MASU Franca
Almablava

Fy 8209

885016820923
Felmay Records
Italia

 

There are eleven songs which are eleven separate moments, more or less extensive, from the life of a woman with the sea in her eyes and in her heart. The maturity can only come when an artist does what Franca has done, which is to take a look at herself in the mirror. Then, the hardest part of all: emptying one’s soul and then making music from the feelings that have been extracted. That’s what this voyage is all about, an immersion; alongside Franca in her most intimate state and letting go, knowing that what we are about to experience will not leave us indifferent. Fado, tango, morna, boleros, jazz, African and Arab rhythms, all bathed in the exquisiteness that has always defined Franca MASU.


“I return to Alguer, back to my loved ones”...
This is how the new musical voyage of universal songstress Franca Masu commences, with her return home, back to her beloved Alghero. It’s an initially surprising concept: we begin our voyage returning, remembering everything we have learned on our trip, longing for what we have left behind and wishing to depart once again, to new destinations.

It is a daring musical voyage: Franca MASU invites herself and us to submerge into deep waters. There are eleven songs which are eleven separate moments, more or less extensive, from the life of a woman with the sea in her eyes and in her heart. Stripped down without any sort of artifice or sound to disguise her words and her music, she opens up to herself and listeners as she sings of love, hope and fear, as well as her roots, her longings, worries, and passions. She invites those who listen to become her travel companion, her accomplice. Not only does she sing: she cries, laughs, and whispers. She tells a story with a sense of simplicity that touches listeners from the first note to the very last. And, it is always in the most simple of things that we are truly able to uncover real beauty...
It has taken her five albums to reach full artistic potential. It wasn’t easy. This maturity can only come when an artist does what Franca has done, which is to take a look at herself in the mirror, alone and in silence, and slowly strip away everything else that surrounds her: labels, prejudices, good and bad reviews. Then, the hardest part of all: emptying one’s soul and then making music from the feelings that have been extracted. That’s what this voyage is all about, an immersion; alongside Franca in her most intimate state and letting go, knowing that what we are about to experience will not leave us indifferent. Fado, tango, morna, boleros, jazz, African and Arab rhythms, all bathed in the exquisiteness that has always defined Franca MASU. From the force in her voice to the vulnerability of her tenderness, we are left with only one truth. Almablava is a musical voyage that leaves us with that beautifully unique—and unfortunately uncommon—sensation that this is more than just a good album in our hands.

Franca MASU is the most international representative of the ancestral Catalan language and culture which still endures in the seaside village of l’Alguer, an area with only forty-thousand inhabitants on the striking island of Sardinia.
MASU found herself as a singer upon meeting a group of Sardinian jazz musicians in 1996, with whom she began to perform. In 1998, she discovered the beauty of the Catalan language which, having remained isolated for centuries, has survived in her hometown, l’Alguer. Beyond her jazz background and eminent Mediterranean sound, among her musical interests one also finds fado as well as Argentine tango. She published her first album, El Meu Viatge, in the year 2000. In 2003 with her second album, Alguímia Franca Masu consolidates the use of the Catalan language as a language of artistic expression. Aquamare (2006) is her third CD with which she presents herself to the public, this time, as the author of nearly each song. In 2007 MASU releases an album entirely dedicated to Argentine tango, Hoy Como Ayer. In 2012 she finished the recording of her latest production, Almablava.

 

 

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