Trance Routes: An Evening with Justin Adams & Mauro Durante

**Justin Adams**, guitarist, producer and composer, has been a creator of wonders with Robert Plant in the Sensational Space Shifters. He’s also worked with Tinariwen, Rachid Taha, Jah Wobble, and Sinead O’Connor. Vocalist, violinist and percussionist **Mauro Durante** is best known as the leader of the extraordinary *pizzica tarantata* band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino and for his work with Ludovico Einaudi. Mauro is a leading authority of *taranta* and *pizzica*, the thrilling trance folk music of southern Italy.

This beguiling collaboration stems from a fascination with trance rhythms and their common role in otherwise radically different musical traditions. Durante conjures thundering rhythms out of a simple frame drum while the pair execute a series of fiddle/electric guitar duets that are alternately fiery and filigree. Desert blues guitar combines with Maghreb chants, transported across the Mediterrean to the heel of southern Italy. Influences as diverse as garage rock and avant-garde contemporary classical are thrown into the cross-cultural stew.

Think North African trance and post-punk grooves with a twist of Italian pizzica.

Their magnificent 2024 recording “Sweet Release” was chosen as one of the best albums of 2024 by Songlines, il giornale della musica, Corriere del Mezzogiorno , Blogfoolk, Globofonie, Izvorišta, World Music Charts Europe, Transglobal World Music Chart, World Music Central, Podwireless – Local Music From Out There and many others.