I first became acquainted with the work of Sardinian guitarist Paolo Angeli in 2017 with the release of Talea.
For those unfamiliar with his music, he plays a specially prepared baritone Sardinian guitar, a large-bodied instrument with a beautiful deep resonance (Chiterra Sarda – a 16th Century import from Spain tuned lower than a classical guitar).
Although born in Sardinia, it wasn’t until he went to study music in Bologna that he became aware of traditional Sardinian music. He then met and studied under the Sardinian guitar player Giovanni Scanu in 1993, from whom he learned the intricacies of Gallurese and Logudorese guitar techniques. He also collected traditional Sardinian music for the Archive Cervo, which holds recordings from as far back as the 1920s. In the same year of meeting Scanu, he also met the English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Fred Frith. Tradition and experimentation met, and Angeli’s journey became fascinating.
His instrument has served him well on this journey; while his music may be inspired and influenced by tradition, post-rock and other forms, it feels like he is a no man’s land, as though he and his instrument know no constraints. His instrument (he also made one for Pat Metheny, the American jazz guitarist) has been described as a hybrid orchestra with strings going in all directions, foot-pedal-controlled motorised propellers and hammers to create shimmering drones and bass lines as he bows, strikes, plucks and strums. Add his voice to this, and the spectrum of his music broadens still further…lines of tradition, classical, post-rock and improvisation blur into insignificance.
Last year, he released the beautiful JAR’A, a six-movement suite recorded live in Barcelona. Only when you acknowledge the absence of overdubs in such a recording do you begin to appreciate the breadth and beauty of his music. You can also hear the incredible Sardinian throat singing, courtesy of Omar Bandinu from the Italian ensemble Tenore di Bitti “Mialinu Pira”, who specialise in Sardinian Cantu a Tenore, a form of polyphonic singing, usually performed by a group of four men using four different voices called bassu, contra, boche and mesu boche.
His latest album, Rade, was released earlier this month. It includes two songs, Ottava and Andira, whose lyrics are from the poem ‘Lu Pintimentu’ by Don Baignu Pes (1724-1795), who used the Gallura language, spoken in the historical region of Gallura, in Sardinia. Two tracks, Mare Lungo and Baklawa, also feature the words of anonymous Sardinian poets from the 1800s.
The opening track, Ottava, is musically inspired by traditional music (Aggius, Sardinia) and is the only track on the album that uses loops or overdubs. It was recorded earlier this year at janeStudio (Cagliari).
Rade is available now via Bandcamp: https://angelimanucheproductions.bandcamp.com/album/rade