The creativity of Michele Cantilo surprises year after year with new recordings and projects. In general, he lives half the year here and the other half in Spain, so he records records in both houses. Now he surprises with the release of a new album, while touring the country with Pedro and Pablo.
sung stories collects stories in music, adapted and interpreted by Cantilo himself, who extracted them from the literary and oral tradition of the ancient Middle Eastern cultures.
The result is surprisingly different from everything that has been done on previous occasions, since they are not songs but sung stories, in fact.
The origin of the project
According to Miguel Cantilo: “Since my youth, when I finished high school, I have dedicated myself to reading all kinds of literature with pleasure, in particular Latin American writers and novelists, and in parallel the books of Krishnamurti, Hermann Hesse, Idries Shah and other authors spiritualists.
Over the years I have drifted towards oriental literature and there I have discovered a multitude of teaching-tales from the Middle East, in particular from Persia, Turkey, India and Afghanistan. I have become familiar with mystical literature and in particular with Sufism. From that prolific source I extracted the traditional narratives which, adapted to the song format, make up the album. “
-What was the premise when I started this job?
– I faced it in total freedom. When I compose I try not to feel pressured or conditioned by anything. Those stories mean a lot to me because I’ve been savoring them for a long time, even with my kids when they were little. The challenge was to sing them and put them in musical terms. Mostly to convey to people how sober they had been to me. Then the style and everything was born spontaneously.
-Was it difficult to adapt the stories from prose to verse?
-In some cases I used music that I had already composed a long time ago, and I was reduced to accepting the lyrics, which actually came in prose and I had to put them in cantabile verse. In other cases, the music emerged from the story, totally inspired by the content of the story. Most of the melodies were created on purpose.
In the lyrics I had to get my hands on it, because arranging them so that they found the rhyme is a craft work. Within that, I tried to respect the original as much as possible.
-When did you start working on this project?
-I started it 20 years ago, and little by little I was adapting the stories. It dates back to the time I read these texts to my children. And now, once the music and vocals were recorded, my children took care of producing it, looking for instruments and instrumentalists.
These are not children’s stories.
-What you have selected are the ones you read the most to them?
-I think the election was born from repetition. Some stories repeat themselves and reappear in one way or another. Then it is considered that they repeat themselves for a reason and are more than just a passing story. It has to be because they convey something important and profound.
-He has the tone of a medieval minstrel, a storyteller.
– Some friends told me, and they were curious to know this ancient minstrel. These are not children’s stories. They are for adults, with inherent metaphors of profound teaching. Now, to present it live this Tuesday we tried to arrange it in a quartet in the most synthetic way, but with the timbres of the recording.
-Finally, how is this project going and what are Pedro and Pablo up to, who recently played with a symphony?
-I have the idea of touring Spain with this album, through cultural centers, as is customary there. I intend to dedicate myself to spreading these stories throughout Spain. Here only there will be a show because we dedicate ourselves with Jorge Durietz to tour the country and pay off an old debt of visiting the provinces with old classic songs. We have already been to Rosario and will go to Mendoza, San Juan and Mar del Plata. They called us to do the concert with an orchestra and this prompted us to get together to tour the country.
Live date: Tuesday 4 October at 8:30 pm at Bebop Club, Uriarte 1658 (Palermo, CABA). Tickets from $ 1000,
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Source: Clarin
