“Healing, inspiring, cathartic, comedic, dramatic, political, fantastical, the Filomena Campus Quartet is truly irreplicable in the British jazz scene.” Jazzwise
THEATRALIA, the new album from the Filomena Campus Quartet, released on 33Jazz Records, brings together original compositions where jazz and improvisation meet theatre, poetry and storytelling.
Sardinian-born, London-based vocalist, theatre-maker and academic Filomena Campus is back to World Heart Beat with her all-star quartet: long-time collaborators Steve Lodder on piano and keyboards, Charlie Pyne on double bass and voice, and Rod Youngs on drums. Acclaimed novelist Jonathan Coe has written the sleeve notes for THEATRALIA, an album in which music and literature are closely entangled.
Running through THEATRALIA is an exploration of female genealogy and vocality: voices inherited and rediscovered, silenced and reclaimed. The songs encounter women and female figures across different times and cultures, from the Janas of Sardinian tradition and Homer’s Sirens to pioneering Italian theatre-maker Franca Rame and the radical art of Niki de Saint Phalle. The song SHE reflects on women, migration and displacement, while the album cover features a portrait by Sardinian artist Gina Tondo.
The late Italian writer and satirist Stefano Benni, a close friend and creative collaborator of Campus, is an important presence on the album. His fusion of satire, comedy and political engagement has deeply shaped Campus’s approach to performance. Song of a Siren opens with words from Benni’s Sagrademari. At the same time, Franca, based on his poem dedicated to Rame, translated and adapted by Campus and set to music by Lodder, incorporates Benni’s own voice captured during a live performance with Campus and the quartet in London.
Theatralia is also the name of the theatre company founded by Campus in London in 2003. The album grows from the same idea of Theatralia as a shared creative space where different artistic languages coexist. Its geography is rooted in a bridge between Sardinia and London while reaching beyond both: E Mi Drommia draws on Sardinian poetry and childhood stories passed from grandmother to granddaughter; Unsettled (Status) is an affectionate and bittersweet love letter to London; and Shanghai to Nanjing was born from a journey through China.
Filomena Campus is the kind of artist who refuses to live in one lane. […] Campus has consistently shaped work that feels both fearless and finely crafted. Occhi magazine
A highly distinctive presence on the European jazz scene Jonathan Coe
Biography
Award-winning vocalist, lyricist, theatre maker, and academic Dr Filomena Campus is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary jazz. Born in Sardinia and based in London, she creates original work that brings together jazz, improvisation, theatre, literature, and storytelling.
Recently honoured as a Cavaliera of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Campus has collaborated with leading innovators including Orphy Robinson, Cleveland Watkiss, Rowland Sutherland, Maggie Nicols, Steve Williamson, Laura Cole, Byron Wallen, Jean Toussaint, Ruth Goller, Kenny Wheeler, Evan Parker, and the London Improvisers Orchestra, as well as fellow Sardinian musicians Paolo Fresu, Gavino Murgia, and Antonello Salis. Her performances have captivated audiences at festivals and venues across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Filomena Campus – vocals & effects
Steve Lodder – piano & keyboards
Charlie Pyne – double bass & vocals
Rod Youngs – drums
