MP3 Ariella Uliano - Leave Only Your Footsteps Behind

A sleek minimalist album of folk pop original songs, early music, Italian traditionals and Celtic balladry from the city and the coast, with a vibrant contemporary edge, a pure voice, stunning photography: a very elegant artistic product.

11 MP3 Songs in this album (42:55) !
Related styles: FOLK: Folk Pop, FOLK: Celtic Folk

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Details:
After an intense and emotional trip to the Isle of Wight, I came back to London with a tune and a few words playing in my head: Leave Only Your Footsteps Behind. Long stretches of the beautiful coast that I had visited and loved a few years before, had subsequently been transformed into costly residential estates and made inaccessible to walkers. Nonetheless, we kept walking West and discovered sceneries, colours, smells, sounds and the pure energy of a land apparently untouched by manâs technology.

Southbank River Song is a London song. I have a dear friend, Ruth, who lives opposite the Tower, on the South Bank. From her window I can see the Thames and Tower Bridge. To go to her I often walk along the embankment from Waterloo station: I mingle with the crowd and I lose myself. Itâs like walking in the air, above the waves of soft voices and footsteps and the gentle sounds rising from the river.

I travelled to Italy in the early spring to finish recording this album and stayed two weeks in a small resort on the Adriatic coast. At times the Adriatic Sea reminds me of the English Channel or the North Sea: the mist and the northerly winds carry with them an element of magic. So, for a few days, the small Italian town with its sandy beach provided the ideal setting for the recording of House Carpenter and Allan Water. The surrounding countryside, with its medieval castles and ancient hilltop villages, was also a source of inspiration while working with the local musicians on The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies, O My Loveâs Like a Red, Red Rose and The False Bride. With regard to the latter, it is interesting to note that the âfalse brideâ theme appeared for the first time in Europe in the frame-story of Lo Cunto de li Cunti, the earliest collection of traditional fairy-tales, compiled in Italy by the writer, poet and courtier Giambattista Basile in 1634-6.

This work, written in the dialect of Naples, exerted great influence upon antiquarians, poets and writers of the Romantic era. This brings me to La Siminzina (the pretty seed) a lullaby from Sicily. I learned it from a Sicilian lady who lives in Milan and all my friends and fellow musicians fell in love with it. The English version is mine, translated directly from the dialect. Again, the lyrics of La Siminzina and those of House Carpenter have something in common. Both stories tell of a supernatural creature (the Saint/the Lover) coming to take a mortal away (the Child/the Wife).

As usual, I have included two early dances in the programme: Mr. Beveridgeâs Maggot and Minuet, chosen from the repertoire we perform with a London-based dance company. However, the musical arrangements I devised for them are, as my friend Paul would say, rather quirky, as usualâ¦says I!

Finally, Untitled is a song by Renzo that I managed to rescue from the recycle bin. He had been humming and playing the tune for a few nights, when he suddenly got tired of it and left it there, as if it had never been created!