Lassatil Abballari / Italy
The main artistic idea that accompanies the Lassatil Abballari ensemble is to make the audience dance, move and express their natural instincts through traditional forms of dance expression.
The members of the group are convinced that the listeners carried aloft by the music and rhythms of traditional dances can immerse themselves in the most beautiful things of the past, while remaining in the present. Direct experience of dance or at least listening to traditional music allows us to distance ourselves from everyday life. This is helped by simple, captivating and dynamic rhythms and emotional melodies played on instruments such as tambourine, guitar, accordion, flute, as well as various versions of bagpipes from different parts of Europe: the Italian zampogna, Scottish bagpipes and Galician gaita.
Thanks to the formula proposed by the group, the audience is not only a group of passive listeners, but becomes an important and active part of the performance. Dances such as the Franco-Belgian bourrée, Galician muiñeira and alborada, Breton an dro, tarantella, pizzica and tammurriata from southern Italy, Jewish and East European dances, Irish jigs and reels, are the way to go. The encounter with the group consists of over an hour of music and dance, during which you can see and hear instruments and music from many European countries.
Lassatil Abballari was formed in 2008 as a result of a musical encounter of Michel Piccione and Benedetto Basile. Over the years, many musicians appeared in the ensemble – some of them stayed, others went their own way. In 2012, the artists met the well-known Italian folk singer, Eugenio Bennato, with whom they began a fruitful artistic collaboration.
Michele Piccione – vocals, frame drums, darbuka, cajón, bouzouki, chitarra battente, Scottish bagpipes, gaita gallega (Galician bagpipes), zampogna a chiave (Italian bagpipes), zampogna a paru (Sicilian bagpipes)
Benedetto Basile – flutes, vocals, frame drums
Barbara Crescimanno – vocals, frame drums, percussion instruments, dance
Marco Macaluso – accordion, vocals
Ciccio Piras – vocals, guitar, bass drum, spoons, button accordion
The concert took place in 2019.