Femmina

The vocalist and clarinettist Gera Bertolone hails from Sicily, and here puts together an album of original songs which blend traditional approaches with a rock sensibility. This is an intriguing project, combining strings with guitars and drums, but one which comes perilously close at times to what I once memorably heard described as ‘my grandmother has died and my cat as well’ music. There are a lot of rather maudlin Sicilian-inspired power ballads (for example, ‘La Notti Libertà’, ‘Vinni a Cantari’ and the suspiciously ‘House of the Rising Sun’-like ‘Canzuna’) whose strained vocals, to my taste at least, do not suit her voice. However, all is not lost, as other tracks display a sense of play and invention, using the cello in particular to great effect. I liked ‘Sta Terra Nun Fa Pi Mia’ with its film-music inspired opening and ‘Ti Vurria Vasari’ with the clever cello and clarinet waltz. And, they leave the best ’til last, with ‘La Tarantula’, a take on the tarantella which works well and shows off Gera Bertolone’s not inconsiderable clarinet-playing skills.