Alberto Cesa e Cantovivo

ALBERTO CESA & CANTOVIVO

The history of Cantovivo can be traced back to the mid-seventies when Alberto Cesa, who is nowadays recognized for being one of the most successful Italian experts on folksong, formed the band. Throughout its artistic life, Cantovivo has certainly presented various line up changes; it often joined another musicians coming from other musical genres, and sometimes with folksingers from foreign countries including England, Switzerland, Sweden and Latin America, to name just but a few of them.
Its artistic baggage includes more than 2.000 concerts which were mainly performed on Italian stages (squares, theatres, cultural associations, schools…) However, Cantovivo has been also well-known for enthralling audiences all over Europe, where it has been the protagonist of several ‘tounées’ and has taken part in the most important and famous music Festivals.

• MONTREUX’S ‘GRAND PRIX INTERNATIONAL DU DISQUE’
• ROSA BALISTRERI 2000 MUSIC AWARD - City of Palermo, Sicilian region.
• SPECIAL AWARD in the 2nd Italian linguistic minorities’ competition (in
representation of the occitanian’s tradition)
• 2ND PLACE in a classification carried out by ‘Scottish Folk Gazette’ from Edinburgh.
• A TOTAL NUMBER OF THIRTY CD’S among productions and participations.
• 2.000 concerts
• IN NYON IT HAS LEFT THE AUDIENCE COMPLETELY CHARMED: La Tribune de
• Genêve (Swithzerland).
• AMAZING PIEDMONT’S SEXTET IN ST. CHARTIER: Parole et musique (France).
• WOW! UNIQUE, POWERFUL, FANTASTIC SOUND! : Canadian River Music (U.S.A.)
• EXCEPTIONAL GROUP!: Folk Mlchel (Germany).
• SPLENDID SOUND, ALWAYS INTENSE: Blad Voor Cultur (Belgium)
• A TERRIFIC CONCERT!: Dutch Folk Magazine (Holland)
• A HIGH QUALITY : Hallein journal (Austria)
• CANTOVIVO HAS OFFERED US AN OVERWHELMING CONCERT: Trad Magazine
(France).

Cantovivo puts forward a modern folk music which is arranged with a balanced proportion of acoustic instruments (hurdy-gurdy, diatonic accordion, accordion, fiddle, flute, harp, guitar, dulcimer, Spanish ‘bandurria’-Spanish instrument of the lute type-, percussions,…), and midi ones (guitar, wind instruments, and so on), and the rhythmic support of both the electric bass and the drums ...within the most great considerations in traditional styles and absolutely personal innovation and fantasy at the same time. Cesa’s terrific repertoire is especially derived from the study and scrupulous research into ancient music carried out by himself in Piedmont and North Italy, and it celebrates not only old medieval ballads and the year's popular songs (such us Carnival, May festivities, Summer fiestas, and the wine harvest with its ‘chanÇons à boire’ , among others), but also Nursery- rhymes, the nonsense Cantilenas such as ‘Bargabal’, the Peasant songs along with those of emigration and working-class movement (‘Merica Merica’ – ‘I sagrin e le speranse’,…), as well as dancing-songs (like ‘Digo Janeto’) and folkdances (jig, courante, sbrandi, waltz, polche, bourrées, and so on) until arriving to the NEW COMPOSITIONS, written and compiled by Alberto Cesa in his compact disk booklet FOGLI VOLANTI (‘Beniamino’, ‘Robadamatti’, ‘Ballantonio’, ‘Punkintanz’, ‘Oriente’…) so as to tell, through Chronicle and History, the Cantovivo’s large adventure.