AGRICANTUS by tonj ACQUAVIVA

“Millennium Klima” is the last record, full of suggestions, of the eclectic musician of Palermo.
simply a record that raises a key question: 
Music that comes from Earth and draws its lifeblood from the most mysterious corners of the globe.
A song of thanksgiving for nature and for its action against the man.
More simply, a record that raises a crucial question:
What will happen to the sounds of the world, if the people who create them disappear from the face of the planet?  
This is the basic theme that runs through the music of "Millenium Klima", the new recording effort of Tonj Acquaviva. The eclectic musician of Palermo, "son of the world," as he likes to be defined, created, along with its historical "adventure partner" Rosie Wiederkehr, a disc full of amazing suggestions, alternating soft sound lines and moments of electronic trance. At the bottom of the disk,..., there is a even more ambitious project: Weltlabirinth, which is the label that produced it, the result of fruitful meetings between music and visual arts, with particular attention to the European avant-garde. Weltlabirinth is not only music, but love for the environment and the "lower races".
No coincidence that the project created by Acquaviva together with the set designer and visual artist Natacha Claudine Tanzilli, is born from a collaboration with the UN, to raise awareness on sustainable development of Mediterranean countries.
"A survey on the health of the planet." Thus the musician and singer of Palermo calls his new album
that carries the legacy of the Agricantus world, which Acquaviva was the historical founder, projecting into the future, to new musical trends.
At the realization of the Millenium Klima ", as well, the persuasive voice of Wiederkehr’s, who is also co-author of almost all the texts, were: Edoardo Massimi on guitars, Duilio Galioto on on Bass the actress and performer, H.E.R. on electric violin. In fact, in the disc, the suggestions and colors of the world are not lacking.
Located in San Vito Lo Capo, the delightful seaside town of Trapani: "Bukuto"
the overture to the CD, takes its title from a cove of the sea near the Sicilian village,
where there is a lookout tower and a water source.
The song was also made a video from Natacha Tanzilli and Sam Cole, including animations and images, against the backdrop of a world poised between dream and environmental tragedy.
This is followed by the sound of the Sicilian dialect in "Ciuri Assai" a call "invitation being, regardless of the results you get." Then it was the turn of the rhythms layered
and psychedelic in "Unexplored", followed by "Weltlabyrinth", a song on the tribal-dance on the manipulation of information and the power of plagiarism.
The piece that gives the title track, "Millennium Klima" is, however, a hypnotic passage through the sounds of various musical journeys, from the sounds of Tuareg guitar to that of the Andean wind instruments, up to the Sicilian “Abbanniata”, all developed with the electronics support.
We could not miss a tribute to Mother Earth "Cybele”, a tammurriata dedicated to the goddess of nature, animals and wild places.
After "Mangiate Pietà", "Impermanence", "Desertificaciòn”, the disc ends with “Je t'ai trouvé", a love song to end a trip with the hope to meet again.
- BALARM Magazine agosto/settembre 2009 - GIULIO GIALLOMBARDO

Often, the music follows along the course of so diachronic reality and history of the place where they have been the cradle, sometimes this way survives in its many dimensions local persisting in those traditional sounds that are native and come up with the folklore day. Rarely instead this former soul of the people can be twisted to the canons of modern music, and when this happens, the result is that there is much more than a genre or a musical project: a mission.
It is this group, whose name means "song of the grain," to possess the strong character of those who want to ring again and rediscover the reasons for ethnic music and atmosphere that characterize both the Mediterranean and the different cultures of its peoples. For nearly two decades, in fact, Agricantus successfully create a sound where the tradition meets the avant-garde sounds to create a genre that embraces many genres never 'find' their own.

The Band is a team of skilled musicians from Palermo: First of all, the charismatic leader of the group Tonj Acquaviva (vocals, percussion), Mario Crispi (ethnic instruments) and to follow the Swiss singer Rosie Wiederkerhr that, with its unique voice, she contributed to the expression of the contamination to which the band has continually turn.
Thus, starting from the first album markedly folk, experimental sound of the group has gradually found its fulcrum in the features distinctly Middle Eastern ambient music sealed the lyrics of the songs written and sung in Sicilian. ... It is a timeless music. It is the lament of the Berber women, the sounds of North African tribes, is the song of the Tuareg and their passion.
The album that we meet 'covering' their careers by mixing vocals really sound that starts to move grounds eastern Sicily, through hypnotic melodies. ... And do not despise, among other things, the use of texts in Spanish, French, German, English and Latin. A multicultural agglomeration in short, that can only fascinate with its myriad forms. ...
- Megaron Online - lunedì 2 febbraio 2009  Francesco Buscemi

Tonj ACQUAVIVA (Agricantus) is the organizer of a project that has as its objective the drought emergency in Africa
It is possible to irrigate the desert with a song? Fighting drought with music? Extinguish your thirst with a video clip? These questions must Tonj Acquaviva asked to himself several times before finding the answer. For many years the leader of Agricantus, perhaps the most famous Italian world music group, has managed to translate the soul of the traveler and his love for music projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
His works live on the contamination between ethnic instruments and electronics, spoken languages and dialects brought from the desert wind. The last album 'Millennium Klima' is no exception. Even here, as usual, is the sound mixture between the voice of the singer and the Tonj Rosie Wiederkehr has set the emotional temperature. While the project 'Weltlabyrinth', born of a meeting / performance of music and visual arts, the avant-garde soul duo combines with a very concrete project, in collaboration with the UN, which has as its objective the emergency water.
Recall that on the planet more than one billion people lack access to drinking water and more than three hundred children a day die of thirst.
It is also expected in the coming decades more than 150 million people will leave the sub-Saharan Africa to Europe for the inexorable advance of desertification. The water, the desert, life death indeed are the themes evoked by video animation made to music by Tonj Acquaviva (Agricantus) by Natacha C. Tanzilli / Sam Cole, Bukuto. Images of a dream world poised between hope and tragedy. Fitil hope that through the project, a charity based in Burkina Faso, will result in a 'real help to fight the thirst of those people. Among other things, the construction of a series of reservoirs.
[...] - L’ESPRESSO - 30 giugno 2009 – di Alberto Dentice

Millenium Klima is a renewal, a new location where you explore sounds visionary and very little worldly. A journey full of suggestions.
Millenium Klima born by a fusion of two musical projects by Tonj Acquaviva founder and leader of the two, born in Palermo ...
In '79 he founded the band Agricantus, where he is artistic director and with which it has produced 10 albums that still are the pride of his career, in addition to having an important artistic partnership with Teresa De Sio.
After various experiments with Agricantus, considered the most important Italian band of World Music, using different languages and the historical voice of the singer Rosie Wiederkehr, and attention to social as evidenced by the collaboration with the UN on projects aimed environmental protection and the Mediterranean, Tonj Acquaviva continues to surprise and enchanted with Millennium Klima.
A record that supports the project of Fitil, Q Drum, to transport water from wells to villages in developing countries, but especially a mix of sounds and combinations, reverb and sound research.
An area to be explored through nine tracks, a perfect soundtrack for fantastic journeys, inspired by dreams and pure energy, exploring that world in which we live and which belongs to us, considering the possibilities, realities, atmosphere, environment, an eco system that is often missed. Tales of sound manipulation, in which the author demonstrates his versatility of multi-instrumentalist.
Halfway between dreams and visions, in Millenium Klima must immerse themselves in order to understand the meaning and to appreciate its peculiarities, beyond the melancholy earth, caring soul, the inner being, taking advantage of the positive energy and capturing those images full of light ethereal. A heavenly music that punctuates the life on earth.
- WHIPART - Annalisa Esposito - 02.08.2009

Born as an offshoot of the projects Agricantus and Weltlabyrinth, Tonj Acquaviva's new work continues - through the historic association with the singer Rosie Wiederkehr - the path of research and experimentation that characterized the artistic life of the sicilian musician. A album suspended between fascinations world and electronic with a look tended towards the European avant-garde sounds, when the unmistakable voice of Wiederkehr outlines an ideal unique sound.
- MONDOMIX N°5 estate 2009 - A.B.

From island to island, we find ourselves in a surreal Sicily, shaped like a frame drum and populated by Bolivian flutes, Asian strings and desert percussion, Wurlitzer, mellotron and keyboards by archaeologists, sequencers, electronic loops and other connective tissues. Everything you need to get lost in Weltlabyrinth (Labyrinth of the World), a project that combines Tonj, multi-instrumentalist / mind of Agricantus, and Rosie, his muse / Swiss. The so-called Millenium klima is their latest venture. There are, admittedly, clever moments chillout compilations, but go listen to everything, transcendent mode: it is a soundscape perfectly smooth, long routes unprecedented exploration, a journey into the world of music to discover that there are no islands.
- NTERNAZIONALE - luglio 2009 - Pier Andrea Canei  

It changed its name, has changed line-up, has seen a new record label but the soul of Agricantus now become Acquaviva, has remained the same.
We had left with the success of last album Luna Khina and now they are finally reborn in the ethereal harmonies of their new album Millenium Klima. The voices of Tonj Acquaviva and Rosie Wiederkehr so give birth to sound creations of great artistic maturity, finding a good blend of world music and sounds markedly ambient.
The jewel of this record work is the collaboration with the UN in the campaign to raise awareness of sustainable development in the Mediterranean, which emphasizes commitment to the vocation of the projects that protect ethnic minorities around the world are unfortunately slowly disappearing. Some tracks appear almost like hymns to nature and the desire to restore the balance of solidarity between peoples, is the case of Impermanence and CIURI ASSAI, delicate songs and wrapping in carpets of synth sounds, percussion and strings in an almost perfect balance . There are, moreover, clear compositional ideas drawn on twenty years of Agricantus stylistic repertoire which certainly create a solid foundation of this avant-garde ensemble.
But what never ceases to amaze, despite the time elapsed, is the eclectic genius of its creator Tonj Acquaviva, the multifaceted musician from Palermo, in fact, seems to play his compositions, ranging widely in alternating rhythms and vibrations but not never likely to lose their dominant leitmotif. The result can only be, therefore, an ambitious mix of ethnic atmosphere and chillout tunes, expertly mixed to create the suggestion that is as clear as mystical that almost inexhaustible still excites nicely. - MEGARON Online settembre 2009 - Francesco Buscemi

"Fans of world music will find Best of Agricantus hard to classify but featuring an excellent use of cross-cultural world music intonations. The vocal and instrumental traditions of Africa and the Middle East come together in this superb collection of hybrid musical sounds which feature a strong dance beat and excellent singing. Best of Agricantus is a strong example of blended world music which uses roots traditions to produce a new multicultural style." - "Reviewer's Bookwatch"

"...The album, a combination of Agricantus' best work from several previous records, has a distinctive international flavor, as well as definite dance appeal. From the opening track "Com'u ventu" a song from the Tuareg people of the central and western Sahara to "Disiu", which is Sicilian for desire and the melodic "Amatevi", inspired by a Berber lullaby, the songs keep you moving and guessing as to their meanings which are only briefly outlined in the cover. While mildly  reminiscent of dance sensation Deep Forest, who attempted to meld pygmy vocals with electronic instruments, Agricantus possesses a decidely more authentic sound from a larger variety of cultures. The songs on this album alone herald from Germany, Hungary, Albania and several north African traditions..."

- Beth Rose Middleton - "The California Aggie"

"Bouncing out of Palermo, in the south of Italy, Agricantus roll out a few of the highlights from ten years' worth of albums on their first U.S. release. Their name means "song of the wheat fields" in Latin, and Agricantus are down-to-earth, cultivating sounds from their native land, plus North Africa and the Middle East. While the songs are ethnic and folk-oriented. Agricantus also use programming, samples and loops. Best of Agricantus includes a Sicilian song of desire, a lullaby, a tale of a lost city and tune of gratitude..." - Stacy Mein - "Rhythm"

"On Best of Agricantus, the Italian electro-folkies do a highwire act over Mediterranean folk streams and pumping rhythm loops, trawling fragments of African and Middle Eastern sound in their wake. This tight, chant-groove brew takes them into Deep Forest territory, but they're applying modernism to roots rather than appropriating exotica." - "RollingStone" (Australia)