Leiðarvísir is the debut album by Wadi, musical project, promoted and supported by the Fondazione Merz in collaboration with hopefulmonster editore and Almendra Music
On the occasion of the publication of the project (on sale on http://wadimusic.bandcamp.com), the Fondazione Merz, hopefulmonster editore and Almendra Music are arranging a series of appointments on the Fondazione’s YouTube and Facebook channels with leading exponents from different disciplines: Mariateresa Crosta, researcher INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino; Matteo Meschiari, anthropologist, geographer and writer and Angelica Cathariou, opera singer.
On 26 May 2021 will also ake place a plenary session moderated by journalist Eleonora Lombardo and with Per Barclay, Marco Betta, Gianluca Cangemi, Angelica Cathariou, Mariateresa Crosta, Willy Merz, Matteo Meschiari and Costanza Minafra.
Leiðarvísir” (“itinerary, guide” in Icelandic) is the utopia of a world that does not resign itself to the inevitability of climate and civilisation catastrophe, amidst pandemics and increasing social precariousness. In the spirit of widespread alarm, “Leiðarvísir” contrasts this with an imagery that is both ancient and very topical, aimed at remapping the paths of sensitivity and imagination.
“Leiðarvísir” presents itself as a fascinating “voyage into voyages” following the paths of today’s and yesterday’s songs, inhabited and narrated by specific individuals but which, written and re-woven, become shared experiences in listening: something we need today, shut away in our homes, disoriented by the collapse of decades of unbridled individualism, the orphans of stories, places and intelligent collective tales.
The visual project of “Leiðarvísir” has been specially conceived by Norwegian artist Per Barclay. The artist activates a dialogue between the images of an ancient Norse drakkar – evocative of historical and hazardous journeys – and the rider of a famous palazzo in Palermo. The juxtaposition of the images suggests a double reflection on time and space, past and present, and questions the possibilities of language and the encounter between idea and possibility, journey and destination: an enigma made of abysses, suspended across the centuries.
The Wadi project was born in 2018, on the initiative and with the support of the Fondazione Merz in Palermo, to connect the best Sicilian talents with the looks and sound visions of the contemporary scene. The Arabic word “Wadi” indicates the bed of a torrent with an irregular hydrogeological structure, whose fertile land is a promise of rich cultivation, civilisation and exchange.
The production of “Leiðarvísir” has been developed in collaboration with the producers of the Palermo-based Almendra Music, which once again shows itself to be more of a musical laboratory than a mere record label, attentive as it is to making best use of today’ babel of styles in strong and coherent releases, in which the technological tools of the phonographic art are placed at the service of products capable of reconciling roots, emotions, individual technique and experimentation.
Leiðarvísir è in prevendita su http://wadimusic.bandcamp.com
