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The fusion between the local native-Indian music with the African (brought to America by the slaves) and the European (mainly Hispanic and Portuguese), generated, since the past centuries the MUSIC OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT, inspired principally on the chants and dances of the popular folklore, and using a freer language, vanguard techniques and instrumental virtuosity.

Laura Helman, Argentinean, and Bárbara Salani, Venezuelan, offer to the public the result of their research and revaluation of this original repertoire: the typical sonorous landscapes of the Pampas, of the Andes, of the Caribbean, of the Amazon, revisited by great American composers, produce a captivating hearing for the rhythmic and melodic energy of a cultured music soaked with traditions and ethnologic roots.

Performing the typical Venezuelan waltzes "Misterios del Corazón" by Federico Villena and "Bucles de Oro" by the Marcano-Centeno brothers., we even find Viennese roots and atmospheres, while in the "Fantasía Venezolana" by Renato Salani, (San Simón 1922) with the drums at Barlovento (the ones that used to accompany the slaves in their fatigues at the coal-mines) and the exciting "Joropo" of the "Alma Llanera" (almost a national anthem in Venezuela), we remember that we're in a tropical landscape.

Different are from the above mentioned the Argentinean nostalgic atmospheres, in which we find either the rural ones, with the loneliness of the Gaucho in the Pampa, painted by Alberto Ginastera, (Buenos Aires 1916 - Geneve 1983) or the metropolitan ones of the “Four Seasons in Buenos Aires” by Astor Piazzolla (Mar del Plata 1921-Buenos Aires 1992), where we can clearly perceive the noise and the motor horns but also the sadness of the big cities, which become total yearning in “Adios Nonino”, last farewell before his father’s death.

A "classic" hit by the great Osvaldo Pugliese (Buenos Aires 1905-1995) is even in the title, "La Yumba" an onomatopoeic homage to the sensual rhythmic accents of the Tango, but “La Cumparsita” by Gerardo Matos Rodriguez (Montevideo 1897-1948) and “Homenaje a Mariano Mores”, medley with tangos and milongas composed by Mariano Mores (Buenos Aires 1922) in this 4 hands version made by Renato Salani who satisfies every wish of feeling Argentinean tango in all its rhythmic fullness.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (Rio de Janeiro 1887-1959) and Francisco Mignone (Sao Paulo1897-?), founders of the Brazilian contemporary cultured music, find their inspiration in the rhythms of the Amazons in “A folia de um bloco infantil” and get involved in the Brazilian Carnival in “Congada”, carrying us wittily away with them.

The Gipsy-Spanish influence in the Malagueña by the Cuban Ernesto Lecuona (Guanabacoa 1896 - Canary Islands 1963), is evident and obvious, while Arthur Benjamin (Sydney 1893 - London 1960), instead, presents a refined example of the Jamaican Rumba, typical dance of the Antilles, born at the beginning of the 1930s to be danced worldwide.

The mythical "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin (New York 1898 - Hollywood 1937) performed by the Helman-Salani Piano Duo, doesn't miss the purely jazz and orchestral effects.

The Duo proposes, besides, American popular melodies well known throughout the world: Tangos, Waltzes, and Songs that with their unique motives bring near continents and generations.