From 22nd to 26th October in Tampere, Finland, artists and operators from Puglia will be present at the collective stand Italy@Womex25 coordinated and financed by ICE – Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies, and on Friday 24th October the showcase of the Taranto group Yaràkä
Apulian music once again takes center stage at Womex, Europe’s leading music fair, which annually brings together over 20,000 delegates from around the world. Puglia Culture, as part of Puglia Sounds, the project for the development of the regional music system implemented in collaboration with the Puglia Region, is participating in the international fair, which will be held from October 22 to 26, 2025, in Tampere, Finland, with a strategic promotion of the regional and national music system.
The delegation of Apulian artists and professionals will be present at Italy@Womex25, a collective stand coordinated and funded by ICE – Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in collaboration with con Assomusica, Italian World Beat, Puglia Culture, Emilia-Romagna Music Commission, Italian World Music Network e Sicily Music Conference..
The Apulian delegation
The Apulian delegation—committed to promoting projects that spread Apulian musical culture thanks to a specific public call that encourages participation in international music fairs—in addition to the Puglia Sounds staff, is made up of record labels, booking and management agencies, festivals, and artists.
ARRA Produzioni Mediterranee
Katarzyna Janina Kurdziel (ARRA Produzioni Mediterranee president & Mascarimirì, Elettro Mascarimirì, projects represented by Arra Produzioni manager) – Sanarica (LE) – Italy
arra.produzioni@gmail.com – 0039-3913540543
ARRA PRODUZIONI MEDITERRANEE is a Salento structure born in 2020 which promotes the Salento musical culture in Italy and around the world. We produce with joy: Live music, MASCARIMIRI band, ELETTRO MASCARIMIRI live set, MASCARIMIRI CANTANO GLI UCCI orchestra, TAMBURREDDHU A UCE acustic duo BEIRUT WORLD BEAT dj set; Festivals: BALLATI! FESTA DELLA TRADINNOVAZIONE, TAM TAM TAMBURREDDHU FESTIVAL, World music dj set review: PARTY IN COLLINA. Doc films: “Tamburreddhu – Resistenza Sonora Salentina” and “Gitanistan – Lo Stato Immaginario”.
arraproduzioni.com – instagram.com/arra_produzioni
Asteria Space
Alessandra Savino (Press Office & Artistic manager) – Bitonto (BA) – Italy
info@asteriaspace.it – 0039-3773872180
Asteria Space, agency specialized in promotion and communication services for artists, as well as the management of artistic residences, on the occasion of participation in the fair will select Apulian artists with their respective projects to promote among the professionals who will be present at Womex 2025. At the same time it will identify artists from other parts of the world to be able to host in artistic residence at its spaces (Asteria Guest&Artist House) active in Roseto Valfortore, on the Monti Dauni.
asteriaspace.it – instagram.com/as_asteriaspace
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino
Mauro Durante (Bandleader) – Lecce (LE) – Italy
cgsitaly@gmail.com – 0039-3286149202
In 2025 legendary Southern Italian roots band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (CGS) celebrate their 50th anniversary. Founded by the Durante family and now led by their visionary inheritor Mauro, they are the leading exponents re-inventing Southern Italy’s Pizzica musical and dance traditions, said to cure the Taranta spider’s bite with its frenzied trance dances for today’s global audience. Critically acclaimed with 21 albums and countless live performances all over the world, in 2018 CGS was awarded Best Group at the Songlines Music Awards.
canzonieregrecanicosalentino.net – instagram.com/cgs_canzoniere
Django Music
Simone Manchisi (Agent & Festival booker) – Bari (BA) – Italy
info@djangomusic.it – 0039-3758287733
DJANGO MUSIC SRL has evolved into a trusted partner in the music industry, promoting artists at leading clubs and festivals across Italy and internationally. The company offers comprehensive services, including artistic consulting, communication, and promotion, leveraging a vast network within the Italian and global music scene. The aim is to promote the artists followed by the agency (Seun Kuti, Alborosie, Mellow Mood, C’mon Tigre, Quantic, Dub Fx, ADF etc) for a new path on undiscovered cultural venues, promoters, contexts for a new panorama.
djangomusic.it – instagram.com/djangomusic_it
I MAKE
Antonio Conte (Co-artistic director) – Putignano (BA) – Italy
info@imakeweb.it – 0039-3287199564
The internationalization project of the FARM Festival provides for a cultural relaunch of the festival itself through the creation of partnerships with foreign companies and startups suitable for the contexts envisaged by our festival, as well as research through scouting for new musical and/or artistic projects for the festival. The FARM festival has always paid attention to international cultural research to bring new cultures and new artistic forms into our rich cultural container.
farmfestival.it – instagram.com/farm_festival
Kalàscima
David Sierra (Booker) – Alessano (LE) – Italy
info@kalascima.it – 0039-34651408174
Kalàscima is a dynamic force in the world music panorama, blending ancient sounds with cutting-edge electronic textures. Hailing from Apulia, Italy, the band reinvents the traditional rhythms of taranta with a bold fusion of hypnotic beats, modern electronics, and original melodies.Their live show is a high-energy spectacle with bagpipes, bouzouki, tambourine, accordion, thrilling vocals, laptops and synthesizers.Kalàscima creates an electrifying and captivating musical experience that bridges the past and the future in a truly unique way.
kalascima.it – instagram.com/kalascima
Linfa
Emanuele Flandoli (Producer & Manager) – Lecce (LE) – Italy
emanueleflandoli@gmail.com – 0039-3337196043
Linfa is an independent label and management based in Salento, Apulia, Italy. It focuses on music with deep roots, but strongly projected in the future. In WOMEX, it will present its roster, including the ambassadors of Salento trance ritual music, Officina Zoè (new album due to be out in late 2025), and the women-driven electro-traditional combo Hysterrae, plus some brand new projects as Cocoa Thrill and Petra Petra. Emanuele Flandoli, Linfa’s owner, is also president of Mediterranea, brand new cultural hub and venue in Lecce, Italy.
instagram.com/linfa_records – instagram.com/linfa_records
Ludwig Sound Booking Agency
Carmela Senfett (Manager) – Heidelberg (Baden Württemberg) – Germany
info@ludwigsound.com – 0049-17699775788
Ludwig Sound Booking Agency is an international booking and management agency representing the rock ‘n’ roll band Rekkiabilly from Bari. Rekkiabilly released their new album “Spaghetti Jive” in 2024. The album switches between different genres such as swing, bossa nova, and rockabilly, accompanied by strong, unfiltered irony with a Mediterranean touch. With a long tradition in this genre, Womex takes place in a promising environment in Tampere. An environment in which we expect the best results when presenting this project.
ludwigsound.com/artist/rekkiabilly – instagram.com/rekkiabilly
Manigold
Claudio Prima (Musician / Operator in the cultural sector) – Lecce (LE) – Italy
bandadriatica@gmail.com – 0039-3475468393
Transported by the swirling winds that illuminate the coasts of the eastern sea, the BandAdriatica rages on the agitated waves of Salento music with elements of all the Mediterranean sonic coasts as a complex “Babylon”, where the languages begin to harmonize on the popular melodies in the mestizo fervour of the Adriatic harbours.
bandadriatica.com – facebook.com/bandadriatica
Mezzotono
Nicola Fabio Lepore (Ass. Mezzotono President) – Bari (BA) – Italy
fabio@fabiolepore.it – 0039-3476230477
Mezzotono: 70 countries and 5 continents around the world have hosted Mezzotono’s music making it one of the European vocal groups with the most number of Nations visited with their music. The five singers of Mezzotono perform completely a cappella and with a comical approach, encouraging audience participation in a nice and never pushy way. In few words the Mezzotono show is a mix of Italian culture, entertainment and quality music. The group has had many international awards.
mezzotono.it – facebook.com/MezzotonoMusic
The showcase
Yaràkä, October 24 Tampere Hall – WOMEX 2025
(Courtesy of Cosimo Pastore)
On Friday, October 24, at 2:15 PM at Tampere Hall, the showcase of the Apulian group Yaràkä is scheduled. This project, formed in 2015, is dedicated to highlighting the multi-ethnic component, particularly the common rhythmic matrix originating from Africa, which acts as a catalyst and allows for the experimentation of bold contaminations with Mediterranean and Southern Italian sounds
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The ensemble is composed of Gianni Sciambarruto, Virginia Pavone, and Simone Carrino, three musicians from Taranto who seek to express a personal identity, to rediscover traditions with an openness towards modernity and the contamination between cultures. The goal of Yaràkä’s research is in fact to sublimate into music the concept of rituality that characterizes practices linked to popular traditions, exploring the ancestral man-nature relationship. Yaràkä is in fact a word composed of the four elements—water, air, fire, and earth—in the Tupi-Guaraní language, one of the most important Amazonian tribes, which represents a perfect example of coexistence between man and nature for the band.
They will present their album, Curannera (Zero Nove Nove label), live, featuring eight tracks including original compositions and some rearranged traditional songs. It is a musical journey that unfolds throughout Southern Italy, starting from the old city of Taranto, which serves as the backdrop for recounting the ensemble’s genesis and the research work carried out with the intention of rediscovering and exalting the traditions of the past. The path, which starts from their own land and uses invocation as an anthropological phenomenon, has fascinated the trio, leading them to dig into the origins to find the junction point between primordial cultures and ethnicities. Taranto, like all seaside cities, is historically a meeting point for distant places. With their music, Yaràkä aims to pay homage to its long history, which began as a Spartan foundation, and the importance it held during the period of Magna Graecia; the rediscovery of the Tarantino dialect, which inherently contains particular musical rhythms, becomes a cornerstone of the ensemble and a unique characteristic of their journey, as well as a tool for authentically disseminating the ideals and the millennial history of the City of the Two Seas.
Luoghi Comuni: The web radio stations at WOMEX
Thanks to the synergy with ARTI Puglia, the presence of operators from Luoghi Comuni—an initiative by the Youth Policies of the Puglia Region and ARTI—is renewed. They are participating in WOMEX with a stand to follow the activities and produce live broadcasts, interviews with key figures, podcasts, and original content to be listened to on the Luoghi Comuni blog and through the web radios Inext Radio, Rare Tracce, AltreMenti, RUTSS, In Punta di Tacco, Podcap 73100 e AWA.