Officina Zoé was born in the first nineties out of an idea of Lamberto Probo, Donatello Pisanello and Cinzia Marzo. It immediately becomes the motive power and the genuine ferment of the movement of  rediscovery of Pizzica-Pizzica, the most ancient and captivating form of rhythm and traditional dance in Salento. Nowadays it is one of the most known faces, also following the success and the recognitions had because of the films of the salentine director Edoardo Winspeare, “Sangue vivo” and “Il Miracolo”, to which the group gave some of its members as actors (Probo)  and as authors of the original soundtracks (Pisanello and Marzo). They receive for the soundtrack of “Sangue Vivo”, the prestigious prize of the Grolla d’Oro at the Saint Vincent Festival and the nomination for the Nastro d’Argento.

Officina Zoé took part at some of the most important national and international musical events as the Womex in Berlin, the Villa Ada Festival in Rome, the Premio Tenco in Sanremo, the Womad of Peter Gabriel in Palermo, the Festival “I suoni delle Dolomiti” in Trentino, the exhibition “Voix de femmes” in Bruxelles.

Thank to Officina Zoé, the Pizzica arrived (before the explosion of the “taranta-mania”) in all the European capital cities and also beyond the European Union borders, landing in the U.S.A. (Los Angeles 1998) and even in Corea (tour 2006 in Seul and the surrounding area) and in Japan in Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto.

Officina Zoé had a lot of artistic cooperations in the theatre (with Pamela Villoresi, Teatro Argot, Domenico Carli), in the cinema (with Edoardo Winspeare, Pippo Mezzapesa) and in music. On this subject, Officina Zoé  worked with Ominostanco (master of sounds), Don Moye (famous representative of the afrojazz and master  of drums of the Art Ensemble of Chicago) and Baba Sissoko (master of different musical instruments famous all over the world, as well as important representative in the music of Mali), with whom Officina Zoé made a tournée.

Round Officina Zoé , whose historical and creative core is still formed by Lamberto Probo, Donatello Pisanello and Cinzia Mauro, alternated, throughout the years, dozen of salentine musicians, who took this experience to heart, assimilating the unmistakable style and using it in a personal way as solos or in other groups. The record production of Officina Zoé, has been an inspiration for many other artists for the revival of the traditional salentine classics. In  2007, Officina Zoé, made a new kind of work based on original compositions, born out of the combination between the fascinations of contemporary times and the call of tradition, equally felt in the soul of the musicians.

The group is now formed by:
The fouders:
Cinzia Marzo: voice, recorders, tambourine;
Donatello Pisanello: melodion, guitar, mandola, mouth organ;
Lamberto Probo: tambourine, tamborra, other salentine percussion instruments;

And:
Rachele Andrioli: voice;
Giorgio Doveri: violin, mandola;
Luigi Panico: guitar, mandola, mouth organ;
Danilo Andrioli: tambourine, tamborra, cupa cupa.
Official Site: www.officinazoe.com

 Others links: Discografia

Translate by: Anna