Customer Reviews

FARAUALLA

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This cd is nearly indescribable. Faraualla are a group of women from Southern Italy who perform chants and vocal harmonies, with some minimal percussion. The style of the music is one-of-a-kind, but to my ears sounds strangely much more African than Italian. There is a similar style of singing (of much lower quality) on some of Alan Lomax's Italian Treasury cds, which captures the same vaguely African (or at least very non-Western) sound. The songs often include one vocal part which is a stacatto grunt or fast breathing or other odd nontraditional sound. Not all the songs were to my liking on first listen, but all of them have grown on me.

Vrliko Kolo is a beautiful haunting dirge-like melody, with a steady low drumbeat throughout. Elleipseis sounds to me like fifties doo wap, but with melodies ten times more complex. Spondo and Questa Fanciull' Amor sound like Western choral pieces, and are beautifully performed. Fescenne has a strange, truly indescribable, half-spoken beginning, then breaks into delightful harmonies. Almost none of the songs are easily catogorized.

This is beautiful, beguiling, challenging, moving, and entertaining music truly off the beaten path. A treasure.

Faraualla in this self-titled CD proves to the music world that an Italian all-girl acapella group can win over a worldwide following!

The musical abilities and talents of the group is sure to please any chant or Mediterrean/Middle Eastern fan...all the songs of this album are similar, yet very different. In a nutshell, these women are amazing!!!!

Highly recommended without any reservation. A great purchase that will bring you much enjoyment.