Sambol Amore Migrante

If the tale that inspired this arresting album had been filmed by Federico Fellini, this would be its soundtrack. It's quirky, flamboyant, dramatic and always a little off-kilter. The Romani Pogue-ish opener, ‘Vlado’, introduces the tale's hero, Vladimir Sambol, who fled his native Fiume (today's Croatian city of Rijeka) after World War II. Sustained by his music, Sambol's odyssey eventually took him to Sweden, where he married and fathered a daughter. She, Mirjam, brought his music to this Italian five-piece. Knowing nothing of Sambol or his music, they conceived their fourth album to ‘breathe new life’ into the songs he left behind, inspired by ‘this migrant love, which knows no borders and travels over time and space from father to daughter.’

With acoustic bass and guitar, violin, accordion, percussion and a Romani fervour – aided by guests of the calibre of cellist Vincent Segal and award-winning engineer Laurent Dupuy, who mixed the album in London – Guappecarto have created something novel and unclassifiable, brimming with emotion and passion. In their own left-field way, they have done for 1930s European cabaret (sketched in the atmospheric track, ‘Anonimous Fiumanus’) what Gotan Project did for South American tango. A brief but sparkling delight.