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A new sonic experience for Almamegretta who, on this occasion without Raiz, will perform their repertoire live for the first time in a purely instrumental mode, using vocal samples, according to dub aesthetics. Songs reduced to their rhythmic essence, to get to the heart of the groove, highlighting bass and drums, with the addition of multiple effects, to give the show a psychedelic and alienating dimension. For the occasion, Paolo Baldini, one of the most renowned dubmasters, will manipulate the sounds live for a unique and engaging experience.

Populous is the moniker behind which Andrea Mangia hides. Producer, DJ, soundtrack composer, sound designer for the web, museums and fashion shows. For several years he has been proudly flying the flag of Italian electronic music around the world. A graduate in musicology and an omnivorous listener even before being a musician, curiosity is his distinctive trait. You could easily meet him on the street applauding an unknown Andean band as well as in the Himalayas armed with a microphone collecting field recordings. It is precisely this tireless curiosity that leads him to take an interest in all aspects of his work: from the illustrations used for the artwork, to the visuals, to the video clips. Everything is part of a precise vision, cared for down to the smallest detail. Fashion is another of his great passions (as demonstrated by his colourful collection of shirts and socks!) and it is no coincidence that among his countless collaborations there are also those with fashion houses such as Gucci, Vivienne Westwood and Isabel Marant.

Lina Simons, rap between Campania housing projects and London blocks. Born in 1998, with a Nigerian mother and Italian father. Her music is the meeting of these roots, somewhere between Afrobeat, grime, English, Italian, and Neapolitan dialect. Lina Simons describes the housing projects where she grew up and the London blocks, without succumbing to romanticism or mythologies. She also recounts her experience as an Italo-African, her fluctuating relationship with our country—which she likes but felt the need to escape—and offers glimpses into her Nigerian origins. She listened to Afrobeat as a child with her mother, never bothering to know what that genre was called in our parts, a genre that transported her mind to one of her many homes.

Producer and DJ Mondocane and multi-instrumentalist Federico D’Angelo open the festival with an ethereal live set, characterized by global and ritual sounds. Their performance, always balancing acoustic and electronic elements, will explore global, wonky, and tribal musical coordinates, offering a unique and engaging sonic journey.

FiloQ, producer, DJ and sound explorer, perpetually journeying from the port of Genoa to the world, develops his sound research across global beats, jazz, and electronic music, integrating traditional music from all over the world with digital beats in a swirling cut-and-paste. The musical dialogue is enriched by the guitar of Angelo Romano, a musician from Ventotene with a thousand sonic horizons.

Pier Paolo Polcari is the producer and co-founder of the iconic band Almamegretta. He has lived in Italy, England, and Japan, accumulating experiences and a musical background that has made him a pioneer of musical fusion. Polcari explores the boundary between organic and electronic music, presenting a range of tribal and profound sounds, global rhythms derived from folk music, and sonorities inspired by cultures from all over the world.

After being presented at the winter edition of the Ventotene Open Festival 2023, the artistic residency "We Are Open" will finally come to life, bringing together a collective of artists for an entire week on the island of Ventotene. They will voluntarily confine themselves to create what will surely be the most original artistic product of the entire event. Playing with the name, the residency will become an artistic resistance, to remind us how much the values of openness and cross-pollination must be defended in a Mediterranean increasingly overshadowed by dark clouds of war.

The group will see artists from the national scene meet two of the island's most prominent artistic personalities.

Here are the protagonists of this full immersion:

FiloQ, Walter Laureti, Federico D'Angelo, Mondocane, Angelo Romano (Ventotene) and the visions of Alessio Castagna (Ventotene). Through the comparison of different artistic and musical languages, they will explore the theme of the union between tradition and experimentation, inspired by Ventotene's history and cultural openness.

The location that will see the public presentation of this experience is one of the most evocative on the island, the archaeological site of the Cisterna dei Carcerati, which will come alive in a dual dynamic, with a stage outside and one inside the tunnels.

A DJ-producer constantly on the move, his productions traverse global beats, jazz, and electronic music, systematically blending traditional music from all over the world with digital beats in a swirling cut-and-paste; dubmaster of the Italian Institute of Cumbia, founder of the sonic factory and boutique-label Stellare, and artistic producer for artists including Vinicio Capossela, Mudimbi, and Almamegretta.

Paul Bowles said that Tangier is a place where the past and present exist simultaneously in different proportions, and where the past is such a physical reality that it hits you like sunlight. During a trip to the Moroccan city, dj-producer FiloQ fell in love with this cultural and geographical clash and stumbled upon a series of old vinyl records from a small local label called Tangerphone, specializing in traditional music. From there, he began sampling voices, drums, and strings from the record grooves and layering them over beats: these first experiments reached the hands of saxophonist and composer Gianni Denitto, who is sensitive to world music. He, in turn, immersed himself in this discovery project, manipulating sounds and building sax lines and layers with his unique approach. Tangier is at the gateway to the Mediterranean, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Figuratively, it is the opening of our mare nostrum to the world. Working with the sounds of that city is symbolically working on the relationship between Mediterranean culture and that of the rest of the world, in a continuous exchange of mutual influences.

Afrobeat, cosmic disco, tribal electronica, psychedelic downtempo, and dub techno. Dusty tracks trapped in space and the sparks of the future. Andrea Cota, aka Mondocane, is a producer, DJ, and musician based in Rome. For nearly twenty years, he has been an tireless musical agitator and connoisseur of global sounds. Musical exploration is his mission, searching for the rhythm that moves the urban jungle.

Walter Laureti is a Roman producer. He began his sound explorations by studying electronic music in both Italy and Norway. With skills in live sampling, 3D audio, and music for visual media, his compositions blend traditional sounds with contemporary soundscapes. Drawing inspiration from Mediterranean musical traditions, particularly the sounds of Southern Italy, his transformative music takes listeners on an evocative journey, capturing moments of joy, melancholy, and introspection. He is a producer active particularly in the field of world music, has collaborated with national and international artists, and also works closely with traditional and contemporary dance.