LoMus will be hosted at Felici & Conflenti, one of the major folk music festivals in Calabria. I will present Il Suono Ecologico on the top of Mount Reventino on Thursday 27 July, during the trekking Una Montagna di Suoni. Why a trekking event at a music festival? What are the links between sound and…

On the 7th of July, I will lead a workshop on the use of bells for herd animals in Tiriolo for the festival Sul Sentiero della Transumanza. This event will introduce the object of my research through a practice-led approach. I will introduce the use of animal bells in Calabria and, together with the participants,…

Field research is progressing, and precious information is emerging. New informants have brought to light a series of instruments that show a special relationship between sound and ecology. This is the time of the year when chestnut trees produce new shoots, the common wild oat (Avena Fatua) grows ubiquitous in the countryside, and onion is…

I had known the Festa della Pita for years despite never having the occasion to witness it first-hand. The Festa della Pita is an arboreal rite in Alessandria del Carretto which opens the celebrations for the saint patron Alessandro Martire. A massive silver fir tree is cut and dragged by hand from the surrounding woods…

Right after the long night procession in Verbicaro, I drove to Diamante, a beautiful village on the northern Tyrrhenian shore. There, I was greeted by the members of the Brotherhood who organise the fascinating procession of the “cordata dei pescatori”, a procession where the fishermen parade in line along a rope. After the frugal yet…

Having started my research project in March, I could not but document the use of sounding objects during Lent and the Holy Week. In fact, in many villages in Calabria, the Lent and Holy Week celebrations include various ritual sounds, often produced by instruments and objects that hold strong symbolic signification. This is a short…

Here we are, starting this new adventure at Unical. Research has just started and, so far, I have been getting acquainted with my new workplace and Italian academia. I started gathering some contacts with possible informants for the ethnographic research and I am really looking forward to starting my interviews soon.