Terre Differenti

Terre differenti is an Italian world-fusion ensemble which with "Cities of Dreams" has released their second cd. The band originally exists out of five musicians but on this cd they are with fourteen in total. With both traditional and modern instruments they create a whole new world in sound.

Mixing ancient music with ambient, electronics and jazz, their music listens like I'm on a trip around the world. I hear an angel whispering to me in "Different Lands", feel the rainforest in "God of Thunder" and taste the darkness in "Under moons of Jade". This music is like a modern symphony or a musical fairy tale. It's the ambient style that dominates the music mostly on the cd. It has some beautiful moments with exiting and surprising music. But it also sounds a bit mannered on several occasions as if the urge of creating something new was bigger than the urge to make music. An intriguing cd made by a creative group of musicians. But for me personally it feels more like music from the mind than music from the heart and I'm afraid that in the end I will like the music from the heart more. - Folk World

Terre Differenti is an Italian world fusion music project headed by keyboardist and programmer Fabio Armani. It mixes world, jazz, electronic and progressive rock.

The major influence is Middle Eastern. The songs are anchored by percussion, some played by Alessandro D'Aloia, and some electronically generated by Armani. Armani's keyboards, particularly synthesisizer, are also a key element of the sound.

The new age influence leads the first track, "Different Lands", as Yasemin Sannino's whispered voice comes in with, "Once again, I have traveled of different lands / distant / lost beyond my sight / My skin so different / My hands like black dust," over Marco Conti's saxophone. The second track, "God of Thunder", combines saxophone with a thumb piano and African percussion. The sax gets a bit "out" as the song builds, before it falls into just percussion and chanting.

In "Kam ma Kam" guest Houcine Ata joins Antonini's vocals with Arabic singing (Antonini sings in English throughout most of the CD). "Flower of Sorrow" is a quieter song, featuring Miguel Fernandez's acoustic guitar and Conti's sax. Guest Cristiano Serino adds a bit of gypsy influence with his violin.

"Under Moons of Jade" contains Antonini's over-tracked singing with a guitar that sounds like a sitar and percussion, and guest Abdullah Mohamed on native flutes. "Jaded Moons" contrasts Conti's hard bop sax with a combination of smooth synth background and percussion, and Antonini's minor key singing. "Splinters of Reality" is progressive rock, with Fernandez playing electric guitar backed by Armani's synths.

Both Antonini's English and singing are perfect, adding a unique element to the sound. The CD explores many different styles, with some parts even reminiscent of Page/Plant's world music explorations.

This CD might be a shade overproduced, and the lyrics are occasionally a little too flowery and new age. Other than that, with its many different moods and influences, it is a welcome addition to the world fusion genre. - Rambles

Fragments of a long trip, ordered between multiple sonorous aptitudes, capture the soul in a game of returns and artistic cohabitation of a static emotion.
That is “Cities of Dreams”, second album of the world-music project “Terre Differenti”, original and fascinating creation delivered and developed by composer Fabio Armani.
The album is composed of thirteen pieces with sounds of great interest between jazz, ethnic, electronic and new-age often emphasized of an experimental musical but determined research, dreaming but concrete, visionary and human.
Technically the album is plenty of excellent performances: the musicians that support Armani know how to represent the spirit of “Terre Differenti”, and they show this with very high level performances.

... The moments that mostly capture the listening are instrumental performances; it’s difficult not to rest delighted by the Canterbury jazz atmosphere of “Flowers of Sorrow” or of the progressive phrases of “Splinters of Reality”. - Extramusic

After "Terre Differenti" here it is issued "Cities of Dreams", the second work of the musical project created by Fabio Armani, classic, jazz and electronic composer. The CD is a refined selection of experimental sounds and rhythms of avant-garde. All the tracks are characterized by a sense of belonging to the Earth. The work, offering a changing and heterogeneus style, perfectly mixes technical innovation and ancestral feelings.
Let's listen to the whispering and surrounding "Different Lands", to dwell upon the Arabian sounds of "Beyond the Dunes" ... and then let us wave on the notes of "Dance for the Moon" continuing our journey with "Lost in her World" the song that, more than others, reveals rock influences. - Gufetto

Where is the border line between dream and reality? Which city, dwelling, or landscape does our dreamlike wandering visit most in our mind's journeys?
And what is the catalyst forever capable of inspiring a flight of fancy from our daily and repetitive activities, bringing us to endless planes of fantasy, amidst sun drenched deserts or luxurious hills?
Music reigns over all of this.
Capable of raising our spirit and of arousing our emotions in time and in step with the rhythms of nature.
Composer Fabio Armani is the artistic director of the multi-ethnic ensemble Terre Differenti (Different Lands), and his latest album "Cities of Dreams" produced by Opensound is a splendid example of how these deep-rooted and ancestral mechanisms can move beyond rationality and open the vulnerable doors to emotion.

A long nurtured project, a beautiful result, with a wide range of ethnic instruments and vocals of a stunning purity. A search for transversal and inspiring sonorities is dominant, leaving a taste of ancestral heritage without a distinct location but characterised by a very strong evocative power.
An unusual journey through the limitless territory of the imagination towards "different" lands which are extraordinarily personal and intimately unique, portrayed and created by one's own fantasy.

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It is difficult to imagine that an album like this will have a wide distribution within easily accessible music channels. Though true that in some parts there is a resemblance to sounds which characterize groups such as Enigma, and some Oldfield-like expressions may be appreciated more widely, the majority of the tracks need to be listened to carefully and with a degree of sensitivity. The varied layering of genres makes it a transversal piece, which was in the composer's intentions, and brings it close to the ethnic atmospheres of artists such as Peter Gabriel (Passion) or certain oriental music (Nithin Sawney or even the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). The objective is to reach the roots of sound itself, where the distinction between jazz and rock, or between Arab or Western ethnic music becomes blurred, and where nothing can stop sound from permeating in the soul's meanders. I believe Fabio Armani together with his troop of fantastic musicians has succeeded in this, mastering this art firmly. A work of great sensibility and beautiful contaminations which I don't believe can go unnoticed in an often desolated setting of today's musical scene. - Peter's Friend