Theatralia, the new album from the Filomena Campus Quartet, 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 Pheasantry on Tuesday 20 October 2026, joined by her all-star quartet: long-time collaborators Steve Lodder (piano and keyboards), Charlie Pyne (double bass and voice), and Rod Youngs (drums).
Acclaimed novelist Jonathan Coe has written the sleeve notes for Theatralia, an album where music and literature are closely entwined. Running through the record 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 late Italian writer and satirist Stefano Benni, a close friend and creative collaborator of Campus, is an important presence throughout the album. His fusion of satire, comedy, and political engagement has deeply shaped Campus’s approach to performance. Song of a Siren opens with words from Benni’s Sagrademari. Meanwhile, Franca—based on his poem dedicated to Rame, translated and adapted by Campus and set to music by Lodder—also incorporates Benni’s own voice, captured during a live performance with Campus and the quartet in London.
Theatralia is also the name of the theatre company founded by Campus in London in 2003, and the album grows from that same idea: a shared creative space where different artistic languages can coexist. Its geography is rooted in a bridge between Sardinia and London, while reaching beyond both. E Mi Drommia draws on Sardinian poetry and childhood stories passed from grandmother to granddaughter; Unsettled (Status) is an affectionate, bittersweet love letter to London; and Shanghai to Nanjing was born from a journey through China.
At the heart of Theatralia is the long-standing musical relationship between Campus, Lodder, Pyne, and Youngs. Lodder composed most of the album’s music, alongside two compositions by Pyne, and songs that originated in Campus’s earlier Sardinian collaborations with pianist Paolo Carrus and the late guitarist Massimo Ferra. Years of performing together have allowed the quartet to continually reshape the material through improvisation, interaction, and exchange with their audiences.
The album launch is Tuesday 20th October 2026 at Pizza Express Live Chelsea (The Pheasantry), London at 8pm. Doors open at 6.30. The Lead single ‘E MI Drommia’ is out now.
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Filomena Campus -Photo by Daniela Zedda
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