Takadum Orchestra - Migrations to the Rhythm of the World

On the occasion of the release of the excellent third album under the Takadum Orchestra name (“Addije”), we caught up with Simone Pulvano, founder of the project, for a chat about the band's history, its musical metamorphoses, and the content of an ambitious undertaking that, through the recovery of the folk music of the Mediterranean and the Near East, Asia and the Balkans, bears witness to a cultural continuity among peoples.

How did your project come about: what was the shared idea that united the ten "founding" percussionists?

After various experiences connected in one way or another to Arab music and the world of percussion, I founded Takadum Orchestra in 2007 with the idea of creating a stable group of percussionists who would play instruments and rhythms from the Near East. In its first years the group was made up solely of students from my courses, who then grew and are still part of the group today, sharing the stage with professional musicians.

Then, after your first album, dedicated to North African and Near Eastern musical tradition, you broadened your horizons, both "geographically" and instrumentally, adding violin, voice, guitar and trumpet. What differences did this bring to your approach?

Bringing in these instruments allowed us to develop a more interesting and, at the same time, more complex discourse: the recovery of instrumental pieces and songs belonging to the Mediterranean basin, from Spain to Turkey, passing through the Balkans and North Africa. With this choice, alongside the work of composition, came a process of reworking traditional music according to the tastes and character of the orchestra. From the very start, my idea was to build sturdy, complex rhythmic carpets on which to graft a delicate yet elaborate harmonic and melodic weave. This was made possible also thanks to the involvement of percussionist and friend Gabriele Gagliarini, who has co-directed the orchestra with me for the past five years.

Even so, the idea of drawing on world music has always remained central — a genre that, after its initial push, had come to seem rather overused and worn out. How did you set about freeing yourselves from its clichés?

Beyond labels, which are never able to capture the complexity of a musical project, we simply offer music that grows out of our research and the instruments we love to play. Specifically, the term world music was coined in England in the 1980s out of the need to sell, in record shops, Pakistani music productions that hadn't yet been catalogued. I've never believed a "world" genre actually exists. Even today I think this term should be used strictly for commercial and record-industry purposes, since it doesn't represent a musical genre.

The traditional repertoire you draw on often originates in a past that predates the borders of modern states, and testifies to a cultural continuity between peoples. How does it feel to present all this today, in a time of new walls and widespread nationalism?

For us, working on this kind of repertoire — undated and often without a single recognizable place of origin — still leads us today to muse on the movement and circulation of ideas, customs and traditions, which then as now cannot be avoided or halted by the imposition of barriers and borders.

Our artistic output is cultural before it is directly political — which is to say, it is genuinely political. Let me explain: the track "Uskudara Gideriken" on our second album is a melody known throughout the Mediterranean basin, from Spain to the Balkans. Every country claims authorship of it by creating lyrics in its own language. In truth, the notes of this melody escape any attempt at ownership and cross every border.

For us they represent a genuine invitation to peoples to recognize one another as brothers, rather than as pawns in some diabolical game of chess.

Another cornerstone theme of your story is the concept of journey and migration, to which you devoted the entire "Addije"…

While working on our latest album, we started from the concept of migration understood as the movement of people to another country for economic and political reasons, but during our research we were also struck by songs that speak not so much of migration as of a farewell, of lost love (see "Ballata del Dolor") or of the promised land ("Verso Est"). That's also why we chose "Addije" as the title for the new album, a tribute to a famous Italian song, "Amara terra Mia", whose lyrics originate in Abruzzo.

The album's sound is also shaped by the voices of Lavinia Mancusi and Valeria Villeggia, two artists who have spent years reviving the roots of Mediterranean music. What changed when they joined?

Lavinia Mancusi joined for the making of the orchestra's second album, while Valeria Villeggia came on board later and appears alongside Lavinia on the third. Having first one and then both of them on board allowed us to make a real leap in quality, both in terms of performance and in terms of the research and reworking of the traditional repertoire we chose. Beyond their vocal talents, Lavinia also plays violin and Valeria plays harp, which allowed us to further enrich our work with new timbres.

Your music largely consists of reworkings of traditional folk material. Would you like to make an album of original songs in the future?

Actually, we've already done that, because the first album consists exclusively of original percussive pieces, composed by myself and Gabriele Gagliarini. The second and third albums also feature other pieces of our own composition, again purely percussive. If instead you mean original compositions with lyrics and music, I wouldn't rule out that happening in the future. Right now we're recovering from the effort of the third album and haven't started working on any new ideas yet, though I won't hide that I've been thinking about it for a while — I have a few ideas, but we'll leave you in suspense.

Is there any group that inspired you? For instance, besides the Real World catalogue, we thought of Dead Can Dance…

Our inspiration comes from what each of us listens to and from the studies each of us has done. In our work you can hear all sorts of different influences, from flamenco to Italian, Greek and Turkish folk music, etc. We don't have one particular reference group, but if I had to name one, I really admire the work of the Turkish band Kardes Turkuler.

World music by definition has no borders, but can the Italian-ness of Takadum Orchestra be traced to any specific aspect of your sound?

The defining trait of how Takadum Orchestra works is "mixing." Among the ingredients of our music there is undoubtedly also a strong reference to the Italian folk tradition, through the use of lyrics, instruments and rhythms from our own folklore. These intertwine with the other musical universes found around the Mediterranean. That said, I'd still like to hear an answer to this question from a foreign listener, and find out whether they'd actually be able to trace it back to our origin.

Your repertoire finds natural expression in live performance, which is also very spectacular thanks to the choreography and dancing (including belly dancing). Will you be touring to promote "Addije"?

We're working hard to promote "Addije" and take our music on the road; as a essentially self-produced group, and given the size of the line-up, booking work is sometimes very difficult. We've played a few summer dates and are now trying to put together a schedule for the coming months.

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