Antico

Antico is a project that takes its name and its spirit from one of the last living masters of Sicilian frame-drum tradition, Alfio Antico — a shepherd, builder of tamburelli and singer whose practice carries forward an oral repertoire rooted in centuries of pastoral life, ritual and resistance.

Celebrating ten years from its first incarnation, the project reunites Alfio Antico with singer-songwriter Colapesce and composer-producer Mario Conte. Together they explore how Sicilian ritual, work songs and ancestral percussion can inhabit new sonic landscapes, where the tamburello dialogues with electronics, drone, contemporary composition and song-writing.

Antico is conceived as a journey into the heart of Sicily — a land of myths, lamentations and drums — but it refuses the museum gesture. The repertoire is alive: it is reinterpreted, transposed, opened to new collaborators, framed in performances that work as much as concert as ritual. The aim is not to preserve a tradition behind glass, but to let it breathe in the present.

Antico is in management with Kadmonia for live shows, festival appearances and special productions.