The first self-titled album of the small Sicilian folk orchestra "Angelo Daddelli & i Picciotti" (800A Records) was released on 21st February: eight powerful and visceral tracks - including unpublished songs and songs of the Sicilian popular tradition - capable of restoring the essence of the Sicilian identity; themes of love, work, suffering, satire, double senses on couple relationships, childish songs that surround a provocation that the group wants to launch in sicilian dialect: "Si Resti Arrinesci". The first single and the videoclip "Ti ti ti" is online now

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEW7nhfjySg

"The history taught us that the forced emigration from Sicily (with its consequent depopulation and impoverishment) as an inevitable destiny and tolerating it is normal - explains Angelo Daddelli, founder of the group -. With this project we want to turn on a light to this dramatic phenomenon that many pretend not to see, first of all the actors of our Sicilian politics. This spotlight is to be turned on by the movement "Si Resti Arrinesci", that was born trying to instill as much as possible self-esteem to the Sicilians and encourage them to improve and keep their attention high on those who govern this extraordinary land.”

A target that the group composed of Angelo Salvatore Daddelli (voice, guitar, friscalettu, recorder), Mattia Franchina (double bass, choirs), Nino Nobile (mandolin, mandola, guitar, choirs), Marco Macaluso (accordion, choirs) and Alessio Oliva (percussions, choirs) wants to achieve through the actualization of that music that has belonged and belongs to the history of Sicily, which has also been a point of reference and inspiration for different composers such as for example Johann Sebastian Bach, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti.
And also through the exclusive use of acoustic instruments such as classical guitar, double bass, mandolin, mandola, tambourine, cianciane (cymbals), accordion, marranzano (jaw harp) and friscalettu (which characterizes the Sicilian tarantella and all other pieces "Friscati",) a thousand-year-old and indigenous instrument of Sicily, deriving, and evolution itself, from the Greek flute that accompanied the first western poetic-musical compositions: the result is timeless music, capable of restoring the essence of identity Sicilian.

The disc opens with "U puddicinu", a popular Sicilian song, also known as "A lu mircatu", which is part of the songs that were once sung to children, enriched by original musical interludes, entrusted to the accordion, the mandolin and the "abbanniata" (shrieked sing) that evokes the voices among the voices of Sicily issued by the sellers of the historical and local markets. "Ti ti ti" is the song that specifically deals with the drama of Sicilian emigration and the melancholy that arises from it and that often resurfaces in the memories lived during the anniversaries. The third track is "Balletto Palmese", moderate instrumental piece for friscalettu in the time of 6/8, typical time of many Sicilian dances: "The first section of the piece consists of a melody that my grandfather Santoro Di Franco used to sing to me as a child. Palma di Montechiaro in the province of Agrigento”, says Angelo Daddelli. The next is "Abballati", one of the best-known dance songs of the Sicilian tradition, the text that has been re-proposed is almost identical to that collected between the late 1800s and early 1900s - sung by women in the Palermo courtyards and also known like Chiovu - by Alberto Favara in the Corpus of Sicilian Popular Music. "Fantasia Mediterranea” is a song that was born playing the friscalettu with the gaze turned to one of the most representative monuments of the Arab-Norman architecture of Palermo, the Church of San Cataldo: closing your eyes you have the impression of traveling between the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Sounds that start from Sicily, travel through the Maghreb and return to the starting point through the south of the Iberian Peninsula. We then move on to "Comu si beddra", the original ballad that tells the courtship in its simplest manifestation. "Santa Rosalia" is a sort of “trionfo di Santa Rosalia” of our time, a song dedicated to the patron saint of Palermo, an important figure for both believers and non-believers. The text and the music are born by impersonating this double vision that sanctity impresses on the collective imagination, between storytellers and prayer. The album ends with "Vicariota", a song with popular lyrics and original music. It is a song whose text, except for one verse - probably due to a transcription error - is made up of hendecasyllabic couplets: “in the late 90's, on a warm September morning, I found myself harvesting in the countryside around Palma di Montechiaro - says the founder of the small orchestra - for that day I had as an ‘companion to spin’ an elderly ex-prisoner who used to tell stories and anecdotes of all kinds, on that occasion I heard him recite verses concerning the environment of the carzaru (prison). Of those verses, the first and last couplet remained impressed on my mind. About ten years after this event - continues the Sicilian musician - I found myself in a library along the Cassaro of Palermo leafing through the Corpus di Musiche Popolari Siciliane by Alberto Favara at the song number 54 I found with great amazement the verses that u Zù Tanu (the uncle Tano) sang on that afternoon 10 years earlier. This is the testimony that after about 100 years in that area of ​​Sicily the same, or almost, verses circulate.