APRIL 2013

Il Giornale

Column by Luca Pavanel

«ROMINA DANIELE TRAVELS IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF STRATOS

The singer and composer of electronic music uses her voice as a sound object» - "Don't call her "Demetrio Stratos with a skirt", as she was the female version of the well known human voice researcher who we all miss very much; actually she does not wear any skirts usually preferring at least long dark dresses, often totally black, well harmonized with her natural colors.

Romina Daniele, 33 years old, Napolitan singer-poet, who has been living in Milan for some time, looks this way: dark runaway show look, experienced way of speaking and a flooring voice. Stratos came in mind pretty spontaneously. «Come on, no jokes - she smiles - Demetrio is a lodestar, a great push on the road or the research»."

Article originally published in Italian on Il Giornale.

Romina Daniele Travels in the Footsteps of Stratos

The electronic singer-composer uses the voice as a sound object

By Luca Pavanel

Do not call her "Demetrio Stratos in a skirt"—meaning by the name of the renowned and late researcher of the voice—if for no other reason than, instead of a skirt, she prefers long, dark dresses, preferably black, which harmonize well with her natural colors. Romina Daniele, 33 years old, a Neapolitan singer-poet who has been living in Milan for several seasons, appears like this: a dark runaway look, the speaking manner of a seasoned lecturer, and a stunning voice; and the comparison with Stratos arises spontaneously. "Come on, no jokes," she shields herself, laughing. "Demetrio is a lodestar, a great push on the path of research."

The singer, who won the youth prize of a competition dedicated precisely to the late star (and went to the same career achievement awards ceremony), is today one of those exponents of the avant-garde Made in Italy who is making headway. She is currently busy with her latest work, the CD Spannung, which will be released in the same period as Voce sola, an essay surrounding discourse on the voice written under her own signature—notwithstanding her young age, she seems to have arrived at a sort of first turning point. "I am going to identify existential-philosophical research with the voice," she explains, "which for me is the useful instrument to give answers to the questions of life." Far from the sighs of the hit parade, stuff for gurus. But not matured from today to tomorrow.

Everything begins at the foot of Vesuvius, where she spent her life as a girl. "I admired the great lords of jazz, later progressive music; I did not manage, however, to close myself within a genre," she recalls. It is a friend who introduces her to the figure of Stratos: "A stroke of lightning, a passion—she admits—like for other figures who go beyond, look at Janis Joplin." Already on the paths that lead to the Holy Grail of the voice, she landed in the Lombard capital, where to use her words, "the climate for experimental singing is more receptive." Her first recording arrives, Diffrazioni sonore, with the use of the voice "in the manner of a sound object." Last but not least, her maturation as an electronic composer, to accompany herself in her performances. And now? Many projects, one at the gates. "The idea of practicing the blues in parallel," she concludes, "in opposition to those who play it in a mundane manner, to recover its aspects of strength, passion, and original suffering that accord with my musical inquiry.

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