'Inish'

Naomi Berrill (IRL): voice, cello, guitar
Lorenzo Pellegrini: guitars, synth, voice
Andrea Beninati: drum, cello, synth
The new album "Inish" writes a new chapter in Naomi Berrill's artistic journey, which sees the beginning of the collaboration with guitarist, vocalist and producer Lorenzo Pellegrini and with drummer, percussionist and cellist Andrea Beninati. Irish folk, classical music and improvisation: these are the elements among which Naomi's compositions move with great fluidity, which therefore find a new dress, equally versatile and with unexpected developments. "Inish" tells how, alongside the beauty of the Irish islands of Inishshark and Inishbofin, the courage of their inhabitants, the light that floods them, contrasts with the harshness of life in those places. The sound images created by the trio, which skilfully mix the intensity of acoustic instruments and the suggestions of electronics, evoke the dazzling beauty of these pristine islands but also the harshness of the life of the fishing communities that inhabit them. Added to this is the narration of the lyrics, in which beauty, courage, adventure, euphoria and light are juxtaposed with moments of loneliness, danger, difficulty, loss and pain, all extreme elements that characterize islanders life. The album "Inish" was released on October 7, 2023 by Egea Records. In June, the release of the album was preceded by the single "Sea Warrior" and a splendid video clip, directed by Jon Conway (Búlabosca Films) and produced by Berrill herself together with Casa Musicale Sonzogno. Through the coming-of-age story of a little girl, described with the gestures and vocabulary of dance, "Sea Warrior" alludes more broadly to women's capacity for resilience in the daily path of self-determination. An all-female video that, as Naomi explains, conveys a broader message inscribed in the contemporary: "Every woman in her daily life can be heroic and adventurous without the need to sail seas and oceans but deserves the same respect that Grace O'Malley has earned, pirate and warrior of the Irish Sea who -shaved her hair to look like a boy- hides on her father's ship on which she begins to sail the seas. In my country, tradition is the result of a general transition, in which those who learn make their own a timeless heritage that is handed down. In this sense, the gestures of the two female characters in the video are inspired by the way we imagine this pirate: a timeless heroine who fought above all against prejudice and found her language and freedom with strong determination, learning to survive in a world made of men."
Naomi Berrill is an Irish cellist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter and singer who has been living in Florence for several years. After completing her classical studies in Scotland, Switzerland and Italy, she began to experiment with the use of the instrument as an accompaniment to the voice, composing and arranging new pieces in which improvisation also took place. Naomi has a unique way of working with music from different genres and eras, drawing inspiration from it to create new, original and inspiring sound material. She also plays guitar, piano, and concertina. Before "Inish" Naomi released three albums: "From the Ground" (2015), "To the sky" (2017), and "Suite Dreams" (2020, produced and published by the historic Casa Musicale Sonzogno, an Italian publisher founded in 1874 that has produced artists such as Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and contemporaries such as Giovanni Sollima). Her collaborations span different genres and artistic disciplines: cellists Giovanni Sollima and Mario Brunello, The Crash Ensemble, composer Arvo Part, video artist Bill Viola, composer Bill Whelan, writer Stefano Benni and several dance companies, including the Virgilio Sieni company and the New York City Ballet. Naomi Berrill has performed all over Europe in both classical and jazz in prestigious contexts such as: Amsterdam Cello Biennale, Music for Galway, Suoni delle Dolomiti, Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto), Trame Sonore (Mantua), Uffizi Galleries (Florence), Spike Cello Festival (Dublin), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Filarmonica Romana, Biennale Danza and Biennale Architettura (Venice), Sagra Musicale Malatesta (Rimini), Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte (Montepulciano). She recently developed the Dragonfly Duo with the famous classical violist Danusha Waskiewicz. Both musicians play and sing, working on harmonic arrangements in four parts of the baroque and classical repertoire. Dragonfly opened the 2022 edition of the Trame Sonore chamber music festival in Mantua. She is the artistic director of "High Notes", a multi-genre festival that has been taking place in the Apuan Alps since 2010.

https://www.naomiberrill.com/