Chadal is the name of a Sardinian-Senegalese band, created as part of an international cooperation project, organized by Cherimus in collaboration with Kër Thiossane, ville pour l’art et le multimedia, based in Dakar and Orchestre National du Sénégal. The project’s idea was to strengthen and deepen the dialogue between Sardinian and Senegalese people, the latter representing the largest African community within the Italian island.

Sardinian guitar player Alberto Balia, launeddas Player Andrea Pisu, trumpeter Riccardo Pittau and pianist Matteo Scano met in Dakar with songwriters Bah Moody and Marcel Diabia Ndong, Balafon player Sidi Koita, xalam player Alioune Ndiaye, kora player Baka Cissokho, bass player Alassane Cissè and collaborated in creating a new band and a new album.

Chadal debuted in Dakar on May 20, 2011, before embarking on a concert tour across Sardinia and the North of Italy. The visionary set of the concerts was created during a series of workshops held in Dakar in collaboration with visual artist Abdoulaye Cysso Manee, Espace Enfants de la Maison de la Culture Douta Seck and École Mamour Diakhate, classe CPB as well as in several small towns of Sulcis, where both Sardinian and Senegalese children also built traditional instruments from their respective regions and exchanged them.

From December 2020, Cherimus association is a special guest of Spectrum web radio, an association founded in Brescia in 2019 by artists and musicians, “a corridor for sonic explorers”, as stated on their website.

Each month Cherimus will produce a podcast entitled Deggo Yëggo meets BLM Bergamo. The title highlights the meeting between Cherimus Deggo Yëggo’s project and Black Lives Matter Bergamo, the group of activists and artists for an anti-racist, inclusive and supportive Bergamo (we invite you to visit the global-network website https: // blacklivesmatter. com /).

As in Deggo Yëggo Cherimus supports the exchange between Sardinian and Senegalese communities present in Sardinia, the collaboration with BLM Bergamo has led to imagine a space that favors the voices of Afro-descendant Italian artists. A space capable of focusing on talents usually on the margins of the world of traditional and dominant media, capable of involving an audience that is too often ignored and excluded.

The name Deggo Yëggo was born during the rehearsals of the Sardinian-Senegalese group in Dakar, translated into English from Wolof it means: harmony, understanding, listening and sharing aimed at a common action. This will be the leitmotif of the podcast.

In the two hours of podcast you will be able to listen to:

~ in collaboration with BLM Bergamo:
– reading, musical selections, interviews
– presentation of artists and activists
– shapes and flans that will unroll while we get our hands and ears dirty

~ from the archives of Cherimus:
– sounds and songs of musical projects such as Chadal, Bisu Ndoto, etc
– interviews with the protagonists of Cherimus’ musical projects
– field-recordings: what was around it?

EPISODE 1

Kristah

The first episode features Kristah, soul singer and rapper / trapper of Ghanaian origin living in Bergamo. When interviewed by BLM Bergamo and Derek, she tells her story from her beginnings as a Master DNA, to the suspension in a middle ground that has the rhythm of Afro-trap. Living one’s nature is not just an individual matter but a spark that led Kristah to the co-foundation of The Key Ent., an independent label that brings together several artists and musicians who come from social minorities. We interviewed her on zoom on December 9, 2020, shortly after the release of the first single “Today I don’t go out” by the KID group, formed by Kristah, IBM and Derek.

Graphic: Samīra
Ph: Mouhamed Seck e Julia Hautojärvi
Mix: Pierre Aboa
Produced by BLM Bergamo and Derek MF Di Fabio for Cherimus


1) Master DNA – Afrotrap
2) KID – oggi non esco
3) A-Star – Hyperman
4) Derek Lemar – Radici nello spazio
5) Kristah – No more beggin’
6) F.U.L.A – maldafrica
7) Kristah – Trap the wave
8) Ramma – tutto ok
9) Gorka, Big P, Meth – Te lo giuro
10) Master DNA – cosa c’è
11) IBM – Not my type (feat. Emapee)
12) Slim Gong – Chiamami
13) Equipe 54 – Stilo
14) Fuse ODG – Boa Me ft. Ed Sheeran & Mugeez
15) Bey T, George Kalukusha, Lady Donli, Nemo, Ruth Ronnie, Trina South & Union5 – Kalakuta
16) Burna Boy -Monsters You Made (feat. Chris Martin)
17) Kristah – Mask off
18) David Blank & PNKSAND + il romantico – Foreplay
19) Burna Boy – Real Life feat. Stormzy
20) Beyoncé & Wiz Kid – Brown skin girl
21) Shabaka Hutchings & Kojey radical – no gangster
22) Deggo Yëggo – Thiow Li

EPISODE 2

Byron Rosero e O.T. Lover

One afternoon last December, Sara from BLM Bergamo met Byron Rosero and O.T. Lover: two artists whose families moved to Bergamo when they were children. Byron works primarily with video and as a director, O.T. Lover with dance and both are exploring different media.

In this conversation, the two tell and describe each other: from football cheering for Italy from the neighborhood of Casablanca to dancing in the wheat fields, escaping from the rigidity of the father, from the “millions of cameras” aimed at him in the small mountain villages , to the first savings transformed into film cameras to tell and invent their own narratives. Addressing problems without letting oneself be disheartened by the context and creating communities around one’s passions.

Interview by Sara Mehretab
Mix: Pierre Aboa
Graphic: Samīra e Derek MF Di Fabio
Ph: Mouhamed Seck, O.T. Lover, Byron Rosero
Produced by BLM Bergamo and Derek MF Di Fabio for Cherimus


1) J. Lord – My G
2) Residente – René
3) Tommy Kuti feat. Slim Gong – Come son finito qua
4) Epoque – Petite
5) JAY-Z – The story of O.J
6) Manca, Kaydy Cain, Madd – Baida
7) El Raton – Multicultural
8) ISSAM – Trap Beldi
9) Miriam Ayaba – Credo in te
10) Chris Brown – Day Goodbye
11) Deggo Yëggo – Maman
12) Flawless Real Talk – On my way
13) Jasley- Hooyo
14) Twenti – hey Bro
15) Shygirl – BB
16) Leikeli47 – Attitude
17) Equipe54 – Non Batti l’Equipe
18) KID – Oggi non esco
19) Miriam Ayaba – Sola
20) J. Lord – sixteen
21) Ngawa – Inshalla
22) Deggo Yëggo – Music

Kristah is the first artist in residence of the European Common Places project, developed between Barcelona, Perdaxius and Ljubljana.
Kristah is a singer and rapper of Black music from Bergamo.
She began making music with the church youth choir she attended at the age of 13. Later she met the members of the Ibm group, of which she is still a part, and Derek with whom she started composing her first few bars.
With her group, she created The key ent label, which aims to foster inclusiveness and to promote and support young artists.
She adores soul, R&B, hip-hop, blues, and loves all kinds of music. In her lyrics, she often finds herself talking about how to love yourself, improve yourself, and love others.
She thinks that we would be better off if each of us worked on ourselves, resolving our own inner conflicts: if we learned to feel good about ourselves, we would feel better with other people.

* * *

Exploring Perdaxius and the region of Sulcis with Kristah.
In a few kilometers, we traveled the history and geography of the Mediterranean: we walked between imposing Nuraghi; explored architectural remnants of medieval Pisa in Tratalias and the ancient Phoenician site of Sulky, today Sant ‘Antioco, from which the whole area takes its name; and, finally, we ended in Calasetta, where we met with Blues musician Matteo Leone and art publicist Valeria Frisolone. Calasetta’s inhabitants still speak Tabarkino; Fainè is one of its most popular dishes.

* * *

Meeting with Francesco Capuzzi, improvisational poet, launeddas player, and inventor.
During the chat, intersections emerged between traditional instruments, the similarities and differences between metrics and rhythms of improvisation in both rap and traditional Sardinian poetry, as well as different ways of telling stories, tracing lineage, & melodic dissing.
Francesco played both the launeddas (the traditional wind instrument made from three pipes, which has been traced back to at least the eighth century BC and is still very much in use today in traditional and sacred Sardinian music), and the “Elettroneddas,” their electronic counterpart, invented by Francesco himself. The elettroneddas is slowly gaining in popularity among the launeddas players of the island both for purposes of training as well as experimentation.

* * *

Kristah during a music workshop with the kids in the “Giardino possibile” of Domusnovas, making up the words and music of a new song with them based on the fruits of the carob tree under which the workshop took place.
In collaboration with Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella Association, Domusnovas.

* * *

Kristah’s mini-concert in the courtyard of Cherimus’s art residency space, a special moment where the artist told us about her music and her life and a warm goodbye to the numerous inhabitants of Perdaxius present for this special event.

* * *

Kristah as the special guest of the art course of “totus in pari” (all together in Sardo). She talked about her music and shared some songs with the children, then invited them to transform the music into colors and shapes, to play with synesthesia and with the secret links we all have between sounds and shapes.

* * *

Totus in Pari is the project activity of Common Places dedicated to the community of Perdaxius and the surrounding area.
Totus in Pari (in english “All Together”) aims to experiment a new model of sociality for the community of Perdaxius, the town in which the association is based. The project is transversal and aims to involve children and young adults, as well as parents, adults and senior citizens.
In order to do this, Totus in pari plans to activate a series of English, Visual Arts and Music courses to establish three small new interconnected communities focusing on individual expression and collective work.
As well as creating a visible change in the public space of the town through the creation of wall paintings made in collaboration with visual artists.
The courses do not have a scholastic or academic slant, but are designed especially as a safe space, free from prejudices and notionisms, inclusive, the project aims above all else to grant each participant the space and time to deepen self-expression and collaboration with others, to imagine new solutions to improve the town’s quality of life.
The courses are interdisciplinary and collaboration between courses will be encouraged. All activities will take place in public places in Perdaxius, such as the community centre, in collaboration with other associations in the town (in particular Pantagus and Su Nuraghe which could host the workshops).
The activities are free of charge except for minimum tuition fees and insurance costs.
The project aims to develop and encourage a sense of community and culture of exchange, reciprocity and critical thinking, also through the involvement of all the associations in Perdaxius willing to collaborate.The topics and objectives of the workshops are the following:

English: learning the English language through games and conversation with native teachers.
Visual Art: participants will be the protagonists of a project of urban regeneration. On the basedon their ideas and dreams, outdoor areas will be identified to be transformed and regenerated through the collaboration with visual artists.
Music: percussion workshops to learn rhythmic patterns and the use of classical, pop / rock and traditional musical instruments.


The project is organized by Cherimus and co-financed by the Municipality of Perdaxius.