Tuna de Tierra Premiere “El Paso de la Tortuga” Acoustic Video
Put headphones on and you can hear the waves. It’s been a while since Tuna de Tierra were last heard from — they made their self-titled debut (review here) on Argonauta in 2017 — but their return could hardly be more fitting or more welcome than to find guitarist/vocalist Alessio De Cicco on a Sardinian hillside strumming away on an unplugged version of “El Paso de la Tortuga.” The track originally comes from the trio’s 2015 debut EPisode 1: Pilot (review here) desert-style three-songer — the same material was also issued as a split with California’s The Bad Light in 2018 — and if you’re gonna find something to complain about in watching the clip of De Cicco playing the song, shove it. This video’s three minutes long, the song’s melody is sweet, and the scenery is about as pure as grey-day escapism gets. If you can’t hang with that, it’s your loss.
The minimalist approach — dude and guitar — reminds of the quieter moments of Nirvana‘s Unplugged in New York, minus the tragic historical context. It’s a mystery at this point whether Tuna de Tierra have anything new in the works. From what I can tell via cursory social media scrollthrough, their last show was in Feb. 2020, which sounds about right, and this video was recorded last summer, so its loneliness is only appropriate. They’re due a follow-up for the self-titled, certainly, and the potential of that record and warmth of it remain resonant these four years after the fact. Hopefully they’ll offer up somewhere down the line, but again, in the meantime, this is three minutes you won’t regret spending.
De Cicco tells the story himself under the player below, and the song’s lyrics (which apparently have never been published before) and video credits follow.
Please enjoy:
Tuna de Tierra, “El Paso de la Tortuga” acoustic video premiere
Alessio De Cicco on “El Paso de la Tortuga”:
July 2020, a random sunrise on Asinara, an island off Sardinia’s north-west shores.
A light breeze comes from the sea, and not that long after it will leave the leading role of the day to the blazing sun.
Time is still, moments are stretched.
And yet on this almost unspoiled island, on which we were more or less 15 guests staying that night, until a few years ago stood a penal colony.
Someone has seen his time being taken away in a paradise on earth which could eventually turn into a nightmare for his own mind. That time will never be returned to anyone, just like the one we choose to lose.
The moment was perfect to take my old Silvertone and play the song that was inspired just from the time I was losing when I wrote that and the loneliness that quite always goes with it.
It was the 2015 when our first EP and first record ever came out, and we could never imagine where we would have been some years after, but right now everyone had his chance to better understand how precious our time is.
We as a band cannot wait to be back together and start playing again and develop the ideas we had during this year, go back in the studio and finally go on a stage to share them with you all!”
EL PASO DE LA TORTUGA lyrics:
Layin’ on your lost time
Believing your thoughts do not lead your life
Holding you there
Crossing your brain
So on and on
And on and on
You wish you never lose control
Leaving you being on your own
Tuna de Tierra is:
Alessio De Cicco: guitar, vocals
Luciano Mirra: bass guitar
Mattia Santangelo: drums
