- Released on: November 25, 2022
- Label: Raighes Factory
- Format: Album
- Artist: Limen Collective
- Genre: World music, Sardinia, Jazz, Mediterranean, Contemporary folk, Vocal jazz
Perda e Bentu is a poetic act of memory and breath. In the language of Sardinia, it means “stone and wind”, two forces that shape, resist, and endure. With this project, Limen Collective creates a living bridge between ancestral voices and the present, between ritual and improvisation, between silence and song.
The album is the result of a deep collaboration between composer Alessandra Soro and pianist/composer Fabrizio Leoni. It blends Sardinian folk tradition with the open vocabulary of modern jazz and Mediterranean improvisation, moving with intimate strength and emotional clarity.
Each track is inhabited by a precise sonic world, sculpted by a refined ensemble: the voice of Alessandra Soro, warm and grounded, carries the stories with tenderness and power. The breath of Cesare Mecca’s trumpet and flugelhorn, Simone Garino’s clarinet and soprano sax, and Elena Marchi’s alto sax give the music its fluid, aerial dimension. Marco Tardito’s bass clarinet anchors the lower range, while Fabrizio Leoni’s piano offers both silence and storytelling through harmony. Masih Karimi introduces the tanbur and daf , sounds from Persian tradition that echo with Mediterranean resonance. The rhythm section, with Marco Bellafiore on double bass and Luca Guarino on drums and percussion, shapes the pulse of the journey.
Across the seven compositions, there are lullabies and laments, dances and winds, farewells and returns. The voice speaks in Sardinian, Italian, and silence languages that transcend words. Perda e Bentu is a ritual, an offering, a remembrance, and a forward-facing gesture of musical resistance. It does not seek spectacle, but presence. It invites the listener not just to hear, but to feel and to stay.
This project was recorded between Torino and Cagliari and carefully produced with love and respect by the musicians and all the studios and engineers.
Track by Track
1. Abbentu
A reimagined Sardinian lullaby from Gallura. The arrangement opens with subtle winds and soft percussive textures, while the voice of Alessandra Soro cradles the melody in a delicate embrace. The daf and clarinet pulse like breath, evoking the rhythm of rocking arms and waiting hearts. Fabrizio Leoni’s piano gently outlines the lullaby’s contours, while the ensemble invites us into a warm, quiet beginning.
2. Accabadora – Sa Perda De S’Arregordu
A tribute to S’Accabadora, the legendary woman who guided others from life into death with compassion and solemn grace. The piece, composed by Alessandra Soro, is the first of the “stone of remembrance” suite. Woodwinds and daf weave around the voice like mourning veils. There is no fear in this passage, only dignity. The ensemble builds slowly, with clarinet, alto sax, and trumpet converging in a respectful invocation.
3. Scirocco
Fabrizio Leoni paints a soundscape of the southeastern wind “the Scirocco” warm, loaded with sand and history. The flute of Gabriele Leoni adds a whisper of desert light, while the piano and rhythm section carry a groove born from distant lands and seaborne exchanges. A Mediterranean dialogue of breath and movement, filled with color and sun.
4. Attittadora – Sa Perda De S’Arregordu
Dedicated to lives lost and ongoing grief in Gaza, this piece channels the figure of S’Attittadora, the Sardinian mourning singer. Alessandra Soro’s composition is heavy with sorrow and protest, her voice becoming a cry that refuses to fade. The arrangement, with saxophones and drums, evokes tension and fury. It is a raw lament that honors pain with musical truth.
5. Maestrale
A powerful interpretation of the fierce mistral wind. Based on the traditional dance Passu Turratu, Fabrizio Leoni reshapes rhythm and melody into a spiral of energy. Gabriele Leoni’s flute and Masih Karimi’s tanbur cut through the textures like cold air across stone. The ensemble rises and falls with tension, echoing the unpredictable violence of nature.
6. Jana – Sa Perda De S’Arregordu
A tribute to Sa Jana, the fairy of Sardinian myth who carries both light and shadow. This composition by Alessandra Soro dances on the edge of the mysterious feminine. Hypnotic clarinet lines and alto sax blend with the tanbur and daf in a swirling cadence. It is a sonic circle, a moonlit ritual that concludes the suite of remembrance.
7. Sa Terra Mia
The album’s final whisper. A poem of belonging written by Alessandra Soro and her grandmother Anna Usai, sung in Bono’s Sardinian. It is a love letter to one’s homeland, even in absence. The instrumentation is restrained and spacious, allowing the words and breath to carry memory. A quiet, heartfelt ending where the land lives on in every note.