From the A/V explorations of Kode9 and Katatonic Silentio & Lorem to leading figures in international rhythmic and electronic research such as Valentina Magaletti, Upsammy and Loefah, from the soundscapes of Post Nebbia, Mai Mai Mai and Gaia Banfi, to the fusion of Mediterranean roots and contemporary vision of Bassolino and Alfio Antico, to the original performance OSA 2.5 “The Plot” live A/V presented by Studio Gleba (a project by the Fayda.exe collective) curated by Alioscia Bisceglia.

This is the complete musical programme of the festival - produced and organised by Multietnica in collaboration with Music Innovation Hub, with which the partnership active since the first edition is renewed and strengthened - which is enriched by an upcoming cultural programme with talks, screenings and panels on the themes of sound, memory and community as a regenerative force.

Open Sound, in its winter edition, thus becomes an opportunity for connection and relationship, focusing, outside the usual festival season, on music as a common language, listening as a shared experience, movement and dance as a community practice, revealing unknown aspects of familiar places or discovering new ones, in one of the most fascinating and mysterious areas of Southern Italy.

 “A declaration of intent and an invitation: Open Sound Festival 2025 — from the Echo-System is an ecosystem where nothing exists on its own. Every sound finds its form only when it encounters a space that welcomes it, a community that listens to it, a territory that reflects it. The echo thus becomes the measure of our being in the world, a shared responsibility, a gesture of care towards what propagates”, says Nico Ferri, General Manager of the project. “Acting from the echo-system means recognising this interdependence and putting it into daily practice: building cultural models in which community is a necessary act, a form of rituality that manifests itself in the energy that arises when sound becomes a shared experience”, adds Dino Lupelli, Project Development Open Sound Festival 2025.

The music programme, in keeping with Open Sound's identity, is based on the encounter between tradition and avant-garde, languages and generations. The first weekend focuses on listening as a sensitive and collective practice that animates the iconic spaces of the city of Matera - Sassi, hypogea, Auditorium; the second, on the other hand, thanks to a sound system, transforms the historic architecture of the Castello del Malconsiglio in Miglionico into a resonant body around which to vibrate in order to rediscover the concept of community as a crucial and necessary value.

 It all kicks off in Matera on Friday 19 December at 11 p.m., with the festival opening with a look back at its origins and traditions: the rocky walls of Thyme, in the heart of Sasso Barisano, will welcome Alfio Antico and his archaic drums as the opening act. Antico has collaborated musically with De André, Lucio Dalla, Vinicio Capossela, Carmen Consoli, Colapesce - with whom the Sicilian artist creates unexpected sound combinations. This will be followed by a DJ set by Bassolino, a Neapolitan pianist, composer and producer who is making a name for himself on the new jazz/electronic scene with his enthralling groove.

On Saturday 20 December at 11:00 a.m. in the Aula Magna of the University of Bari, the first event of the cultural programme will take place: the Degree Course in Communication Sciences is organising the meeting, curated by Open Sound Festival, Stando nelle basse frequenze (Staying in the low frequencies), between sound archives and electronic flesh, which will see Claudia Attimonelli, lecturer in Media, Visual Culture and Sound Studies, in conversation with the eagerly awaited headliner of this winter edition, Steve Goodman aka Kode9, one of the most influential and conceptually complex figures on the contemporary soundscape. With greetings from the Rector, Prof. Roberto Bellotti, this is a valuable collaboration between the festival and Uniba, which will open its spaces for events on an exceptional basis for the occasion.

At 9 p.m., Kode9, founder of the Hyperdub label and an absolute reference point for avant-garde electronic music, returns to the stage of the Auditorium R. Gervasio in Matera with his live A/V show Escapology: an experience that is as cerebral as it is physical, capable of transcending the dance floor. Subwoofers, smoke and strobe lights will then transform the Auditorium into a perceptual laboratory with the Italian premiere of Circled Dot, the A/V show by Katatonic Silentio & Lorem curated for Open Sound: a multi-instrumental, meditative and overwhelming performance. From 11.45 p.m., the night moves to Thyme with Strada, whose DJ sets carry on the legacy of the well-known genre that links southern Italy to dub–dancehall–bass music. Finally, for the Open Sound invites format - in which the festival brings together its collaborations with Fayda.exe, CRX Festival and other independent organisations and associations - the creative hub Clay and the collective Into the Rabbit Hole present DJ sets by Giusss and Matteo respectively.

At Eco Verticale, on Sunday 21 December from 7pm, there will be space for projects strongly linked to Mediterranean influences and roots: that of Sicilian artist Nima and, subsequently, Mai Mai Mai with the AV performance Mediterranean Hauntology, which explores the intersection between folklore, spirituality and popular culture, between pagan and Catholic rituals, ancient musical traditions and transformations of the present. The artist will also present some previews from the new album Karakoz (Maple Death, 2026), recorded in Palestine in 2024 between Bethlehem and Ramallah. From 9 p.m., the action moves to Casa Cava with Gaia Banfi's mix of pop, singer-songwriter and electronic music, bringing her breakthrough album La Maccaia to the stage with its airy tone, intertwined with electronic influences and distorted sounds, transforming the voice into an instrument of sound production. And Post Nebbia with Pista Nera, their latest album, a tale of the present that gives voice to our anxieties with dark and sharp sounds, mirroring the decline that our times are going through. Finally, the live A/V conceived in Matera but with an international flavour by Federico Nitti and Luca Spagnoletti.

On Saturday 27 December from 9 p.m. for the second weekend, at the Castello del Malconsiglio in Miglionico, it is the turn of Valentina Magaletti, the most prominent drummer on the experimental scene in recent years. Thanks to her work, the role of the drummer has become increasingly inspiring, especially in innovative electronic contexts. Impossible to pigeonhole into one genre, her career has taken her from the deepest underground to the world's most important stages. Also in the line-up is producer and DJ upsammy, who, with her residencies on NTS Radio and at Garage Noord in Amsterdam, is one of the most influential voices in contemporary electronic music, capable of traversing the trippiest electronic music and the most experimental dimensions of drum and bass and techno. She shares the stage with Ortensio for Open Sound invites CRX Festival, where she is stage manager and resident DJ.

On Sunday 28 December at 9 p.m., the final evening entitled BASS CONSPIRANCY will begin, inspired by the sounds that will dominate it and by the event known as “The Barons” Conspiracy' (1485), hatched in Miglionico Castle, which inspired the original OSA performance that, as in every edition, will take to the stage at the Open Sound Festival. For 2025, it is signed by Studio Gleba - a project by Fayda.exe, one of the most interesting young multidisciplinary collectives in Southern Italy - which presents OSA 2.5 “The Plot” live A/V, commissioned by OSA - Open Sound Academy and conceived together with Alioscia Bisceglia, who is responsible for its artistic curation: musical samples from the medieval Lucanian tradition are mixed with no input feedback and dubstep sequences in a blend of historical research, sound and peasant imagery. Also from Fayda.exe, Atra Bilis' set resonates throughout the castle with its dark vibrations and pounding bass. And finally, the unmissable closing act of the festival, one of the fathers of dubstep and one of the last true pioneers of British dance music, Loefah. Founder and “big boss” of the iconic Swamp 81 label and co-founder of the legendary DMZ, he will close the curtain on Open Sound with his unmistakable minimalist and dark atmospheres.

Until 21 December, Eco Verticale in Matera is also hosting “Four to the Dirt”, a photography exhibition curated by Mirko Ostuni and inaugurated during the festival preview. It is a journey that reflects on how the experience of collective celebration in postmodern society has changed: from traditional rituals such as the pizzica salentina to contemporary phenomena such as raving and sound system culture. The exhibition has given rise to a book produced with the support of Open Sound and published by Dito Publishing, which can be purchased during the festival.

Now in its seventh edition, the project confirms its nature as a cultural platform that aims to shift the coordinates of music to the South, where culture is neither consumption nor representation, but a web of exchanges and responses, a body in motion that reflects, amplifies and regenerates. Open Sound is a laboratory of community, research and vision that originated in Basilicata, contemplates the Mediterranean and dialogues with national partners and international musical avant-gardes, making sound a practice of resistance and sharing, in order to imagine new scenarios for contemporary action.