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,
Székesfehérvār. 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 Nosisā) 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 Nosisā) 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 Nuņez 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 Nosisā), Gianluca
Zanier double bass and vocals (from the bands Nosisā 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 Nuņez,
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 Nuņez 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.