Roberto Bonati & Diana Torto - Heureux comme avec une femme (2013)

It's rare to hear a vocalist capable of the intensity that Torto can muster: rare, also, to hear the double bass played with the ferocity of which Bonati is capable. Put the pair together and the music they produce comes across with an almost palpable strength. Bonati is in full command of his instrument—his arco playing is especially impressive, moving from classical to folk to jazz influences, at times within a few bars. Torto favors wordless vocals on all but four songs, but even without lyrics she can capture and communicate the mood of a composition. (Bruce Lindsay on AllAboutJazz)
Two voices for one chant
ParmaFrontiere presents Heureux comme avec une femme, the new CD by Roberto Bonati using the art of Diana Torto’s voice and his double bass playing as the foundations. One double bass and one voice – two vibrating cords. The music uses delicate and profound sounds in a magic ritual of night music. It’s primitive, untamed and enchanted. Diana Torto brings out the magic in her voice while Roberto Bonati, a virtuoso on his instrument, takes us to the heart of the double bass. Using a range of vocal and instrumental techniques the musicians give life to an intense polyphony.
Once again Bonati gives us a profoundly contemporary work, one where the traditions and modernity of western music meet African, jazz and folk musics. Above all this lingers a very particular attention to the spiritual dimension in music and sound, a dimension in which the sacred and the popular meet and blur together. The roots of this dimension are immersed deep in history and it’s demonstrated here, with bass sounds and vocal variations, on an arrangement of Can vei la lauzeta by Bernart de Ventadorn.
Among the tracks there is also a homage to Sensation by Rimbaud, where the title of the CD is taken. The verses of Woman of the Woodlands, written by the bassist, give shape to a mysteriously tinged atmosphere.
Heureux comme avec une femme is the result of recent years’ work by the two musicians; an intimate and charming game of mirrors. It takes two to know one.