ReGenerations Festival - Increased Traditions
September 4-6 and September 11-13, 2026 (Loano, Balestrino, Boissano, Toirano)
È Mater Nullius, Davide Ambrogio's second album, released by French label Viavox on the Winner disc of the twenty-second edition of the City of Loano National Prize for Italian Traditional Music, the most prestigious award for traditional music in Italy, given annually to the best musical production in the folk field by a jury of more than fifty specialized journalists and scholars.
Also Mater Nullius won the Youth Prize, reserved for female musicians under 35.
Davide Ambrogio will be honored at Loano during the second edition of ReGenerations - Increased Traditions, a widespread festival Sept. 4 to 6 and 11 to 13, immersive and participatory, capable of welding musical listening with the discovery of the territory (Loano, Balestrino, Boissano, Toirano), the meeting between generations and the dialogue between languages. Born last year as a new project of the Loano Prize, the festival reinforces its vocation as a privileged observatory of music and musicians who practice the languages of tradition to experiment, to shape, with expressive freedom, new unpublished music. The goal is to demonstrate that music of tradition can be an avant-garde art form, capable of speaking to new generations and interpreting the complexity of the present.
Mater Nullius, translated from the Latin “Mother of None,” is a work that explores contemporary man's disconnection from nature and the need for human and spiritual rebirth. Through A narrative that blends music and research, the Calabrian artist tells in 14 tracks--mostly written in dialect--a story of inner transformation, symbolized by a dialogue between the rationality of modern man and his unconscious, primitive, archetypal and wild side. 14 tracks like the 14 stops on the Way of the Cross, a metaphor for the introspective journey undertaken by the protagonist.
Recorded in Alia (PA) between the Cortese family's “Il Bosco,” a meeting place for creative minds and free spirits, and the Gurfa caves, Mater Nullius is a powerful blend of ancestral soundscapes and contemporary vision. The musical heart of the album stems from a reinterpretation of the sound code used during Holy Week rituals in southern Italy. The “instruments of passion” in the Christian Easter tradition (drum, troccole and chains) blend with modern voices and sounds in a surprising contrast between the acoustic and electronic worlds. Since his beginnings, Calabrian multi-instrumentalist Davide Ambrogio's musical research has been deeply linked to his roots, strongly inspired by the oral tradition of Aspromonte with its archaic, linguistic and sonic heritage. In 2021 with his first solo album entitled “Evocations and Invocations,” the result of years of study and experimentation in traditional music, he conquers the charts of the prestigious magazine Songlines (World Music Chart Europe and Top of the World Album). He wins the “Music against the Mafias” (with the song A San Michele), “Ethnos Gener/Actions 2020” and the “Loano Giovani Award” with the project Linguamadre (together with Duo Bottasso and Elsa Martin).
“Davide Ambrogio is a sonic craftsman who operates a redefinition of the boundaries of research music inspired by forms of oral tradition. Mater Nullius expresses a focused timbral research oriented to vocality and instrumental polyphonies creating an original sound, also with the shrewd use of electronics.”
The artistic directors stated. Jacopo Tomatis e Cyrus De Rosa.
They declare the mayor of Loano Luca Lettieri And the deputy mayor and councillor for tourism and culture Gianluigi Bocchio: “The recognition awarded to Davide Ambrogio with Mater Nullius once again confirms the value and prestige of the City of Loano National Prize for Italian Traditional Music, a national reference point for traditional music. An intense and courageous work, capable of combining popular roots, sound research and contemporary languages, demonstrating how tradition can continue to speak to the present and especially to new generations. We are particularly proud that this project won both the overall prize and the Youth Prize, a sign of a lively, innovative and high quality artistic scene. The presence of Davide Ambrogio at the second edition of RiGenerazioni - Increased Traditions will represent a moment of great cultural value for our territory and for the audience that will attend the festival. Events such as the Loano Prize and RiGenerazioni also contribute to strengthening the image of the city as a cultural and tourist destination capable of offering quality events, involving visitors, enthusiasts and operators from all over Italy. The decision to enhance not only Loano, but also the villages and realities of the surrounding area, allows us to promote an authentic experience that combines music, culture, traditions and the discovery of the territory, generating important spin-offs also from the tourism and economic point of view.”.
The City of Loano Prize for Italian Traditional Music, established twenty-two years ago as a permanent workshop on folk music, promotes and enhances contemporary production of traditional music with Italian roots through the involvement of artists, record labels, journalists and cultural workers. It is organized by the’Society of the Curious Association in collaboration with the’Department of Tourism and Culture of the City of Loano, with contributions from the A. Foundation De Mari and the sponsorship of ANCI. Artistic direction is by. Jacopo Tomatis and Ciro De Rosa, with the collaboration of Enrico de Angelis, Lucia Campana, Annalisa Scarsellini and Davide Valfrè.
Loano Award Partners: Andrea Parodi Award, Folkest.
Media Partner: Blogfoolk Magazine, Globofonie, The Music Newspaper, Popular Radio
The ranking of the Best Album Award 2025
1st place
Mater Nullius (ViaVox) David Ambrose
2nd place
Briar (Moonlight Records/Ird) Francesca Incudine
Sighida (Sea and Mines) Mauro Palmas and Giacomo Vardeu
4th place
Furèsta (BMG) La Niña
5th place
Four (Visage) Reclamation Emiliana Veneta
Amuri lights (Narcissus Records) Carmen Consoli
Strange (AlfaMusic Studio) Senduki
8th place
Lema (AnMa Productions) Paolo Angeli
Vocations (Agualoca Records) Ra di Spina
10th place
The stain (Bacchanus Records) Alfio Antico & Go Dugong
Raise (Rivertale Production) Elli De Mon
Shock waves (Jonica Sound) Francesco Loccisano
Indindara (Losen Records) Zoe Pia - Tenores di Orosei - Antoni Milia
The Award Jury
Maurizio Agamennone, Claudio Agostoni, Sergio Albertoni, Giovanni Alcaini, Marco Boccitto, Raffaello Carabini, Giordano Casiraghi, Daniele Cestellini, Gianni Ciaccio, Valerio Corzani, Charlie Crooijmans, Giandomenico Curi, Enrico de Angelis, Flaviano De Luca, Ciro De Rosa, Paolo Del Ry, Enrico Deregibus, Petr Doruzka, Salvatore Esposito, Antonio Fanelli, Massimo Ferro, Guido Festinese, Guido Giazzi, Federico Guglielmi, Marco La Viola, Felice Liperi, Ignazio Macchiarella, Giorgio Maimone, Maurizio Marino, Tiziano Menduto, Giorgio Meneghetti, Gaetano Menna, Marco Miconi, Gianni Montano, Anna Nacci, Giancarlo Nostrini, Rosario Pantaleo, Timisoara Pinto, Massimo Pirotta, Piercarlo Poggio, Ezio Riberi, Alessandro Rosa, Vincenzo Santoro, Annalisa Scarsellini, Stefano Starace, Alessio Surian, Jacopo Tomatis, Araceli Tzigane, Federico Vacalebre, Juan Antonio Vazquez, Gianluca Veltri, John Vignola, Antonio Vivaldi, Enrico Zagnagnoli, Giorgio Zito.
