../ rumì
It’s a concert immersed in suggestive video-installations and ancient tales, it magically combines contemporaneous sounds with words from times past.
It’s the live version of the record also intitled “Rumì” by Lu (in the world Luisa Cottifogli).
The cd has been released in 2006 by Forrest Hill Records with Leo Z’s invaluable collaboration; lyrics are in Romagnolo dialect and they are taken from the early twentieth century poetry (Nettore Neri, Lino Guerra) and from a traditional repertoire of lullabies, nonsense, dirindinas, work-songs.
The research of texts has been inspired by the anthropological and literary studies of Giuseppe Bellosi.
Nominated at “Premio Tenco 2006” (it came second among the five best world records), the cd has been awarded with the “Imola in Musica Prize”.
Music has been created by the artist in free association with lyrics, crossing various languages: rock-pop, jazz, classic contemporaneous and electronic music, passing from south-American , African and wizard rhythms to pure melody and improvisation.
‘E Rumì d’ Santa Mareja (the Holy Mary’s Pilgrim)- as he was called by the people- is a real person who has been living in the nineteenth century on the streets of Romagna lowland.
The musician Francesco Balilla Pratella described him as a beggar who used to chant a prayer to the Vergin Mary in the market places or on the threshold of houses in exchange for a piece of bread.
The world seen with the eyes of a simple and vagabond soul is a continuous changing of colours views and seasons. An enchanted place made of nature and animal sounds, transfigured by ancient human uses and legends.
Rumì is a metaphor for travel as a discover of the boundless territory of the soul.
A travel which could take us far away, besides the known world, or which simply can be circumscribed in few squared kilometres walked by the wayfarer during his lifetime.
Rumì è - Luisa Cottifogli
Press
“Fascinating and magnificent: a great record which crowns a great artist’s birth”
G.M. Il Sole 24 ore
“The many dialects of Italy can give the emotion of truly exotic world tunes. Luisa Cottifogli, with the stage name of Lu, uses Romagnolo dialect to produce sounds which range from Area (progressive rock) to suggestions between afro and celtic. How brilliant she is!”A.A. Il Venerdì di Repubblica
“Timeless and unclassifiable: this record is a little gem you just must not miss!”
F.S. Musica e dischi Magazine
“An operation of dazzling beauty…nothing nostalgic or traditionalist in this post-folk work serving to a moving voice”R.C. Io Donna-Corriere della Sera
“Enchanting poetries, from the first to the last note”Il Manifesto
“Luisa Cottifogli explores her multi-ethnic vein with great intensity”
Rai Radio3 Il Terzo Anello
“Luisa really owns a high-class voice and keeps her balance among ethnic roots, contemporaneous music and the right dose of electronics F.Z Il Messaggero
“In eleven traces Lu sets to music and mix Romagnolo traditional texts with sacred hymns, ethnic passages with classic music, and she adds electronics to smooth distances and put everything together in the name of a refined homogeneity”
V.F. Muz Rock Magazine
“Experimentation, jazz, research on tradition then Quintorigo, Mozart, video-installations. Over all the varied singing of a free artist”
S.Z. World Music Magazine
“The folk territory , mixed with references to world, electronic, pop and jazz music, strongly comes out from Lu’s musical message”
F.L. La Repubblica
“You won’t find any banal folk, but plenty of rhythm and nimbleness due to her flexible and powerful voice. There aren’t many fine female personalities : she is a rare diamond”
G.C. Beat Magazine
“A wonderful experimentalist vocal style and a soft electronic background magically meet the early Romagnolo dialect and a clear oriental feature”
G.M. Alias - Il Manifesto
“…from folk to jazz, pop, electronics, sacred music and classic tunes contaminated by popular tradition… a new language of great expressiveness”
S.D. Suono
“LU, the new Quintorigo’s voice, signs her intense soloist work, a travel in search of Romagnolo roots and of a country which becomes exotic”
G.G. Carta Magazin
“Lu’s voice, sometimes sharp, sometimes soft, always rises steadily from music which skilfully combines traditional instruments with technology”
R.C. Jam
“Eleven pieces, colourful and wide like Lu’s vocal range, moving and waving like the geographic extent and variety of her culture and music references”
P.T. Il Tempo
“Lady Quintorigo is a great traveller…among the rhythms of Rumì you can feel the need for considering music as a research. And Cottifogli’s voice is the best way to arrive farther and farther”
E.C. XL
“Rumì, a figure coming from far away…Luisa knows how to take us back to the indefiniteness of those mists, with a stateless lightness”
G.M. Insound
“Between ethnic and electronic… a travel inside the folk magic”
F.F. L’Unità
“What is astonishing in the record presented by Lu… is the agility in crossing geographical and musical borders … she comes out with one of the most interesting voices in the Italian survey”
E.C. Left
“Rumì… is so imbued of Romagna that it captures its language, legends and miths”
L.B. Il Resto del Carlino
“…music, even with capital “M”. Since the thousands of nuances of Cottifogli’s culture are amplified by a vocality which is extraordinary to say the least, and by the use of a language ancient and reinvented at the same time. And these nuances converge in a really personal style”
G.S. Audio Review
“Lu is a world music talent with extraordinary potential. Trained classicaly, she weaves Renaissance and Baroque elements, Middle Eastern sounds and African rhythms into seamless musical tapestries”
D.H. Los Angeles Times