Underground Sounds: murmur mori – Radici

Label: Casetta
Band: murmur mori
Origin: Italy

I’ve written before about the magic that is murmur mori. The Italian nature worshipping folkers have now released a new album, that goes in a slightly more familiar direction with move singing and folky passages, but the ambient nature sounds and organic feel are still a large part of their sound.

The members of the Stramonium Collective earlier released the album ‘O’ and it was inspiring enough to try and learn more. Here you can read the interview I did with the group a while ago. It remains a fascinating entity to me and I’m very happy to be able to tell you about ‘Radici’.

The group takes the approach of music for children, which is an interesting approach but it makes much sense. Children are open to many things, to stories and sounds, to wisdom and knowledge adults may find trivial. It explains the more lively and vibrant sound of the album. Though the chanting on songs like ‘La Calza Rossa’ is calm and quiet, the music is driven with piping flutes. The singing sounds like something you’d easily join in with and that seems to be the point, the magic of the songs. The emotional vocals of Kuro Silvia on ‘Il Sole e l’Eremita’ are full of yearning and really touch the heartstrings. This album touches something of simple play and discovery, the child in our hearts.

The music on this album sounds uncomplicated, direct and therefore amazing. Making music that simply captures the listener is hard because it requires to strip it of useless ornaments. Sometimes a simple rhythm suffices, the other time a lingering melody. The song needs to carry the listener along and that is something murmur mori does very well on songs like ‘La Tomba del Busento’. The beat is what you latch onto. Every song on this record is inspired by Italian folksong or legend. That makes this record a journey in itself.

A recommended record for those who enjoy the calm of nature, simple instruments and pleasantly soothing songs. Check out murmur mori.

 

 

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