LA SEDON SALVADIE

The musical career of this band had its first step in May 1982 from an idea of Andrea Del Favero, Giulio Venier and Glauco Toniutti. The very first line-up included Giulio Venier on flute, guitar and vocals, Andrea Del Favero diatonic accordion, Glauco Toniutti mandolin, spoons, tin whistle and vocals and Marisa Scuntaro lead vocals, joined in August of the same year by Emma Montanari on guitar, vocals and three stringed cello and Stefano Copetti, guitar, whistle and vocals. 
Giulio Venier and Glauco Toniutti started using violins in the band and they had been the very first into the revival scene to play traditional violin music of Resia outside the valley. During the concerts they were often joined by some original traditional musicians from Resia, Giovanni Micelli, also called Zangarlin, and Franco Di Lenardo, also called Peo.


At the end of 1983 Copetti left and he was replaced in Spring 1984 by Tullio Angelini, oboe and Southern Italian bagpipes. During that period was definitively created the sound of La Sedon Salvadie; Venier and Angelini introduced a reconstruction of an alpine bagpipe, which is still used by the band. Angelini left in may 1985, after an Austrian tour and a few mounth before the first album, Il gri e la moscje, was ready. The best traditional players of the region were playing together with five young entusiastic musicians. It was an incredible success. For the first time the real traditional music of Friuli was published on an album. 
In 1986 the band became a trio: Scuntaro on vocals and three stringed cello, Venier on violin, bagpipes and vocals and Del Favero on diatonic accordion and three stringed double bass, before asking to the folksinger Lino Straulino to join them on guitar and vocals. From July to December 1987 La Sedon Salvadie toured extensively Europe (Del Favero, Venier, the piemontese hurdy-gurdy player Silvio Orlandi, the violinist Marco Fabbri from Rome and Cristina Venier, Giulio's sister, on vocals). At the end of that year Giulio and Andrea were really tired of that life and the story of the band seemed to be at the end, but in April 1988 they were asked to play some more gigs in Friuli: Venier, Scuntaro, Straulino and Del Favero went again on the road also in Slovenia and Austria untill September, when Giulio Venier left, just before the beginning of the recording of their second album.
In January 1990 Salustri was ready, with the addition of Marco Zoletto on guitar and vocals and the great help of Vittorio Vella, sound engeneer and musician, and Giorgio Ioan on electric bass. During the Autumn of the same year, Scuntaro and Straulino, both teachers, left, replaced by Paola Biasutti on vocals and three stringed double bass and the irish fiddle player Paul Bradley, who had moved to Friuli one year before and was already playing in sessions and small concerts with Andrea Del Favero.

In Autumn 1991, during some studio sessions for recording the collective album Christmas Carols in Alpe Adria, Del Favero met the old istrian friend Dario Marusic, who had been living in the last two years in Belgrade, after the splitting of his great band Istranova, and asked him to join La Sedon Salvadie. 
In Autumn 1992 Paul Bradley went back to Ireland for becoming a very good violin maker and than founder-member of Na Dorsa, now called Dorsa. In winter Zoletto left too and had been replaced by Gianni Brianese on electric bass, tuba and mandola. This line-up finished the recordings of the third album of the band, Faliscjes, which went on sale in Spring 1993 and was one of the best-sellers of the group. 
In January 1994 a new musical direction was taken by the band, more focused on a mixture of traditional music and new compositions (expecially songs written by Lino Straulino). Lino Straulino on vocals and guitar, Andrea Del Favero on diatonic accordion, bodhran and three stringed double bass, Dario Marusic on violin, pipes, whistles and vocals and Maurizio Pagnutti on drums and percussion became part of the project of a tribute made by some of the best Italian folk bands to Fabrizio De André, the best Italian singer and songwriter. The album Canti Randagi went up to italian charts and was a real cultural event of the middle 90s: most of the best Italian folk bands and musicians of that period were involved in this project: Riccardo Tesi & Patrick Vaillant, Elena Ledda, Baraban, La Ciapa Rusa, Mediterraneo, Bevano Est, Peppe Barra, Re Niliu, I suonatori delle quattro province and an extraordinary Allan Taylor.

In March 1995 Pagnutti joined a big commercial band in Germany and was replaced by U.T. Gandhi, a drummer and percussion player coming from jazz-scene (Enrico Rava and many others). In December of the same year a new CD was ready, a compilation born from the different line-ups of the band: ten years of history of La Sedon Salvadie, with alternative versions of tunes from the first three albums, live materials never realized before and a couple of new songs, put together for giving to the people an idea of the kind of concert the band could do. 
In January 1996 Dario Marusic and Andrea Del Favero started working with elements of the bands Calicanto and Abies Alba on a concept-concert inspired by the death of the ancient Republic of Venice, called Adio, Leon! 
At the end of August La Sedon Salvadie had its first canadian tour, and in Autumn they went to Hungary to Euromusica, a fantastic experience with live television shows and a full immersion in music in the old Hungarian Capital, Székesfehérvàr. Straulino left after his second solo album at the end of the year for a good career of singer-songwriter in friulian language. 
In 1997 Marusic and Del Favero, together with the young and good clarinet player Flaviano Miani (from the band Nosisà) worked with Farneto Teatro and in September of the same year they were again on the road as a quartet: Marusic on violin and pipes, Del Favero accordion and percussion, Miani on clarinet and keyboards, and the new entry Gianluca Zanier (also from the band Nosisà) on electric bass and vocals.
In march 1998 La Sedon Salvadie with the bands Calicanto, Bevano Est and Marusic Is Trio, under the musical direction of Maurizio Martinotti worked on the project called Legend of San Marino, based on the story of San Marino, the man supposed to be the founder of the Republic with the same name. The next album, Strades di cjants, comes out in 1999 and it's a double one: the first CD is live in concert and the line-up is Del Favero, Marusic, Straulino and U.T. Gandhi, with Flaviano Miani in many tracks and the second one is a studio album with a lot of new materials and extraordinary inspiration by Marusic and Del Favero, with the good help of Miani and Zanier and a couple of old friends (Marisa Scuntaro on vocals, Glauco Toniutti on vocals and spoons and Maurizio Pagnutti on drums). 
During the international folk festival Folkest 2000 in Spilimbergo (PN), La Sedon Salvadie performed live on a special project of the festival under the direction of Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains. Together with The Chieftains, Carlos Nuñez and and the female choir Vociofili from Roveredo (PN), Giulio Venier, Glauco Toniutti, Marisa Scuntaro and Mariateresa Cargnello performed a long suite including friulian and irish traditional materials. Paddy called it Friulian Celtic Connection and it can be heard on the CD Il cîl da l'Irlande, published in 2003.

In 2002 Giulio Venier, one of the founder-members, is definitively back with the band and the sound changes again: Giulio Venier on acoustic and electric violin with midi devices, pipes and vocals, Dario Marusic on violin, reeds instruments, whistles and vocals, Andrea Del Favero diatonic accordion with midi devices, percussion and vocals and Gianluca Zanier electric bass and vocals. 
In december 2002 La Sedon Salvadie's Christmas album,called Cjantade di Nadal is ready: it has been recorded live at the Theatre San Giorgio in Udine in 2000 by Vittorio Vella during a special Christmas theatre show directed by Andrea Collavino. A big line-up worked on this album: Dario Marusic on violin, Istrian pipes, bagpipes and vocals, Andrea Del Favero diatonic accordion and vocals, Flaviano Miani clarinet, piano accordion and vocals (from the band Nosisà), Gianluca Zanier double bass and vocals (from the bands Nosisà and Banda Mattotti), Giulio Venier violin, bagpipes and vocals, Glauco Toniutti violin, mandolin, spoons and vocals, Marino Kranjac guitar, Istrian pipes and vocals, Marisa Scuntaro, Emma Montanari and Gabriella De Cesco vocals (from the band Braul), and Andrea Collavino as actor.

Il Cil dal l'Irlande, produced by Massimo Bubola for Eccher Music, came out in 2003 and it has been established as one of the best italian folk albums of last ten years. Very good production, nice cover and a list of incredible international guests: Carlos Nuñez, The Chieftains, Vincenzo Zitello, Ed Schnabl, Massimo Bubola, Luigi Maieron, Paul Bradley, Michele Gazich.
In June 2003 Michele Pucci, great flamenco guitar player (who's still performing in duo with Giulio Venier), joines the band on acoustic guitar. His first gig with La Sedon Salvadie was on a magic night in the Castle of Gorizia, supporting Fairport Convention.
In December 2003 Il cîl da l'Irlande has been voted best album of the year of Friulian Music by friulian music journalists. This award is dedicated to the loving memory of Giancarlo Deganutti, who was a very good old friend of the band. 
In january 2004 Luciano Marangone starts giving a new drive with the electric bass to the sound of La sedon salvadie. 
At Folkest 2004, a new special production of the festival took place in a magic location: La fonte di Venchiaredo, a special place mentioned in the past by famous poets like Ippolito Nievo and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Luigi Maieron was telling to the people old stories of his family and his village, taken from the book La neve di Anna published by La Biblioteca dell'immagine, and the band was playing traditional tunes taken from its repertoire and some never before realized material.

In December 2004 an ORF troupe (Austrian Television) came in Friuli for a documentary on the life of the band's musicians and the connections between them and the old generation of Friulian traditional musicians.






In spring 2006 things changed again: Marisa Scuntaro and Emma Montanari were asked to join the band and in afew weeks a new progrom has been ready, with a lot of songs not any more performed from a very long time and a couple of new songs, leaded by the charming voices of these two first ladies of Friulian music.

August 2007: in San Pietro di Ragogna there is an old castle, one of the most interesting of Friuli. There La Sedon Salvadie organized the 25th birthday of the band, with all the old friends and open to all the fans of the group. And this was the first edition of La fieste da Sedon, which will be in the future the festival of Friulian Traditional Music.

In July 2008, after the second edition of La fieste da Sedon in the Castle of Ragogna La Sedon Salvadie played two fantastic concerts in Folkest2008 festival, on July 11th together with The Chieftains in Udine on a reprise of the suite Friulian Celtic Connection, on July 28th in Spilimbergo with Carlos Nuñez and his band.

Special productions 
1993 - Muzika pod turman 
1996 - Adio, leon! - with the bands Calicanto and Abies Alba 
1998 - Legend of San Marino - directed by Maurizio Martinotti, 
with the bands Marusic Is Trio, Calicanto and Bevano Est 
2001 - Friulian Celtic Connection - directed by Paddy Moloney, 
with the bands The Chieftains, Carlos Nunez and I Vociofili Ensemble 
2004 - La neve di Anna - with friulian folk-singer and writer Luigi Maieron 
Cinema 
1990 - World Football Championship - Udine - by Gillo Pontecorvo 
two songs in the original sound-track directed by Ennio Morricone 

Radio-TV 
1984 - ORF (Austria - Alpen Adria Advent (Christmas show) 
1984 - RAI (FVG) - I Carnevali perduti (Lost Carnivals) - directed by Giancarlo Deganutti
1985 - ORF (Austria - Alpen Adria Advent (Christmas show) 
1986 - RAI 2 (Milano - Italy) - Sereno Variabile - Come Cantano 
gli Italiani (How Italians sing) 
1987 - ORF (Austria and Germany) - live from Grazer Music Messe 
1992 - RAI (FVG) - Zorutti e il suo tempo (Zorutti and his time) 
1994 - TV Koper-Capodistria (Slovenia) - Special live concert 
1996 - EUROMUSICA (Hungary) - Eurovision: representing Italy 
2003 - RAI 2 - Terre di Musica 
2004 - ORF - Alpen Adria magazine - 15 minutes special 
2004 - TV Koper-Capodistria (Slovenia) - La sedon salvadie in concert 

Theatre 
1997 - William Shakespeare - Mid-summer night dream - Farneto Teatro (Milano) 
Music composed and played by La Sedon Salvadie. 
2000 - La pimpa - by F.T. Altan - live sound-track in Udine. Teatro Giovanni da Udine
2007 - RAI - Friuli Venezia Giulia - 11.30, microfoni aperti con La Sedon Salvadie, due ore di trasmissione in diretta condotta da Claudia Brugnetta.