Home Productions Hydra
A great protagonist of Italian songwriting, Mimmo Locasciulli, presents “Hydra,” the new album released by Parco della Musica Records in collaboration with the Hobo label. The title of the album summarizes the essence and content of the new songs: Hydra is the Greek island where, in the 1960s, great artists such as Henry Miller and Leonard Cohen sought spiritual refuge by writing some of their most successful works. Hydra, moreover, is the nine-headed monster defeated by Hercules in his mythological labors. The nine heads are symbolic of some of the deadly vices of man, and Hercules represents love in all its essence, which is the value that leads man to salvation.
The record, recorded in part at Dubway Studios in New York, featured three jazz musicians considered among the world’s best instrumentalists-Greg Cohen on double bass, Marc Ribot on guitars and Joey Baron on drums. The Italian sessions featured two great musicians from the Italian jazz scene, Gabriele Mirabassi on clarinet and Stefano Di Battista on soprano sax. Rounding out the cast are other excellent musicians: Giovanni Imparato on percussion, Francesco Bigoni on sax, Matteo Locasciulli on guitar and a string quartet from the Brasciov Symphony (Romania). One track featuresEnsemble Mereuer, a highly original plectrum group. Production and artistic direction were handled, in addition to Mimmo and his son Matthew, by Greg Cohen.