Album of the day: Dissòi Lògoi, “NoTvooDoo”

Dissòi Lògoi
“NoTvooDoo” (Cd Ludos/Compagnia Nuove Indye LDL11126)

Musical contamination is one of the most complex and delicate cultural operations that one can imagine. Drawing on musical traditions from different countries and hybridizing them with one’s own style without creating a crazy sauce or giving life to banal stylistic overlaps requires culture, good taste, intelligence, and the ability to grasp what can be transported to different environments and what cannot. Often in the name of mixing we witness (especially in Italy) truly embarrassing musical ugliness that often only serve to fully reveal the ignorance of those who try to put them together, especially when the ones operating the stills are the majors who think only in terms of turnover.

Fortunately, there are musical realities outside the big market that with wisdom, courage and imagination succeed where the big ones
budget and Nu creative directors fail. This is the case of Dissòi Lògoi, a musical group whose name in ancient Greek means “Contrasting speeches”, which already reveals the will of the many musicians who are part of the project not to stop at comfortable positions, avoiding simple and reassuring entertainment to give those who listen a new, always surprising experience.
Around the historical nucleus formed by Alberto Morelli (keyboards, samplers, voices, reeds, percussions and more) and Franco Parravicini (guitars, bass, samplers, electronic drums) many great musicians collaborate, including Paolo Fresu, Mario Arcari, Gabriele Mirabassi, Federico Sanesi.

Dissòi Lògoi is an open formation, a sail crossed by different currents coming from the Mediterranean, from Africa, from the
downtown streets of New York, from the gardens of Ryoanji in Japan in an authentic synthesis of rhythms, voices, songs and different sounds
capable of exciting you from the first listen.

To demonstrate the full skill of this group, the initial “NoTv-Doo” is enough, which sees the unrecognisable and filtered voice of Moni Ovadia reciting with Mephistophelian accents an extract from “La société du spectacle” by Guy Debord against a background of distorted guitars somewhere between trash-metal and King Crimson, but also the funk-afro of “DHX 119b” is excellent as is the whole level of an album that you will never hear on the radio but that is worth listening to with the utmost attention.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.