They are the interpreters of a very lively tradition. The sound of the instruments and of the voices, a certain touch for the understanding of music brings today, just as before, a merrymaking in the feast through songs and dance.
At first sight , this musical ensemble could seem disparate for it is made of instrumentalists coming from various towns and valleys of Piedmont . But their passionate love for music and song gathers them with great homogeneity around a common project which is the keeping of their poetic and musical heritage through the traditional music of the alpine valleys of Piedmont.
The word "sounalhé" in dialect refers to someone who plays an instrument. In fact, back to the nineteenth century, it was the name of a small group of popular musicians in the Valley of Suse with a "margano" (or fiddler) and some friends coming from the small village of Monpantero, close to Suse. The "Val de Suse" is an Italian region which lies in front of the French valley of the Maurienne, on the other side of Mont-Cenis or the Fréjus Pass and which goes down straight away towards Turin. It is a great through road which was used already by the Romans … and elephants… to cross the Alps! However they would like to be a bit more out of the way, as, today the inhabitants are struggling to turn down the Lyons-Turin TGV line, which would bring too much workings and traffic in addition to the existing highway and two national roads. The lower part does speak "French provincial", just as le Val d'Aoste, Savoy and Romandy. The higher part follows the Occitan tradition.
One way to maintain one's culture, during our industrial era is to collect the old songs before they get lost. The repertoire of the Sounalhé is wide-ranging and original. It is thriving on researches conducted in Val Varaita, Val Pellice, Val Chisone, Val Sangone, Val de Susa and Cenischia, and also in France (Dauphiné and Maurienne). This geographic area is made of alpine dialects, piedmontese, Occitan and French Provincial. This is why it is so important to preserve these songs with their diversity (Feufliâzhe featival)
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Enrico Negro: voice, guitar
Davide Vergnano: voice, fiddle
Stefano Profeta: double bass
Flavio Giacchero: pipes, clarinet, voice
Graziano Giacometti: speaking voice
Pierluigi Ubaudi: voice, flugelhorn, tuba
Ilio Amisano: voice, melodeon
with
Guido Antoniotti: ocarina, arbebo, percussion
Giorgio Ferraris: recorders, fifre
Marco Bailone: arbebo
Manuela Losero: clarinet
Giorgio Perotto: trumpet
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01 Un viadjo
02 Valzer di Sounadou
03 Suite d'Urbiano
04 Rico e Zaira
05 La palud
06 Tarantella di Venanzio
07 Babina
08 Corende di Viù
09 Les voleurs
10 Anout e Bà
11 Barba Djenn d'Oudrà
12 Li sounalhè
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2004 • Arebè/Radicimusic records AR 501
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Un viadjo
