Fiamma Fumana

Fiamma Fumana's debut was something of a revelation and revolution in Italian roots music. Their mix of traditional music and electronica was startling at the time. But on their new album, Home, they've completely melded the two forms, because they've really become a band, rather than the studio aggregation that record their first album.

"We had this idea, the basic elements were Fiamma's voice, Michael's beats, and myself as a sort of spokesman for traditional music," recalled accordionist Alberto Cottica. "But we didn't have a band. We talked to friends and had them come over and play. Since then we've evolved into a permanent band, which includes someone who wasn't there before, Jessica, who plays a lot of instruments, but mainly the Emilian bagpipes, which is something we're really happy with, because it's a very local instrument. It almost died out, only a handful of people play it. A guy in Bologna single-handedly started a small revival, getting people interested and making instruments. Now they're talking technical innovation. Jessica wants him to build a chromatic chanter, which will enable us to play more pipes. We're trying to use it more, but there are limits right now. It's one of the easiest instruments to use with electronic music."

"Electronic music is coming from one world, and traditional vocals and instruments from another world. A big effort is putting everything together, and putting together a live act that's convincing."

While that first disc was a complete studio creation, Home had a more organic evolution.

"Most of the songs were worked out live, which is the advantage of having a band. The way we recorded this album was totally different from the other one. Instead of using a studio we rented a house in the mountains. We didn't want to make a record that sounded too different. Some songs hadn't been tried in concert before recording, but they tend not to change a lot. The electronic part changes most. Live we make it a little simpler and easier to interact with. It's all managed through a Groovebox, which is a plug and play system. It goes by pattern, and you have effects. In the old days we used to have Marco in the back; now we have [new beat specialist] Medhin right in the front - we don't want the feeling of playing over a CD. We've worked a lot on the live side. Marco was essentially a record producer, so we had to invent this thing, and to do electronic music live is very, very difficult. We're beginning to sound good, everything is delayed and reverbed. Electronic music is coming from one world, and traditional vocals and instruments from another world. A big effort is putting everything together, and putting together a live act that's convincing. I'm quite proud of that, I don't see a lot of that. Our engineer is the fifth musician. The next step that we haven't really tried yet is to put all the electronica on the outboard. Throw out the sequencers - and you can still make electronic music only with the effects, I think. We've tried to take the cobwebs away from music. As your community grows, your community music grows with it. This has a lot do with how you sound and how you relate to the world. The communication instinct the younger generation has is something that goes with this, so we're finding ourselves involved between "mainstream stuff" and "highbrow stuff." The girls in the band dress like rock musicians. You just want to look a bit better than you do in ordinary life. We're not going to get up and play in traditional costumes, even if there were such things - we keep it close to our lives."

However, one of the album's most powerful pieces is one of the most straightforward - "Bella Ciao," sung live by a choir of older women. The rawness of the voices leaves it standing in contrast to the rest of the material, and emotion ripples throughout its six -plus minutes.

"That song is loaded with emotion." Cottica agreed. "It's the main Italian folk song, at least in the north. All these old women who have done their thing, worked in the rice fields since they were 14, and discovered the communion with the other workers, and founded trade unions, which were female-dominated. They got the first kindergarten facilities in the country. Most of the welfare has come from that stream. Now they're in their late 70s, and really rocking and going for it. They started this group so they can go on singing the songs they sang in the rice fields. They've had younger women coming in to help the music keep going. They have a lot of fun and joy. It's a really uplifting experience. We thought that song wouldn't go down well in a studio, so we went for live recording. It's very basic, just a drone and vocals, and very raw."

While some Italians don't know what to make of the band, they've encountered more success playing in the U.S., Cottica explained.

"No one knows a lot about Italian music anyway, and you stick electronics on top of that, and you get something that might be too strange to some people. There are conservatives in music, and those people tend not to like us very much. In America people have said, yes, it's strange, but we like it. There's been a lot of enthusiasm. We're excited because we think America might be a good place to visit often."

There are also big plans ahead for 2004.

"We're trying to start a festival in Italy called Traditional Electronics. We're trying to set this up as a scene, as there are artists in different European countries doing the same thing. If we can present it as a movement, we'll be the cool people! We'll start small in February 2004, with 3 bands and a DJ. We have a partner, and we're looking at three years. It's small bands or solo artists, so the costs aren't high."

Fiamma Fumana

"Electronic music is coming from one world, and traditional vocals and instruments from another world. A big effort is putting everything together, and putting together a live act that's convincing."

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