STREAMING: http://www.almendramusic.com/en/album/eloisa-manera-duende/
BANDCAMP: https://eloisamanera.bandcamp.com/album/duende
“Duende” è corpo, rito, liturgia di suono-memoria.
È il demone che dimora nella casadell’interiorità, è calarsi negli strati più bui e remoti, e cavarne luce attraverso il proprio corpo musicale in azione, abitati dal canto profondo del flamenco. “Duende” è il secondo lavoro discografico in solo di Eloisa Manera, di nuovo in rapporto col team curatoriale siciliano Almendra
Music.
Mentre “Rondine”, il progetto di debutto solistico di Eloisa, nasce in studio e viene in seguito elaborato in forma di concerto, per ”Duende” il processo è inverso: nato come live di rottura rispetto alla iperstrutturazione del precedente progetto, germina nel 2019 in forma di concerto radicalmente improvvisato, emergenza espressiva alla ricerca dei principi ispiratori e creativi
dell’artista nella loro essenza più imperfetta e sincera.
Una volta individuate le sorgenti artesiane di sé improvvisando dal vivo, Eloisa ha quindi realizzato il progetto in una forma discografica, negli studi Almendra a Palermo, in una sessione immersiva ininterrotta di tre giorni, quasi un rito misterico.
Il violino, la voce, il violino elettrico dell’artista hanno così dato corpo a numerosi brani, ognuno un ‘Duende’ che conserva, fra le tante altre emersioni, anche tracce della guerra civile spagnola vissuta dai nonni di Eloisa, delle cui storie lei indossa la sintesi tramite il suo nome, i suoi geni e la sua memoria.
Il processo di postproduzione delle registrazioni, come da prassi condivisa in Almendra, ha avviato un gioco di risonanze tra gli artisti dell’incubatore creativo siciliano, che in questa occasione ha condotto Giovanni Di Giandomenico – compositore, sound artist e pianista palermitano di stanza a Parigi – a realizzare una rilettura elettronica trasfigurata di ogni composizione dell’album. L’intero percorso dell’album, dapprima esperito nell’ordine di realizzazione dei brani in studio, viene quindi ritracciato a ritroso, di ogni pezzo estraendo l’olio essenziale dopo averne individuato l’endoscheletro sonoro; ovvero ad ogni ‘Duende’ dell’album corrisponde un relativo ‘Espiritu’.
Eloisa Manera’s new solo album “Duende” explores the intersection between sound, memory, and
identity, evoking the embodied knowledge and cultural memory of her ancestors, and
encompassing multiple level of meaning.
Drawing on her own personal history and cultural heritage, the Spanish-Italian violinist and
composer has crafted a work that is both intensely personal and universal in its themes, an ode to
the demon that resides in each of us, and a journey into the most remote recesses of our being,
from which light can be channeled through the artist’s expression.
The title of the album, ‘Duende’, is a term from Spanish folklore referring to a force that inhabits
the deepest layers of the human psyche, an energy both earthbound and mystical in nature, which
springs especially from the roots of the uprooted, and flows through the artist’s body, thus
influencing artistic expression and activating the listener’s innermost memories and emotional
chords.
Through the peculiar use of her voice, acoustic violin and 5-strings electric violin, Eloisa draws
upon her extensive technical and musical knowledge, ranging from jazz to transfigured memories
of Spanish and Italian folk music, to Classical, Romantic, Post-minimalist, and Contemporary
violin lexicons, to offer us a musical landscape that is at once haunting and ethereal, earthly and
acquatic.
The album’s many layers of meaning include the memory of Eloisa’s grandparents, who lived
through the Spanish Civil War. Through her music, Eloisa channels their experiences and the
memories they have passed down to her, creating a powerful testimony to the enduring legacy of
human resilience and a testament to the fabric of interwoven narratives that constitutes the
human experience.
Anthropologically speaking, “Duende” can also be seen as an exploration of the subtle and not so
obvious ways in which music can serve as a repository of cultural memory and a means of
expressing deeply held emotions and experiences.
Eloisa Manera: eloisman@gmail.com | https://www.eloisamanera.com
Giovanni Di Giandomenico: gdigiandomenico1@gmail.com | https://www.giovannidigiandomenico.com
Gianluca Cangemi & Luca Rinaudo: almendramusic@gmail.com | http://almendramusic.bandcamp.com
“Duende” is Eloisa Manera’s second solo work, which again she created in collaboration with the
Sicilian curatorial collective Almendra Music, as a a coherent thematic development of her debut
solo album, “Rondine” (Italian for ‘Swallow’), which explored the experience of travel and
migration as a constitutive aspect of the human experience.
In stark contrast to the hyper-structured nature of ‘Rondine’, which was first developed in the
studio and then elaborated for live performance, ‘Duende’ grew out of a series of radically
improvised solo concerts, where each performance served as a creative emergency to explore the
raw essence of Eloisa’s art.
Only after Eloisa traced the primary sources of her inspiration through live improvisation did she
enter the Almendra studios in Palermo, Sicily, to record the album in an immersive and
uninterrupted three-day session, almost like a Dionysian ritual.
After the recording process, as is common practice at Almendra, the post-production stage
triggered a game of resonance between the artists of the Sicilian creative incubator. This led
Giovanni Di Giandomenico, the Palermo-born, Paris-based composer, sound artist and pianist, to
craft a transfigured electronic rendering of each track on the album.
As a result, the album’s entire journey, first experienced in the order in which each track emerged
during the recording session, is retraced backwards, with each piece distilled into its essential sonic
and animic constituents, so that each ‘Duende’ on the album corresponds to a related ‘Espiritu’.
Produced by Gianluca Cangemi & Luca Rinaudo.
Recorded by Luca Rinaudo at Zeit Studio (Palermo, Sicily,
Italy). Producer: Gianluca Cangemi.
Mixed by Luca Rinaudo at Zeit Studio (Palermo, Sicily,
Italy), with additional sound design by Giovanni Di
Giandomenico.
Mastering: Luca Rinaudo at Zeit Studio (Palermo, Sicily,
Italy).
Cover: edit of acrylic on wood painting “Duende 7” by Eloisa
Manera.
Curator: Gianluca Cangemi.
© 2023 Almendra Music / Moger Edizioni Musicali (SIAE)
℗ 2023 Almendra Music, Eloisa Manera
Eloisa Manera: eloisman@gmail.com | https://www.eloisamanera.com
Giovanni Di Giandomenico: gdigiandomenico1@gmail.com | https://www.giovannidigiandomenico.com
Gianluca Cangemi & Luca Rinaudo: almendramusic@gmail.com | http://almendramusic.bandcamp.com
