Taranta project

"Salento in southern Italy is famous for La Notte della Taranta festival, dedicated to the hypnotic local dance music that is said to cure tarantula spider bites. When composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi took over as director, he expanded the range to include music from North Africa and Turkey, and the result is this intriguing album ... It works, remarkably well. There are stomping, wailing and epic songs such as Nazzu Nazzu, in which Italian trance music is given an African edge, reflective piano and ritti duets that give way to kora and percussion, and rousing harmony vocals. A colourful, highly original set".

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"Sometimes the words "Major Event" seem to be written all over a release. This is one of those. Springing from a commission that northern Italian composer Einaudi received in 2010. Taranta Project has toured and played to hundreds of thousands in Italy. It's a summation of not only the taranta and pizzica music of southern Italy (...), but also the foreign influence on the region. Building from what's really an overture to heighten tension, Taranta explodes with Justin Adams' electrifying guitar and Juldeh Camara's riti ... It's all remarkably global - Nizzu Nizzu transports John Lee Hooker to the Med as one example - but it works and never loses its local touch. It's swaggeringly confident, often lush, but always retaining that raw edge that keeps the emotion high ... Kudos to Einaudi for subsuming himself in the culture so deeply ... It's a bit of a triumph".

"Italian maestro of classical-lite (...) takes his love of a hypnotic chord sequence and melds it to the high-velocity folk tunes of the Salento region of southern Italy, all flying fiddles, keening voices and giant tambourines ... More fuel is added to the fire by the bluesy guitar of Justin Adams, from Robert Plant's band, and the kora of Ballaké Sissoko ... The results are operatic, over the top and often rather wonderful".