Fuoco Sacro (Sacred Fire) is the second duo album of Italian flutist Stefano Leonardi and cellist (and double bass player) Antonio Bertoni, following Viandes (Astral Spirits, 2021. The duo project was based on Leonardi’s quintet albums that featured hosted Bertoni (L’Eterno and Aura, Leo, 2018 and 2020), and pushed the acoustic sonic palette of these albums even further.
The duo format of flutist with cellist is quite rare and the closest one you can think of is of American cellist Abdul Wadud with reed player Julius Hemphill or with flutist James Newton that was deeply rooted in the jazz legacy. Leonardi and Bertoni are well-versed in the jazz legacy but are not musicians who can be easily associated with a specific genre, style, or tradition. Leonardi plays on Fuoco Sacro on an array of flutes and traditional reed instruments – bass flute, tumbu (Sardinian launeddas), Turkish dilli kaval, an Etruscan alabaster flute, and the Chinese bass xun. Bertoni expands his arsenal with African string instruments – bolon, guimbri, ngoni, and the njarka violin and adds drums, percussion, and waterphone. Both Leonardi and Bertoni often sound like a much bigger ensemble than just a duo.
The album was recorded live by Bertoni (who later mixed and mastered it)in July 2021, with no overdubs or effects. The free improvised music navigates seamlessly across imagined and timeless Middle-Eastern, Mediterranean, and African territories, flirting with spiritual, hypnotic rituals and dances of modern whirling dervishes or Gnawa mystics, but insists on a personal spirit that does not subscribe to a distinct era, tradition, or sound system. Leonardi and Bertoni’s immediate and powerful conversational dynamics keep the music fresh, openly emotional, and with strong sensibilities of sonic search, timbral exploration, and risk-taking. The profound and rich musical traditions are used as vehicles for tactile sensitivity through sound. This album ends with the only traditional prayer, “Havun Havun” by Armenian mystical poet-monk-theologian Grigor Narekatsi matched with fellow Armenian composer Makar Yekmalyan’s “Amen Hayr Surb”, with Leonardi reciting its serene, meditative theme while Bertoni charges it with a irreverent, resonant percussive sound, capturing best the essence of the duo.
Fuoco Sacro is an inspired sound lab or an evocative sonic journey that blends deep knowledge and the uplifting joy of invention and exploration. But on a deeper level, this album, like Viandes before, offers an illuminating lesson – or a most humane story – about how close our cultural legacies and histories are and how they respected, fed, and benefited from each other. A lesson about sharing, compassion, and rare beauty.
Stefano Leonardi (flue, bass flute, tumbu, dilli kaval, alabaster flute, bass xun); Antonio Bertoni (cello, bolon, guimbri, ngoni, njarka violin, drums, percussion, and waterphone).
