pain of absence results in the vital explosion of presence... The life that ends and the one which is born, united in the same dance. So who is Nina? Nina is all of us. 'Dance Nina' is at the same time an affirmation and imperative. 'Balla Nina' is a symbolic and eternal hymn to the living. Dance Nina, live!" 

Read the review of Meridiana in the Songlines Reviews Database