Ecstatic Italian pizzica tarantata meets propulsive Algerian Saharan rhythms in an exciting cross-boundary musical conversation.

Day 1 of Barzakh Festival features CGS – Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (Italy) and Lemma (Algeria).

In addition to the music, enjoy a Night souk style artisan shopping experience at the concert with quality street food and 40 locally based artisan stalls, with items ranging from handmade soaps, candles, local artwork, jewelry, home décor, pottery, and many more. Access to the Night souk is free and open to the public, so bring your family along!

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (Italy)

Now led by his award-winning multi-instrumentalist son, Mauro Durante, CGS were established in Puglia in 1975 by the writer Rina Durante, and are the first and most important group to produce popular Salentinian music from southern Italy. CGS have updated their sound to create a fascinating reinterpretation of tradition and modernity that revolves around the famous pizzica tarantata ritual, a popular Italian folk music that marked the ancient healing ritual against the bite of the dangerous tarantula spider. CGS is presented with the support of Puglia Sounds.

Listen to the music:

Lemma (Algeria)

Hailing from the Saoura region, this powerful all-female band presents a joyful symphony of several music genres from the spiritual to the most earthly. They sing texts borrowed from the mystical odes and supplications from the hadra sessions, as well as passages from some well-known malhûn texts. Their percussion draws from hidûss and hadra, and is as much in the rhythm as is in the darbouka or the bendir. Their rhythm is rich and comes in many genres; borrowing the rhythm of ’arûbi (a free and repetitive rhythm) and haddâwî (the rhythm of the wandering mystics of the Moroccan brotherhood of Sidi Haddi) as well as other rhythms and melodies from all across the Maghreb.

Listen to the music: