Nidi D’Arac – Taranta Container

Alessandro Coppola and Elena Floris Womad 2011 Charlton Park  (photo by Dr Biddlecombe)

Album released 2011 – 10 Songs, 40 mins.

The name of this band, Nidi D'Arac, means 'nest of spiders' and they come from Salento, the peninsular that forms the 'heel' of Italy. There is a story about the tarantula spiders in their province. If you were bitten by one, your death was almost certain. Your only chance to live, would be to dance for hours on end and expunge the poison. In the cities, towns and villages of Salento they dance the pizzica. It is elegant, energetic and as with all dancing, life-affirming, if not necessarily life-saving.

The bands that create the music for the pizzica are composed of singers, backed by guitars, violins, accordions and hand-held drums. Nidi D’Arac come from this musical tradition, and they stay pretty true to it. All the elements of the traditional Salentine folk band are intact, but they approach the music like true modernists adding guitars, synths, bass and drums. In doing so they have kept the beautiful and unique qualities of the pizzica, and added the power and excitement of a modern rock band.

Songs such as 'Gocce' begin traditionally with acoustic guitar, and the striking and edgy voice of the band's leader Alessandro Coppola and almost immediately the experimentation begins; electronic pulses, echoing voices and soaring choruses make this one of the most interesting and dynamic songs on the album. This creativity and originality is expressed even more clearly in songs like 'Ipocharia' and 'Cerchio si apre cerchio si stringe'. Even the songs that appear to be in a more traditional folk style, such as 'Ahi tamburieddhu!'  and 'Tarantulae', reflect the desire to do something new, to find a different way to play and to take their music to the world.

Often experimentation can result in musicians creating work that is disengaged and alienating to its intended audience. But not Nidi D'Arac, who grow their outstanding and exciting music in the fertile soil of their own land, not in some alien environment, and thereby retain its unique flavour and integrity. The addition of synthesised sounds, echoing voices, even a rap style of delivery of the vocals on songs such as 'Ronde noe' never hide the fact these are songs firmly rooted in the home land and culture of their creators. 

A song such as 'Sta Musica' perfectly reflects this wonderful combination, the vocals are earthy, stark and beautiful, the violin is emotive and exciting, and the acoustic guitar is used in the traditional rhythmical role. These alone make a perfectly wonderful sound, but the addition of synthesised rhythms, echoing background voices and an instrumental break involving drum, bass and accordion that sounds a little like Massive Attack create something really interesting and exciting.

Bands such as Nidi D'Arac, and Speed Caravan, Bellowhead, La Brass Banda and Tinariwen to name but a few, are taking the forms and styles, the traditional instrumentation and the cultural ethos of their own music and doing something exciting and new with it. Whether that musical culture is Algerian oud playing, English folk, Bavarian oompah or Southern Italian pizzica, the transformation of these traditional forms into something that can have a worldwide appeal while retaining the quality, beauty and intensity of the local folk music is a wonderful thing to witness.

Having seen this band at Womad Charlton Park 2011 and in a little village festival in Spain I can affirm that their live performances fulfil the promise of this thrilling album.