1. Skudrinka
2. Quant voi l’erbe reverdir
3. Ay, mi!
4. Se je chante, ce fait amour
5. Je vivroie liement
6. El mois d’avril
7. Tsakonikos
8. Maqam bayati
 9.Ave donna santissima
10. Che ti çova
11. Amor dolçe / Ogne homo
12. Gaetta
13. Magdalena degna da laudare
14. Dokumaci kislar
15. Nas mentes senpre teer

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It's an invitation to delights and pleasures as medieval poetry precepts.
This latest work of the Compagnia dell' asino che porta la croce shows the usual search that marks their musical course through many stiles, forms and sources.
Traditional Balcanic music appears together with medieval tunes and songs in regular form by the French poet and musician Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) .
The work follows the practice of a playful dialogue between different archaic sonorities, more than a real contamination with modern kinds of music.
The Middle Ages are an opportunity, a starting point, to undertake a wide search which creates curiosity and suggestion for the listeners. It isn't just the aim of a philologist search.
It's a space that goes from North to South, from Continental Europe to the Mediterranean Sea .It's one heterogeneous universe full of instruments that were probably used by the Middle Ages musicians: hurdy-gurdy and Finnish keyed vielle, shawn and recorders, darabukka and Macedonian tapan, medieval harp and Persian psaltery.

The CD booklet is decorated with the water colours signed by the painter Giuliano della Casa from Modena.
The pleasure of the pieces chosen and the delight of the sonorities is the guide to listening to this collection of wonders, beyond the original function of the tunes. The multiplicity of the recorded pieces shows a careful attention to the precious uniqueness of each tune and its own particular style. The music group leads us to an imaginary land where different traditions and instruments go together .

It surprises for its amazing performance. Beautiful monodic and polyphonic vocal compositions take turns with instrumental pieces among which the arrangements of Mediterranean tunes stand out for their beauty : Skudrinka , the first track, is a Macedonian traditional dance; Tsakonikos is a Greek music with a sweeping rhythm, followed by the gentle eastern sound of the Arabian Maqam bayati.
The atmosphere changes with the stern religious compositions, creating a harmonic play of relations and assonance that goes on with the succession of the tunes. There's a brilliant interpretation of Ave donna santissima with soloist voice and choir, like the reproposing of Magdalena degna da laudare, that has been already recorded in the previous work Virtus Asinaria.
These songs belong to the surviving lyrics of the famous Laudario Cortonese (about 1270-1280).
Francesca Malavolti's voice expresses at the best in the great performance of Ay mi ! Dame de valour and Je vivroie liement, virelais composed by Guillaume de Machaut, accompanied by a suggestive rhythmic part.

Fabio Bonvicini : recorders, ciaramella (single pipe), baritone;
Francesca Malavolti : soprano, medieval harp;
Renzo Ruggiero : keyed vielle, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery;
Giovanni Tufano : oud, darabukka, bendir, tambourine, tabors.

With the presence of :
Alida Oliva : soprano;            
Aldo Grillo : tapan, riqq, tabla;
Walter Rizzo : shawn;            
Matteo Bellotto : bass;
Giovanni Cantarini : tenor;       
Chico Simoes : reciting voice;
Claudio Mangialavori, Andrea Sanguinetti, Alessandro Generali : chorus.

ENROSADIRA 0011 CD
Recorded and mixed by Giampiero Berti,
Allimite Studio, Bologna (Italy), February-March 1999.

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