With Volume 2 of "Myth & History," Italian composer Giacomo Dell'Orso continues to delve into ancient history and mythology, this time crafting a small collection inspired by Homeric epics and the rich civilizations of Sumer and Crete.
Across eleven tracks imbued with mystical and ethereal atmospheres, Dell'Orso employs an almost philological approach to instrumentation, weaving a musical narrative that seeks to transport the listener back to the stories and settings of that ancient past.
Like its predecessor, this second volume, recorded alongside the first and third in a single session in Rome, evocatively resurrects the soundscape of ages past, breathing life into it through the expressive interplay of percussion, psalm-like vocals (featuring the exquisite soprano Edda Dell'Orso, wife of the composer), gongs, flutes, flugelhorns (masterfully played by Cicci Santucci), argilophones, laminophones, and mechanical zithers (the latter three played by Dell'Orso himself).
As the notes cascade through time, Dell'Orso's musical tapestry unfolds, beckoning the listener to step into the echoes of bygone eras. Each composition, be it solemn- and ritualistic-sounding like "Mura di Uruk" and "Ikkibu," or more expansive and abstract like "Marduk e Tiamat" and "Andromaca e Astianatte," serves as a magic key to the door of antiquity.