Art Explora Festival - Day 1

The Art Explora Festival and its museum-boat will dock in Xatt Pinto, Valletta Waterfront from the 21st to the 31st of March 2024. The travelling festival and its museum-boat will offer 10 days of FREE artistic and cultural programming on board and on the quayside 

21:00

*Etnika has a two-decade track record of creating original and interactive performances and creative projects that raise awareness of Maltese traditional music, whilst challenging and broadening the concepts of local culture through innovation and integration.

Since 1999, the project developed large-scale productions in site-specific contexts, reclaiming unused public spaces for cultural activities whilst spearheading the revival of traditional Maltese music by discovering creative pathways towards original artistic expression within the context of contemporary trends.

An unlikely mix of artists, characters and instruments, *Etnika’s sound layers enchanting melancholy with traditional tunes & lyrics over effected guitars, retro-futuristic synths, unconventional percussion and footwork, deep, groovy bass, raspy sax, haunting whispery vocals and old Maltese instruments.

Expect a few detours, expect the unexpected, this band has a big heart.

MUSICIANS

• Guitar – Andrew Alamango
• Vocals and Keyboard – Alison Galea
• Dance – Francesca Grima
• Flute and Sax – Walter Vella
• Bass – Oliver Degabriele
• Percussion – Andrej Vujicic

22:00

Renowned guitar virtuoso, producer, and composer, Justin Adams, has been a chief collaborator with Robert Plant in his band, the Sensational Spaceshifters, co-writing a series of four albums and touring the world. His production on landmark albums by Tinariwen and Rachid Taha highlights his feel for the North African groove, while his award-winning projects with Gambian maestro Juldeh Camara linked griot tradition with raw blues spirit. His recent solo album of guitar atmospherics, Ribbons, was cited among the top 50 albums of the past decade by Songlines magazine.

This new collaboration with Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino violinist and percussionist Mauro Durante stems from a concert led by Ludovico Einaudi, the Notte della Taranta in Puglia, where the two first played together, recognizing kindred spirits in the trance rhythms of Taranta. Together, they create a raw, stripped-back sound that moves and mesmerises.

In the past, explains Mauro Durante, “the pizzica was played on the tambourine and violin to cure people who, bitten by a tarantula, fell into a state of lethargy – women in the majority of cases, victims of the spiders while harvesting tobacco leaves. Making them dance to the frantic rhythm of the pizzica, until they fell from exhaustion, brought them back to life.

Musicians

• Justin Adams
• Mauro Durante
• Mohamed Errebbaa