Daniela Pes - The sound of words

The news of a new album release by Tanca Records, the label founded and run by Jacopo Incani aka Iosonouncane, had sparked that little flicker of excitement that flares up whenever something new is in the air, that feeling somewhere between surprise and curiosity that accompanies any artistic form that breaks free of the most conformist patterns.

Spira is the title of the debut album by Daniela Pes, born in Gallura in 1992, a singer-songwriter, musician and electronic composer with a background in jazz, a factor that allowed her to grow artistically in complete freedom. An emancipation that, across the seven tracks making up this excellent debut, shows through in every small detail and oversees all the ideas that unfold along this atypical path. Starting with her use of voice, which she herself describes as a genuine instrument among instruments; a definition confirmed by the work carried out by the Sardinian artist, unconventional, magnetic, deep, and when necessary, jagged too.

This distinctive vocal approach combines with lyrics written by Pes herself in a non-existent language, made up of ancient Gallurese terms, fragments of Italian words and others entirely invented, harmoniously brought together into an organism freed from any intent to communicate an actual thought, with the sole aim of forming a sound that works almost like a hymn, religious in nature, impervious to reason and accessible only through imagination, through emotion.

Pes's intricate work moves with great fluidity between refined, hazy electronics, with rhythms that are sometimes more driving ("Illa Sera" and "Laira"), echoing the sprawling textures of kosmische musik ("Ora") or the drone music and experimental avant-garde of early Battiato ("Ca Mira"); stylistic approaches that merge in the semi-suite "A te sola", where, across more than ten minutes, every facet of Daniela's sinuous creativity is touched upon, here flecked with cultured acoustic and ethnic flavours that further widen the inventive scope and round out the intensity of the whole work.

Among the most moving moments, "Arca" undoubtedly stands out, a spaceship that, through drawn-out synth flourishes and the sacred waves emanating from the organ, carries the listener towards unimaginable, celestial worlds, which seem to welcome, with grace and auspicious hospitality, anyone gripped by a thousand doubts in this current era.

"Carme" had been released a few weeks before the album's release, a track that drifts like a fairy-tale current wrapped around every fragment of the air. Born from a guitar chord later transformed into a synthesizer arpeggio, the composition flawlessly embodies the dreamlike perception that the music of the artist from Tempio Pausania is able to express, an impenetrable, solemn, hypnotic composite, with a high poetic and bucolic quotient, constantly referencing the term used as the title's identifier.

Iosonouncane didn't just release this fascinating debut on his own label, he is also its producer, co-author of the music on a couple of tracks and, alongside the talented Pes, at the controls of synthesizers, electronics, sampling, drum machines, bass and guitar.

His presence, which comes through unmistakably in the grooves, does nothing but deepen the stylistic depth of this multifaceted work, packed with reconnections between primitive worlds and the contemporary era, a springboard for an esoteric conception of the message that music can spread today, without forgetting its own roots, while seeking new, mostly bold outlets where our history can come ashore.

Spira is the debut album of an artist of enviable talent, daring in showing it in an unusual way and all the more commendable for it: tradition, avant-garde and research, not only linguistic-expressive, combined with structure, with no apparent signs of fragility or random choices, all ingredients that fully define Daniela Pes, a tremendously young woman with crystal-clear, visionary ideas, shared with others within one of the most surprising releases to emerge in this first part of 2023, not only on the Italian scene.

And critics were quick to notice, awarding her the Targa Tenco 2023 for Best Debut Album and opening the doors to a series of festivals and radio and TV appearances.

Ride the wave of great music

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