The traditions in and around popular Italian music during the 1970s couldn’t seem more distant from the culture of popular dance and techno music today. On the one hand, political and spiritual songs were usually passed down from each generation to the next and sung at home, sometimes with the accompaniment of instruments like zithers, liras, and viggianos. On the other, songs are created in studios with electronic drumbeats, synthesizers, and multi-tracking, and then are blasted through speakers at clubs for dancers to get their groove on to. For members of Fiamma Fumana though, mixing Italian roots music and electronica has become an art form that combines their past with an aspect of the present. The band’s accordions, flutes, and bagpipes fly over DJ Missy Jay’s samples and beats, while Fiamma Orlandi’s lyrics explore the ideas of human roots and communication during a time of technological advancement and globalization. Their unique mixture and progressive exploration of culture has earned multiple tours across Europe and America, playing at festivals, venues and dance clubs throughout each, as well as radio spots on NPR’s All Things Considered and CBC Radio’s Global Village. Their new album, Onda, Italian for “wave,” sends Fiamma Fumana back to North America once again, for nearly a full month of shows stretching from Alberta, Canada to as far south as New Mexico.

Fiamma Fumana • Saturday, Sept. 27 • Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts, Menomonie • 8pm • adults $24, seniors/students $21, kids $6 • 235-0001 • www.fiamma.org