THEATRALIA, the new album from the Filomena Campus Quartet, released on 33Jazz Records, brings together original compositions where jazz and improvisation meet theatre, poetry and storytelling.

Sardinian-born, London-based vocalist,theatre-maker and academic Filomena Campus launches the album at The PizzaExpress Live, Chelsea, on 20th October with her all-star quartet. Acclaimed novelist Jonathan Coe has written the sleeve notes for THEATRALIA, an album in which music and literature are closely entangled.

Running through THEATRALIA is an exploration of female genealogy and vocality: voices inherited and rediscovered, silenced and reclaimed. The songs encounter women and female figures across different times and cultures, from the Janas of Sardinian tradition and Homer’s Sirens to pioneering Italian theatre-maker Franca Rame and the radical art of Niki de Saint Phalle. The song SHE reflects on women, migration and displacement, while the album cover features a portrait by Sardinian artist Gina Tondo.

Theatralia is also the name of the theatre company founded by Campus in London in 2003. The album grows from the same idea of Theatralia as a shared creative space where different artistic languages coexist. Its geography is rooted in a bridge between Sardinia and London while reaching beyond both.

At the heart of THEATRALIA is the long-standing musical relationship between Campus, Lodder, Pyne and Youngs. Years of performing together have allowed the quartet to continually reshape the music through improvisation, interaction and exchange with their audiences.