Sometimes, while tirelessly sifting the muddy waters in search of some sparkling golden specks, one could happen to be so lucky to get a well shaped pebble in the sieve: this record is one of these cases. The sophomore work by Stefano Leonardi and Antonio Bertoni, following their 2021 debut Viandes, Fuoco Sacro sees the duo delivering an excellent and mesmerizing record, released by the German Aut Records.
But who are we talking about? Leonardi is a self-taught flutist that along with traditional flutes also plays instruments from other cultures such as xun (China), dilli kaval (Turkey), koncovka (Slovakia), sulittus and launeddas (Sardegna). According to the bio notes of his website, he deepened and practiced improvisation with Stefano Benini and Geoff Warren, focusing on research on sound and its relationship with space, memory and time. Recordings of his original music have been released by Splasc(H) Records, Nu Bop Records, Leo Records and Astral Spirits. After long sessions spent to listen to Ian Anderson, Roland Kirk, Herbie Mann, Sam Most, James Moody, Dave Valentin, Nicola Stilo, he shifted to the likes of Jeremy Steig, Paul Horn, Yusef Lateef, then finally been struck by the less orthodox sounds of Eric Dolphy, Sam Rivers, James Newton, Julius Hemphill, Nicole Mitchell and Thomas Chapin. Bertoni, the partner in crime in this sonic adventure, is an eclectic musician with a personal, broadened vision, better known with his doppelganger Ongon, devoted to a fascinating mix of krautrock and afrocentric sounds. Trained as bassist/double bassist, he started playing metal, rock, jazz then radical impro, enlarging the scope to dance, theater and movies, before discovering the guimbri, the traditional strings instrument usually played in Morocco, Algeria and Mali and moving to new musical ethnic landscapes, without setting aside the intriguing use of electronics.
Fuoco Sacro is the amazing result from such interesting personalities. The combination of Black free jazz influences, ethnicity and electro set-up, is delivering feelings of abstract and ancestral worlds, always avoiding traditional paradigms, fusion short-cuts or pretty boring hippie-wise sounds of nature. Stefano adds the Etruscan (the pre Romans Italian civilisation) alabaster flute to his usual ammunition of flutes, while Antonio displays drums, percussion, waterphone, bolon, guimbri, ngoni and njarka violin for a final result that is never out of focus, tedious, predictable or trivial. Again, the key elements are the classy ability to chisel something intimate even inside a huge Cinerama of images that the record brings to our minds, along with the firm will to point the compass needle towards the Improv North. We are not aware of other Flutes/Drum duos, present or past (surely the Blog’s colleagues and readers will immediately refute us) but no issues at all, the crew of Stefano and Antonio will grant a really challenging trip and Fuoco Sacro is the well deserved price of admission on board.
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