La Macchia

Born in Lentini and shaped by rural life and shepherding culture, Sicilian musician Alfio Antico is Italy’s most influential players of the tammorra and tamburo a cornice, having not only mastered these frame drums but reinvented their expressive potential through unique timbres and phrasing. Over a long career he has bridged folk heritage with experimental sounds, working as a solo artist and collaborating with several important figures across Italian music. 

Opposite him on joint album La Macchia is Go Dugong, the moniker of producer Giulio Fonseca, a Puglia-born musician based in Milan who digs deeply into field recordings, global grooves and electronic texture, treating samples and rhythmic fragments with the precision of a craftsman.

What makes this pairing so compelling is the balance they strike: Antico’s ritualistic pulse and voice remain central, while Go Dugong’s electronics, from subtle spatial effects to threads of psychedelia and jazz flourishes, expand the sound without overshadowing its roots. On tracks such as the title piece and “Il Pascolo,” La Macchia unfolds as a journey between traditional rhythms and imagined landscapes, where ancient memories and contemporary sound converge to create a record that reanimates the ghosts of a lost past.