Arab Strap, Black Midi, Dengue Dengue Dengue, Ditonellapiaga, Mombao, Nickodemus and Ceri are just some of the headliners at the 16th edition of the SEI Festival. Under the slogan #ShapeTheFuture, from 28 to 31 July at the Castello Volante in Corigliano d’Otranto, the Salento festival – conceived, produced and promoted by Coolclub – will present a packed programme of concerts, talks, screenings and other opportunities for discussion. #ShapeTheFuture is an invitation to have faith in tomorrow: to reimagine the future, rewrite it, redesign it. To rediscover the desire for a sense of everyday life that now seems to have slipped away from us. Once again this year, there will be a number of ‘OFF’ events featuring Venerus (8 August) and Psicologi (20 August) at Parco Gondar in Gallipoli, and above all the eagerly awaited concert by the American band the Pixies (postponed for two years due to the pandemic), who will perform on 16 August in Piazza Libertini in Lecce. The SEI Festival’s long summer will kick off as early as the end of June at the Castello Volante in Corigliano d’Otranto with the second edition of the artistic residency “FeelM – From Primitives to the Future”, which combines early cinema and contemporary music under the artistic direction of Ginevra Nervi, a composer and producer of electronic music whose artistic research focuses on the exploration of vocal timbre (final performance on 25 June). Advance tickets available on Dice.Fm. Info: seifestival.it
SEI FESTIVAL IN CORIGLIANO D’OTRANTO
The heart of the festival takes place from 28 to 31 July at the Castello Volante in Corigliano d’Otranto, featuring four packed evenings with national and international guests performing in the atrium, on the terraces and in the moat of the ancient fortress (season tickets available on Dice.Fm). The festival kicks off on Thursday 28 July with the Turkish psychedelia of Lalalar, the solo project of Koko – singer, bassist and songwriter with Be Forest – the human and musical universe of Giorgio Tuma, the explosive sounds of Funk Rimini and, to round things off, the inimitable blend of post-rock soundscapes, subtle electronica, ticking drums and pioneering, swelling strings from the Scottish duo Arab Strap, comprising Moffat and Malcolm Middleton. On Friday 29 July, the stage will feature the young Bari-based band Lazzaretto, with their “alt-rock blending shoegaze influences and a distorted French-language vocal that speaks to the misunderstood”, Aquarama, a Tuscan duo who blend grooves inspired by modern American R&B, surf melodies, Afro-Cuban rhythms and funk sounds with the elegance of traditional Italian pop; Planet Opal, an electronic music project comprising Giorgio Assi (producer, synthesisers and vocals) and Leonardo De Franceschi (drums and percussion), and Black Midi, a London-based trio consisting of Geordie Greep (guitar, lead vocals), Cameron Picton (bass, vocals) and Morgan Simpson (drums), who, alongside saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi and keyboardist Seth Evans, will perform tracks from their new album “Cavalcade”. On Saturday 30 July, the evening will open with the duo Mombao, a powerful and original project centred on percussion, vocals and electronics, halfway between a ritual, a performance and a rock concert, and the trio Mundial, who revive old stories and nursery rhymes using a sound characterised by samples of the Apulian landscape, edited and transformed into rhythmic patterns. The evening will continue with Dengue Dengue Dengue, a Peruvian tropical bass duo blending psychedelic cumbia and dub, salsa and footwork, tribal and techno, and will conclude with sets by New York DJ and producer Nickodemus and the sounds of the Tropical Party featuring Dubin and Federico Primiceri. Finally, on Sunday 31 July, the spotlight will be on Salento-born Julielle and her electro-pop, the result of a journey that straddles electronic music and a passion for Edith Piaf, John Lennon and Jeff Buckley; on the singer and performer LaHasna, a Milanese artist of Moroccan origin whose sounds evoke the Arab world; Rome In Reverse, a trio offering a blend of dance, techno, dub and trip hop; Ceri, one of the most innovative and influential producers on the Italian scene (Salmo, Coez, Calcutta, Franco 126, Frah Quintale and Crookers), “the architect of Italian street pop, with beats that blend hip hop, traditional singer-songwriter styles and house-style dancefloor sounds”, and Ditonellapiaga, one of the revelations of the latest Sanremo Festival alongside Donatella Rettore, who, with her debut album ‘Camouflage’ has captivated audiences and critics alike with its blend of nu-soul and R&B, frenetic Latin rhythms and psychedelic twists, intoxicating pop songs and sophisticated electronic sounds.