Mattiu - SUR la SELVA
Rarities must be cherished and cared for. Especially when sung in Rhaeto-Romanic. SUR la SELVA (Radicalis Music) is the name of the work of the singer Mattiu from the Grisons mountains.
Rhaeto-Romanic, according to Wikipedia, is the residual dialect of Latin from the Roman province of Raetia. Largely ignoring discussions about subspecies and their designations, I found the term Alpine Romance to be quite appropriate in relation to Alpine Romance. After all, we find plenty of inspiration from mountains in Mattiu's songs.
The EP begins theatrically with Forza. The curtains open. The orchestra begs for attention. What begins softly develops into an encouraging manifesto. One feels the echo of the mountains on the skin. I do not come anyway to draw the comparison to the Italian language and its heartbreak pop songs. Yes, it comes close...
Apart from that, Mattiu mostly uses his voice with care and caution. Like an instrument, it is used for chords, harmonies and melodies. Keyword sea of sound. Strong phrases alternate with fine ones, but especially head voice sounds especially good with him.
The music is somewhere between pop and folk, too modern for folk, too indie for pop. It is very spherical music (especially Amitg)-due to the mountains?- that tells about everyday life. Buc Bia shows quite nicely this connection between tradition and modernity that runs through the whole album. Deep voices on one side - we all know this pitch effect - elegant clear vocals on the other.
For the next track Cun Colur, a rather quiet and steady song that is easy to sing along, there is the chorus in Rhaeto-Romanic. Language lesson in exciting:
"Jeu malegiel cun colur vinavon cun colur vinavon aschi bi, Jeu malegiel cun colur vinavon cun colur vinavon miu di" ("But I keep on painting with color so beautiful, I keep on painting with color my day with color").
The next sound pearl Siemi continues choral traditions. Pure goose bumps. As an old chorister, it touched of course and made me press the repeat button especially often.
Va Lunsch is the good mood song and invites ad hoc to bounce and swing along. Language barriers are forgotten when we belt out Va Lunsch and start to compete with mountain goats. A successful radio-ready closing song!
Overall, it has become a pretty exciting EP from an artist who manages to revive the tradition in a sophisticated modern setting. Latin is not as boring and dusty as one might think.
I'll book a language course then...
Listen and Repeat
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
