Aktuala were a pioneering band from Italy, formed in 1972. The name comes from the Esperanto for "contemporary".
Their music has been categorised as world music, progressive rock, psychedelic, or avant garde, or "sounding like that of the English group Third Ear Band".[ citation needed ]
They formed in 1972 in Milan by husband and wife team Walter and Laura Maioli who were collectors and performers of ancient and ethnic instruments. For a while the group lived together in a musical commune, "picking olives and playing music". They played unconventional venues including asylums and wharfs.
They signed with the Bla Bla label and released their debut, self-titled album in 1973. Two members, Lino Vaccina and Walter Maioli, left soon afterwards to pursue a collaboration with Trilok Gurtu. All three returned for their second album, La Terra, which was released in 1974. Following this, the band moved to Morocco to produce their third album, Tappeto Volante, in 1976.
Many of the band members went on to other music ventures. Maioli went on to the Futuro Antico project, Cavallanti to the band Muzik Circus, Gurtu to world music.
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Trilok Gurtu is an Indian percussionist and composer whose work has blended the music of India with jazz fusion and world music.
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Tappeto Volante is the third and final album by Italian world music pioneers Aktuala. It was released on Bla Bla records in 1976. It is the second recording of percussionist Trilok Gurtu
La Terra is the second studio album by Italian world music pioneers Aktuala. It was released on Bla Bla records in 1974. The cover features a medieval map of the world as it was known surrounded by the "world ocean". There are fewer, longer pieces than on the first record and they feature extended jams. Maioli writes that it was representative of the music played by the core group of Maioli, Cavallanti and Cerantola for two years; rehearsing and jamming in restaurants and psych wards until they got the perfect sound, and that it features the influences but not the performances of many of the other musicians who performed with them over that time. It is the first recording of master world percussionist Trilok Gurtu, who had to leave Italy shortly after the recording because of work visa expiry.
Aktuala is the first studio album by Italian world music pioneers Aktuala and was released on Bla Bla records in 1972.
Dai primitivi all'elettronica is a recording made by Futuro Antico in 1980. It features a mixture of synthesized and ethnic music, highlighting the role intonation plays in music. This theme was featured in Tappo Volante, the last Aktuala album, which featured the mixture of ethnic sounds and studio processing. The track "Echo Raga" is featured on that recording as well.
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