Rade

The adventurous Valencia-based Sardinian composer sets sails navigating on Mediterranean routes after his critically-admired album Jar’a, which appeared to be a sort of homecoming (reviewed in August/September 2021, #170). Angeli is an artist of no restraint, playing his unique crossbreed instrument, a baritone Sardinian guitar. In his words, the music on Rade (natural ports or bays) ‘emerges like a memory-laden wreck, shrouded in blinding light. Water is as an element that unites the shores and not a wall that separates. I still believe in the encounter between peoples and Rade tells that, a bit.’ Ancestral memories of his native island and soundscapes, folk reminiscences and improvisation, lyricism and noise sparks converge to shape Angeli’s challenging and inventive narrative.

The opener ‘Ottava’, where overdubs and a rhythmic loop are used, takes inspiration from traditional Aggius polyvocality, shades of Corsican polyphonies and flamenco linger while lyrics contain quatrains from Don Baignu Pes’ 18th-century poem ‘Lu Pintimentu’, whose Gallura local idiom is also featured on the final bonus track, the superlative ‘Andira’. Instead, anonymous 19th-century Sardinian poetry features on ‘Baklawa’, which takes a North African sonic route before evoking a rebetika atmosphere in its finale. The tracks that follow provide further intriguing and engaging affairs, namely the musical bouncing between home and Spanish shores on ‘Mare Lungo’ or the multi-layered, syncretic and visionary ‘Tejalone’. The title-track also stands out as a bewitching and tensed magmatic flux of interwoven guitar, voice and electronica. It is Mediterranean avant-folk, a wonderful enchanting voyage.