LOU DALFIN & SUSTRAIA
Radio Occitania Libra

Fy 8157

8021750815722
Felmay Records
Italia

 

For over a quarter of a century they have been the lively emblem of the Occitane culture and music (and also in good measure of their rebirth), LOU DALFIN, not only they face a bright future ahead (as the recent recordings I Virasolelhs and Remescla show), they also enjoy a large amount of performances and recording material which set the history and evolution and determine the status of a fundamental folk band not only Italian music panorama.
Born in 1982 in Caraglio, a small center of the Grana Valley in the province of Cuneo (Northern Italy), LOU DALFIN have lived a rather philological first phase of revisiting Occitane traditions, tackling with exclusively acoustic instruments a repertoire of historic and popular tracks. At the beginning of the 90s the group revived from its ashes with a different approach, opting for a sound that is also debtor of the "modern times," intended to bring the heritage of Occitany to those not born in the free land of Occitania. Of the quality of the natural evolution of the new phase, are witness three albums, finally at the disposal of the many aficionados of the music of Berardo and his fellow musicians. In 1992 is W Jan of l'eiretto recorded, who sees Sergio Berardo (hurdy-gurdy, melodeon, flutes, galoubet, bagpipes, jew's harp, vocals), Diego Origlia (electric guitar and acoustic, vocals), Riccardo Serra (drums, vocals), Fabrizio Simondi (keyboards, vocals) and Dino Tron (chromatic accordion, melodeon, vocals). in the repertoire you can find traditional music (including a suite of dances of the Vermenagna Valley) and three Scottish composed by Berardo.
In 1995 appears Gibous, bagase and bandì with the entry of Enrico Damilano (bass) and Alfredo Piscitelli (guitars) in training. Among the guests some names of prestige: Roy Paci (trumpet), Rosario Patania (trumpet), Pablo Parpaglione (tenor saxes), David Rossi (violin, violectra) and Madaski (voice, sampling and programming) who signs a passage, Lou Dub, evidence of the creative evolution of the group. This recording is also a successful mix between traditional and new compositions and stands out for the sequence of three rigaudons.
To complete the triptych of re-issues we have Radio Occitana Libra (1997), a live disk recorded in part at the Music Fair in Turin on 1996 and in part out of Switzerland Italian Radio. The music program is drawn from two previous recordings, but, thanks to the presence of the Basque group Sustraia in support, is realised as a union of music minorities (which are not at all actually) that is another of the basic principles of Lou DALFIN.
Even if significantly different one from the other, the three disks manage to let emerge at its best that communicative energy and attention to the precious cultural and musical heritage that does no longer only belong to the dwellers of the Occitan Valleys in Piedmont.