Enjoying a growing international public and critical consensus following their previous efforts GAI SABER are now ready to unveil the latest chapter of their musical saga. On La fabrica occitana the band’s rediscovery of Occitanian roots filtered through the effulgence of futuristic electronic sonorities reaches new levels of perfection, honing to a fine art the musical mongrelizing that is their declared trademark.
Here, the encounter between digital rhythms and the melodies of troubador poetry is finely balanced: each sound, whatever its origin, is placed with acute attention to harmony, giving rise to tracks that, although extremely varied in terms of style, all carry the same hallmark of refined craftsmanship. The fruit of meticulous sonic manipulation La fabrica occitana offers tangible evidence of how folk music can stretch its boundaries while staying firmly rooted to its native soil. Eschewing the clichés of rock for samplers and digital processing with this album GAI SABER make a courageous attempt construct a bridge between past and future that will be of particular benefit to younger generations of listeners.
Formed in 1992 as Kalenda Maia, GAI SABER took their present name in 1996 and the following year released their debut album Troubar R’òc. In June 1999 the band’s second CD Esprit de frontiera saw the participation of Ares Tavolazzi, Elio Rivagli and Vincenzo Zitello. In 2000 and 2001 GAI SABER took part in numerous festivals both in their native Italy and abroad, and at the same time began to forge their ethno electronic sound marrying traditional instruments to digital samplers and drum machines, producing the album Electroch'òc in 2002 in which the rhythms of Occitanian music shared the same floorspace with drum & bass and trip-hop atmospheres. The widespread critical acclaim the album received resulted in the group (who hail from Peveragno in Cuneo’s Valle Pesio) embarking on a three-year European tour. GAI SABER are: Chiara Bosonetto (vocals), Maurizio Giraudo (bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, flutes, vocals), Maurizia Giordanengo (melodeon), Paolo Brizio (melodeon, djembe, derbouka, vocals), Elena Giordanengo (harp, drums and Provençal flutes, vocals), Jose Dutto (drums), Alessandro Rapa (acoustic guitars, bodhran, vocals, samples and programming).
Gai Saber