Kalà scima a Kaleidoscope of Sounds

I am a fan of Kalàƒ scima because you make "“Italian" music without being "“Italian," and you make international music while being "“Italian." Is this by chance or was it your intention to produce this kind of music? 

To be honest, the first caption we chose for the first Kalàƒ scima logo read "“Free Music in a Free World," and from the outset this was our guiding principle, our wish, and a message for and from us, to inspire our artistic journey and that was dedicated to all listeners. Certainly, the sounds, languages, instruments, and timbres of our land are the foundations of the music we make, but resonating with our present, and we definitely wanted to be focused on the future rather than stuck in the past. So, from there, we began a journey that has taken us around the world. We have treasured every meeting, every new sound we have encountered, and all of this has become part of our experiential baggage, which continues to be enriched as we proceed. We are constantly evolving, and this, perhaps, is our strongest attribute.

Could you explain how you managed to achieve such original sounds from a technical point of view?

One of our latest productions is titled Mediterraneo Express, I think is a good example. In this album, we involved several of our musical fraternity, each of whom embodies, with a personal twist, a piece of Puglia's identity today, expressing a strong sense of belonging to our territory and to our culture, which is always evolving. 

Specifically, we are talking about Sud Sound System, the legendary band from Salento and icon of Italian reggae, which in its 30-year career has given a new musical face to Salento. In fact, the city has gained a reputation as the "“Jamaica of Italy," thanks to the band, as it continues to inspire and bring entire generations closer to local music. The second guest is Alessia Tondo, an incredible artist and a marvelous voice for our generation. Alessia has the capacity to express herself through a vast array of musical repertoires, from reggae to folk music, from dub to, for instance, that incredible poetic piece, Nuvole Bianche by Maestro Ludovico Einaudi. This is also on one of our tracks in a previous album. "“Dulcis in fundo," in Mediterraneo Express features Nabil Bey, poet and voice of the Bari band Radioderwish, a Lebanese-Palestinian who joined the Italian music scene in the 1990s and who, luckily for us, never left. 

Each of these artists represents a piece of the identity of our land, so that Mediterraneo Express becomes a tale of how music, sounds, and people are in constant movement. Our identity can never be defined in a single way or from a single point of view: we draw it day after day, note after note, discovering it at every step.

Your most recent project is inspired by Freud and his love for southern Italy as a "foreigner." What does the phrase "“Il nostro cuore volge a Sud" (Our heart turns south) mean to you?

"“Il nostro cuore volge a Sud" is the title of the collection of letters by Sigmund Freud, which we have translated into music. It is a phrase in which we immediately recognized ourselves. Perhaps by chance, but belonging to the south, specifically southern Italy, we feel our hearts are close to this idea. Obviously, the south as we understand it is a relative concept, but we look for the "“south" in every corner of the Earth, in the eyes of every face we have met.

We are men of the south, we are souls of the south.

Do you have any upcoming projects? 

We have thousands of ideas, projects, and dreams that will surely take shape in a new album. Hopefully, its release will be announced very soon. We are a transversal band that has never accepted expressive limitations and, particularly at this time, we feel ready to break the mold even more. One thing is certain: there will be a lot of emotion and there will be a lot dancing! 

We look forward to greeting you in the various countries where Segmento is distributed!"