trotula by Hartmann Ensemble

Hailing from Salerno, Italy, Hartmann Ensemble release a debut whose title is inspired by Trotula De Ruggiero, a celebrated woman physician from the southern Italian city, a hub of European medieval medicine. With a varied instrumentation (voices, oud, rabab, guitar, dilruba, double bass and percussion) the sextet draw on various sources, from early music to the Neapolitan tradition and from the Middle East to India. Most lyrics are in Neapolitan, set to self-penned music that is often interweaved with a theatrical attitude, as on the opening title-track, a sort of alap over recited verses from Antonio Petti, then ending in a melismatic fronna singing, or on the atmospheric ‘Luce ‘e Argiento’. Sung in Italian, a woman sings for her lover heading off on a migrant boat in the beguiling ‘Occhi di Perla’.

Much of their playing is improvisational, generating interesting textures and rhythmic ideas, as on the nursery rhyme ‘Zi’ Monaciello’ or ‘Kirwà’, built upon ‘Raga Kirwani’ and incorporating a southern Mediterranean feel. Throughout, the fusion is sensitive, especially on ‘La Tenta’, whose lyrics come from the 17th-century GB Basile’s Pentamerone, musically intertwining dramatic singing, bowed drone and intricate irregular tempos. A fearless band playing singular music unlike anything you’ve heard.

Songlines, October 2021

YouTube