Sounds of Terra Madre

For the second time, rural music traditions enlivened the Terra Madre world meeting of food communities in 2010 with the Sounds of Terra Madre program. This year the artists where mostly Italian, and their performances expressed the various regions of the meeting’s host country.

Outside of the more traditional performances, the program also included Sandra Boninelli, who sang in various Italian dialects, as well as Senegalese Dudu Kouate who instead offered some songs from his country. Dudu laid down his khalam, a three-chord guitar covered in goat hide and explained: “Our performance is called Culture popolari in dialogo (Popular Culture in dialogue) in the spirit of Terra Madre.”

The roots of the project, explained organizer Azio Citi, was to express the songs and festivities that have always accompanied agricultural work. Music is an integral part of farming traditions and we wanted to emphasis this.”

Music is said to be food to the soul, but traditional music is often an integral and inseparable part of agricultural and food traditions and integral to their survival. In this way, the artists involved are ambassadors of the Terra Madre food communities to which they belong.

The performances, often accompanied by traditional dances, were held in an outdoor area between the Terra Madre world meeting of food communities and the international Salone del Gusto, thus allowing both delegates to the meeting and visitors to the fair a chance to here the unique sounds of Terra Madre.