Galanìas

Twelve years since Canti Delle Donne Sarde, the stunning debut from the female quintet who briskly defied the island's traditionally male-gendered polyphonic singing tradition, their new album Galanìas (Beautiful Things) is even more accomplished, with repertoire ranging from religious chants to work songs, lullabies to dancing melodies, and love songs to nursery rhymes. Actores Alidos’ warm vocal textures are augmented by the use of percussive domestic tools and an instrumental collaboration with the launeddas (pipes) and flutes maestro, Orlando Mascia. Other excellent guests include the riveting male vocal quartet Tenores di Bitti, diatonic accordionist Ambrogio Sparagna, singer and multi-instrumentalist Raffaello Simeoni, cellist Redi Hasa, and Tuvan throat-singer extraordinaire, Sainkho Namtchylak. Galanìas balances subtle harmonies, tonal inflections, vibrant individual voices, creative reinterpretation of male vocal parts and rhythmic inventions. Take the masterful singing in ‘Dammi Li Mani’, or the intertwining of voice with Redi Hasa's cello on ‘Fiore Allizadu’, or the eerie intermingling with Namtchylak's overtones on ‘Lughe Jara’. A vocal symposium takes place when they meet the superb voices of Tenores di Bitti on ‘Anghelos Cantade’. An impressive album that will please an audience well beyond Sardinian music aficionados.