ANTONIO CASTRIGNANO

“This music is not traditional, old music. It is the music of tomorrow.” This is the vision of Antonio Castrignanò who wrote, conducted, sang, performed and produced his new album Babilonia. With Antonio, this healing music is enriched and adapted to embrace today’s world.

Antonio Castrignanò, a key figure in a cultural movement that has been rooted in the Salento region (Puglia, Italy) for generations, is the embodiment of the energy and excessiveness of a terribly modern musical tradition which has thrilled the whole of southern Italy.

Antonio Castrignanò is a singer and tamburello player (a large Salentine tambourine) and a fervent defender of the traditional music of Puglia dedicated to Pizzica, the tarantella dance of Salento. The intoxicating rhythms of this music can lead to a state of trance. Including  the 150,000 people who gather every year for the Notte della Taranta Festival to hear the music & then dance & play tamburellos all night.

But through a very personal approach to this tradition, Antonio Castrignanò transcends the world of popular music in southern Italy. Although some narrow-minded people tried to transform tarantella into court music by stripping it of its rhythm and meaning, its original form survived in secret, retaining its hypnotic and healing power. Antonio Castrignanò succeeds in combining its wild essence with a flawless musicality. It resonates perfectly with the times. Traditional instruments coexist with technological innovation, the roots reach out to meticulous modernity.

Babilonia is not a nostalgic album steeped in the codes of tradition. All the tracks are original and new melodies, new stories, new rhythms sometimes come from afar to feed this deep desire to share. We wander from Sub-Saharan Africa to India via Albania. It’s Babylon, it’s all of us!

Antonio Castrignanò Voice, tambourine, rhythms. Rocco Nigro accordion, synthesizer. Luigi Marra backing vocals, violin. Gianluca Longo mandola. Maurizio Pellizzari guitar, saz. Giuseppe Spedicato bass. Gianni Gelao wind instruments, bouzouki, zampogna (bagpipes). Feat: Redi Hasa, Sona Jobarteh, Enzo Avitabile…