Mombao

ITALY | 2021 PARTICIPANT

Mombao is a duo by Damon Arabsolgar (Italy-Germany-Iran) and Anselmo Luisi (Italy). Mombao is a very powerful and original project, in between a ritual, a performance and a rock-electronic concert.

The sound is based on percussion, voices and electronica, the two musicians start from discovering ancient folk chants and re-arrange them in a modern way while playing half-naked and covered in clay, the instruments are placed in the centre of the room, the audience gathers all around the set. Their performance is stunning and unpredictable and the crowd moves irretrievably from deep-listening to dancing foolishly.

They performed in: Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Morocco. In 2020 they were supposed to tour India and Nepal and to play in some important international festivals (MIAMI festival in Milan, PIN music conference in Skopje, Macedonia,).

They were awarded by Italia Music Export as a relevant act to receive fundings for a tour in India and Nepal and the production of a documentary.

In 2021 they won Milano Mediterranea, a post-colonial artist residency based in Milan, held in the culture hub BASE and a multicultural neighbourhood.