MARCO ZAPPA AND FRIENDS
(Ticino / Albania / Algeria)
Educator with a doctoral thesis on Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, since 1967 Marco Zappa has released over thirty albums collaborating with musicians from other cultures and with his children Mattia (cello) and Daria (violin). He deals with ethnomusicological research, world music, blues, folk and songwriting with roots solidly planted in the Italian and Anglo-Saxon alternative culture of the 1960s. He has made countless tours in England, Greece, India, Peru, Albania, Serbia, South Africa, Finland, the United States, Norway, Sweden and Turkey, bringing back to Switzerland instruments, techniques and impressions that he has been able to transform into music and lyrics.
ETHNO CAMP CONCERTS
“Ethno Camp” is a platform to build respect and tolerance, to preserve cultural heritage and to ensure that traditional, popular and world music lives on among young people and is passed down from generation to generation. It broadens and deepens the relationships between musicians and cultures from around the world, enabling participants to build a greater mutual appreciation of each other's cultures through music. Ethno uses music as a powerful tool to fight against xenophobia, intolerance and racism.
MUNDIAL
(Salento)
The three Salento musicians have always been active in the independent Italian musical circuit, collaborating in various projects, including La Municipàl and Diego Rivera. In 2020 they decide to give life to a new project, born from the need to experiment with a sound path that starts from the roots of Apulian music up to the new frontiers of modern electronics. Hence the idea of Mundial, a sound and visual laboratory, a bridge between the past and the future, which recovers the stories and nursery rhymes recited by our grandparents and places them in an experimental context, based on a sound created starting from sound samples of the Apulian landscape, edited and transformed into rhythmic patterns.
The song of the cicadas that becomes percussion, the sound of an olive trunk that becomes a drum, rhythmically reproduced noises and sounds that become an arrangement and then a song. Instruments from Italian and international popular culture were used (mandolin, lyre, kalimba, darabuka, djambe and various percussive instruments), fused with ancient Apulian nursery rhymes, so that past and present marry musically with an eye to modern compositional technologies.
MONSIEUR DOUMANI
(Cyprus)
Described by “THE GUARDIAN” as “One of the funniest, safest, and most inventive groups on the scene”, the multi-award winning group Monsieur Doumani, was formed in 2012 in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Coming from diverse musical backgrounds, but influenced by the Cypriot tradition to varying degrees, Monsieur Doumani composes music that draws inspiration from contemporary Cypriot society and the shaky conditions of our age. The initial identity of the project was determined by the adaptation of traditional Cypriot tunes, with a special contemporary color in sound and mood, forming a distinctly own style. With their fourth album Pissourin (Glitterbeat, 2021) they push their typical Mediterranean sound in a deep psychedelic and avant-folk direction.
Their live appearances at festivals and venues around the world (ESNS, Womex, Womad, Trans Musicales, Sziget, Havana World Music Fest, Sur Jahan India) have been very well received by a diverse audience and their music has been widely broadcast by radio and television stations around the world.
During their 9-year career, Monsieur Doumani have received numerous awards including the “Best Group” Award at the Songlines Music Awards 2019 and the “Critics Award” at the Andrea Parodi World Music Awards. They were also awarded the German Records Critics Award (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik) for their album Angathin (2018), which was also awarded “Best Album of 2018” in the Transglobal World Music Charts“.
WOWAKIN
(Poland)
The Wowakin trio performs mazurkas, oberkas, polkas, kuyaviaks, tangos, foxtrots, songs and lullabies from the regions of Radom, Kielce and Sanniki. In addition to violin, three-row Polish accordion and drums, they use banjouke and harmonica. In 2016 the band debuted in the most important folk music competition in Poland “The New Tradition”, and won the third prize. Since then they have given many concerts. The Trio also won the third prize at the 2016 “Folkowe Mikołajki” festival in Lublin. In 2017 they released their first CD album called “Kraj za miastem”.
DUO NEIGHBORS
(Iran / Italy)
Musician, composer and conductor, Simone Bottasso began playing the accordion studying traditional Occitan and French music. As a musician and composer, he has collaborated on several projects and with ensembles that blend folk music with jazz, funk, rock, contemporary and electronic music.
Musician Reza Mirjalali started playing at an early age. When he was 7 years old, his father Master Shahram Mirjalali started teaching him Tombak (Persian percussion) and Tar (Persian stringed instrument). Reza Mirjalali managed to give concerts at the age of 14. At 17 he started touring with his father and collaborating with other bands and musicians of other genres.
JABEL KANUTEH - MARCO ZANOTTI
(Gambia / Italy)
Two musical souls with two seemingly distant instruments, the kora and the drums, meet and correspond in a musical dialogue that speaks of humanity, tradition and hope.
Jabel Kanuteh is a griot from Gambia, he plays the kora according to the centuries-old tradition of his surname and, among the stories he tells, there is also his own as a migrant between the Sahara, Libya and the Mediterranean.
Marco Zanotti is a visionary musician from Romagna, former director of the Classical Orchestra Afrobeat and Cucoma Combo, as well as translator of the biography of Fela Kuti and tireless cultural agitator.
“Freedom of Movement” is the title of their first album together, recorded in the winter of 2019 with the participation of Paolo Angeli as a special guest. Freedom of movement means being free to cross borders and frontiers. And Jabel and Marco do it with music, through a spontaneous, organic and unpredictably vital approach.
RENATA ROSA
(Brazil)
Renata Rosa, Brazilian singer, songwriter and rabec player, brings us a new sound with strong cyclical character and trance energy, a sound that maintains an incredible strength of festive communion. In 10 years, Renata has given more than 200 concerts all over Europe performing in major concert halls and renowned festivals such as Sziget (Hungary), Førde (Norway), Ethnoport (Poland). Among her achievements Renata Rosa has made special concerts for the Musée du Louvre and for the Theater de la Ville in Paris, in 2016 she joined the artistic team of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to compose the opening song of the Summer Olympics .
In 2004, her debut Zunido da Mata earned her one of the most important prizes in international world music: the Choc de l'Année awarded by the French magazine Le Monde de la Musique. Her second release, Manto dos Sonhos, won Best Singer at the Brazilian Music Awards and was nominated for World Music Central's Best World Music Album 2012. In her new album, Encantações, Renata takes on for the first time the role of artistic director. Here his compositions revere northeastern tradition and rhythms while at the same time celebrating an enormous creative force. Renata Rosa, whose energetic performances take audiences into vibrant tribal communities, immediately imposes her impressive blend of power and sensitivity. His new album Encantações was chosen as one of the TOP of the world list in Songlines magazine in the UK.
BCUC
(South Africa)
A physically and emotionally moving style of expression. Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness (BCUC) moves the audience, both physically and emotionally, with an explosion of passion, funk and rhythm. With their music, directly from the ancestors, BCUC wants to challenge the common world view on modern Africa. The basic ingredients of BCUC's sound are traditional whistle, percussion and a rock guitar. Topped by the raw and combative voice of Jovi, the smooth rap of Luja and Hloni, the sweet and clear voice of Kgomotso – the only woman in the band – and the chants of all four voices together. They christened their unique sound as “indigenous funky soul”.
BCUC They want to rectify Western assumptions and show post-apartheid South Africa from a young, contemporary and different perspective. In eleven languages BCUC discusses the harsh reality of Africa where especially the unemployed worker remains forever at the bottom of the food chain. And they also draw on the elusive spirit world of their ancestors that fascinates them. The Africa portrayed by BCUC is not poor at all, but rich in traditions, rites and beliefs.
“We see ourselves as modern day freedom fighters who must tell the story of Soweto's past, present and future to the world.” – Jovi Nkosi, singer.
DOBRANOTCH
(Russia)
The band "Dobronotch" was born in France in 1998 from the meeting of various Russian musicians united by the desire to create something unique and special. The group, now based in St. Petersburg, combines traditional Russian music with Slavic and kletzmer music. An explosive mixture suitable for any type of concert. From big festivals to small clubs, the group is guaranteed fun.
DANILO LIGATO
(Ticino / Italy)
L'altra Musica is a heartfelt tribute to Roberto Leydi and his extremely important ethnomusicological research. L'altra Musica is also a journey through ancient instruments and timeless melodies.
Through the melodies that most struck me among all those collected by Leydi in the field and the sounds of the instruments of his collection recorded by me directly in the archives, I would like to create a device that elaborates the tradition to make it resonate today with electric sounds and digital.
Bringing these sounds back to life is a journey through time that I want to do and propose to the public because I believe they are part of the collective sound experience and I also think they can reawaken memories and reflections lost in time and space. The fusion between ancient and modern sounds and the use of ancient melodies within contemporary textures can lead, in my opinion, to an intense and unexpected performing and listening experience.
With my sampler that modulates ancient instruments, synthesizers and an acoustic guitar, I will immerse listeners in an ancient and at the same time contemporary soundscape in the conviction of the importance of tradition which, by its innate nature, is in continuous metamorphosis and contamination.
daniloligato.com
SUKARMA
(Nepal)Sukarma is one of the most gifted and innovative groups in the field of Nepali classical and folk music. Sukarma's philosophy tends to instill in young people a love for traditional music by performing both ragas and folk, thus allowing their mutual enrichment. The unusual combination of classical and folk instruments such as the sitar, sarangi, flute and tabla also offers the opportunity to expand the expressive and dynamic possibilities of the music. The Sukarma group is also engaged in the promotion or preservation of Nepalese classical and folk music tradition. Sukarma members have traveled and performed in various parts of the world such as USA, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Japan and Kyrgyzstan. The group has recorded several CDs.
ARATANE N’AKALLE
(Mali)
The group "Aratane N'Akalle" ("The children of the village" in the Tamasheq language) was born from the meeting of young Malian musicians who met in the refugee camps of Burkina Faso and Mauritania at the beginning of the year 2012. They found themselves idle , with music as the only refuge and occupation. So they decide to form a Tamasheq blues music group to showcase this cultural heritage and express their life experience and situation.
In the midst of this humanitarian crisis, the young Tamasheqs share both the same passion for music and the feeling of being cramped in refugee camps, with few prospects and the same helplessness in the face of the growing stigmatization of the original populations of northern Mali.
Drawing on the musical current "Assouf" ("nostalgia", in the Tamasheq language), they find a source of peace and reconciliation with themselves and with the world.
Back in Mali, Aratane N'Akalle will chart their course becoming one of the most present bands on the live music scene.