Sonos E Memoria

Improvised Music Company and Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival in association with Pioneer Investments

Supported by The Italian Cultural Institute, UniCredito Italiano & Morgan Stanley

Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Cabbidu was researching an entirely different project when he discovered lost footage of life in Sardinia in the 1930s, now vividly re-animated in this collaboration with the celebrated Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu.

With its evocation of island life and its rugged cultural identity, Sonos ‘E Memoria carries a powerful resonance, reminiscent of films like Man Of Aran, and the traditional music of offshore islands like Tory.

And music is at the core of Sonos ‘E Memoria, performed by a stellar gathering that embraces the island’s robust tradition with singer Elena Ledda and Concordu ‘e su Rosario, four men steeped in the unique polyphony of the island, while Luigi Lai is its most expressive voice on launeddas, a distant relation of the uilleann pipes, and equally haunting.

They’re joined by an island diaspora that includes exquisite Italian jazz musicians in bassist Furio Di Castri and the unpredictable accordionist Antonello Salis, led throughout by Fresu’s lyrical trumpet, evoking Miles Davis as much as Sardinia.