Bengaluru: You can't help but dance! That's a promise the members of Kalascima, the psychedelic trance tarantella (you heard that correctly, yes) ensemble from Southern Italy always make to their audiences. “
When we arrived in India, we had been told that people here don't dance very much, but they did every time," said Massimilliano de Marco, the ensemble's strings man.
De Marco plays classical and acoustic guitars, the bouzouki, mandolin, ukulele as well as pitching in for the vocals - that sounds like a staggering number of things to do, but that's the way it is with Kalascima! All of them began learning music when they were about six years old and had formed their band by the time they were in secondary school. Audiences in Bengaluru will get their first taste of this "forward-looking, traditional thinking" band, as they describe themselves, this evening at BFlat.
Their genre of music originates in the Italian province of Taranto, Apulla and gets its name from the tarantula, the wolf spider from the region. "Legend has it that the music was used as a ritual to cleanse people who had been bitten by the spider," said Sandro, the band's sound engineer, as they all chatted with Deccan Chronicle on the eve of their gig, shortly after they arrived in the city from Chennai. The bite of the tarantula was believed to have resulted in a condition called tarantism, which was akin to hysteria. The music evolved as a ritualistic form of exorcism, although Sandro adds, that today, it's "a party thing!"
He explained, "Now, the music is used to cure people of social ills, instead of physical ones." Incidentally, its effects on the endocrine system are now an object of research.
"When they're playing back home, they use nearly 30 instruments, including the harmonica, tamburello, riq, djembe, zampogna (Italian bagpipe), traverse flute, a bass guitar and a synth bass. "Transporting so many instruments overseas is a bit of a challenge," De Marco admitted, so they stick with the essentials - guitars, bag pipes, bouzouki, percussion, bass and a synthesizer.
"We started travelling the world over the last five years, met with a lot of musicians and began weaving in more modern influences," said De Marco. “Also, we're young guys and we do like electronica. That's why we decided to give the world tarantella like it had never been heard before!' One of their biggest collaborations is with Ludovico Einaudi, the world renowned composer, who, they remark proudly, did the soundtrack for Russel Crowe's 2014 film, The Water Diviner.
“They learned not just how to play instruments, but to take the music to the hearts of the people," said Sandro. “That's what music is supposed to do, serve as a cleanser of evil.” The band will perform tonight at BFlat in Indiranagar from 8.30 pm onwards.
