Aneis Guitar Duo - Camelia Blanca: A Day with the Flower of South American Music (2019)

Antonino Ielo and Giordano Brandini, both natives of Arezzo, met in 2007 during their studies at the Cosenza Conservatory (Calabria, Italy) in the guitar class of Giorgio Albiani and became the Aneis Guitar Duo in 2014, after various experiences in different ensembles and as soloists. The sounds, colours and suggestive atmospheres of the music in Latin America spawned this musical union (the term “Aneis” in the Portuguese means “Rings”), and this first CD may be considered as a project of thanks. Source of inspiration was a verse by Federico Garcia Lorca from Poema de la siguiriya gitana “Arena del Sur caliente que pide camelias blancas” [“Hot southern sands yearning for white camellias”]. This flower has the fragrance and flavours of South America, a crossroads of peoples, cultures and nations that constantly recalls that “Sur Caliente”, its sensual and moving liveliness. Moreover, in flower language, offering a white camellia means esteem and admiration. In light of these reasons, the title was chosen. As a flower life, a short journey from the soulful sound of “Agua y Vinho” to the emotional song of “Alfonsina Y el Mar”, dedicated to the Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni, who lost her life in the waves of the sea. From the sweet “Quem Sabe” where the eternal poetic theme of love, with its sufferings, speaks to the human heart to the in the intense “Canción del árbol del olvido” where the fatal wound of heartbreak shreds the soul. Sound that only a “llanto de una guitarra” [the cry of a guitar] can magnify. The music move onward and reaches the dance, from the most famous tangos and milongas like “Primera Clase”, “Oblivion”, “La Trampera” and “Milonga de mis Amores” and the Caribbean crisp of “Cuban Dance” to the huayno folklore and rasguido doble of “A Miguel” and “La Pichunguita”. Trait d’union is the tango-song “Por una cabeza”, widely used as a musical theme in many successful movies. It is the expression and synthesis of constant feelings such as melancholy, nostalgia, sensuality, passion, impetuosity.