Justin Adams & Mauro Durante con Sweet release in esclusiva per la Puglia ai Cantieri Teatrali Koreja per Strade Maestre

**Press Release**

**SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH, THE DUO OF JUSTIN ADAMS & MAURO DURANTE WILL PERFORM AT THE CANTIERI TEATRALI KOREJA IN LECCE TO PRESENT "SWEET RELEASE," A NEW ALBUM JUST RELEASED BY PONDEROSA MUSIC RECORDS. THE CONCERT, EXCLUSIVE TO THE REGION THANKS TO THE PUGLIA SOUNDS TOUR ITALIA 2024 PROGRAM, IS PART OF THE 28TH EDITION OF STRADE MAESTRE.**

Listen to the CD "Sweet Release" at bfan.link/sweet-release
Watch the music video for the single "Sweet Release" at urly.it/3110-8

On Saturday, November 16th (8:45 PM - entry 13/8 euros + booking fee - vivaticket.com) at the Cantieri Teatrali Koreja in Lecce, the 28th edition of Strade Maestre will feature exclusively, thanks to the Puglia Sounds Tour Italia 2024 Program, the concert presenting "Sweet Release," the new music project by Justin Adams & Mauro Durante. The duo, composed of the British guitarist, producer and composer, historical collaborator of Robert Plant, and the percussionist, violinist, and singer of the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, will offer a concert exploring themes of healing and musical catharsis, from Taranta to rockabilly, from Sufi ecstasy to minimalism. Produced, like the award-winning "Still Moving" (2021), by Ponderosa Music Records, "Sweet Release" is the second chapter of a journey that has transformed the meeting of these two great personalities into a new and unprecedented fusion. With an almost telepathic level of interaction, the duo recorded the album live, allowing magical moments of pure improvisation.

This unique and unprecedented sound has returned live, also thanks to the Puglia Sounds Tour Export and Italia 2024 Program (Operation funded under the special culture and cultural heritage fund L.R. 40/2016, Art. 15 Comma 3). After numerous reviews in national and international media and successful and acclaimed concerts in the UK in London, Bristol, Clevedon, at Womex in Manchester, Whitby, Oxford, Sheffield, Chidhame, Swansea, in Bergen and Oslo in Norway, and in Tampere, Finland, the tour now continues in Italy with two new stops at Spoon in Cremona (Wednesday 13th) and Raindogs House in Savona (Friday 15th) before the anticipated event in Lecce (Saturday 16th), which, as said, is part of Strade Maestre's program, a project by Teatro Koreja made with the support of the Ministry of Culture, European Union, Puglia Region (Department of Culture, protection and development of cultural enterprises), Piiil Cultura, Municipality of Lecce, and in collaboration with Puglia Culture, University of Salento, Adisu Puglia and other organizations. In December, the last four confirmed dates then follow at CrossRoads in Rome (Thursday 5th), Parc Toscana Produzione Musica in Florence (Friday 6th), Ex Cinema Sant’Antonio in Termoli (Saturday 7th), and for the series La musica dei cieli in Milan (Sunday 8th).

**SWEET RELEASE**
Enhanced by the video directed by Gabriele Surdo, the title track "Sweet Release" that opens the album is an earnest manifesto of the project's poetics and is marked by Adam's unmistakable guitar touch and Durante's masterful technique on the frame drum. Along with original tracks like the luminous "Leuca" (a pizzica featuring the splendid voice of Alessia Tondo from the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino) and the rock-infused "Ghost Train," there is a cover of the Easter hymn "Wa Habibi," made famous by the Lebanese diva Fairuz. Here, Adams and Durante, along with the talented Moroccan singer Yousra Mansour from Bab L' Bluz, deliver a poignant and contemporary version, presenting a universal reflection on suffering. "Tide Keeps Turning" features the voice of an underground legend from the historic New York club CBGB, Felice Rosser, who adds a profound and passionate touch to the Neapolitan “tammurriata” rhythm brought by the drum. Adam's guitar illuminates "Aurora," written and sung in Italian, with a melody inspired by a call to prayer heard at dawn in Rajasthan; while "Santu Paulu" invokes the “saint of tarantism” with a psychedelic and hypnotic atmosphere. The instrumental anthem "Ithaca Return" opens brilliantly, before transforming into a wild pizzica led by Durante’s rhapsodic violin. "Qui non vorrei morire," originally set to music and recorded by Daniele Durante, is a poem by the great Salento poet Vittorio Bodini: a homage by Mauro to his late father, one of the brightest lights in the history of the revival of popular Puglian music.

**THE ARTISTS**
Justin Adams is a guitarist/producer whose distinctive sound bears the mark of his itinerant life: childhood in the Middle East sparked a constant passion for the sounds of the Islamic world, while teenage years in the UK instilled a devotion to the raw energy of punk and trance sounds of dub. In recent years he has produced acclaimed albums such as those of Portuguese fado singer Lina and French-Algerian singer Souad Massi, while his past collaborations, like the successful and long-standing partnership with Led Zeppelin legend Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Rachid Taha, Sinead O'Connor, and West African musician Juldeh Camara, have stood out for emotional intensity and a "borderless" approach.

Violinist, percussionist, and composer, Mauro Durante is a visionary heir of Salento's musical tradition. He leads the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (founded in 1975 by his family), acclaimed and award-winning worldwide, playing at all the major world music festivals. Durante is considered a key figure in having "reinvented" pizzica for modern times and in making "Taranta" the most relevant Italian form of world music on the global stage. Mauro Durante has toured the world for many years with Ludovico Einaudi and has collaborated with Piers Faccini, Ibrahim Maalouf, Ballake Sissoko, Jovanotti, Stewart Copeland, Sam Lee, Enzo Avitabile, Nickodemus, Red Baraat, combining a contemporary touch with his deep love for tradition.

For more information:
www.facebook.com/justinadamsmaurodurante
www.instagram.com/justinandmauro/
bfan.link/sweet-release