If it were a film, it would be a choral comedy in the Sardinian language, with scenes shot between sheepfolds, fiery stages and festive squares. If it were a wine, it would be a robust Cannonau, with an aftertaste of earth and freedom.

Instead it is a band: it is called Istentales and for thirty years it has been singing about the Sardinia of the countryside and its contradictions, of its deep roots and its stage lights.

Born in 1995 with hands dirty with earth and a head full of sounds, Istentales are a musical group, a thirty-year long story that speaks of Sardinia, identity and rock beats. Their name, taken from a star in the Orion constellation that guided shepherds at sunset, says it all: to be a point of reference, to stay lit while the world changes.

"The emotion is always the same as thirty years ago , because the 30 years spent calmly having fun, treading the squares, the stages of all Sardinia are gratifying and then the people who listened to you 30 years ago are still there now", says Gigi Sanna with conviction, "the public has changed in the sense that there is a generational change, but if you know how to set the songs, if you make them understand them calmly, even if everything goes faster than usual, they still manage to appreciate them and sing them along with you. The Istentales have made many changes in 30 years, we have brought other session musicians, other people who have collaborated with us, but the beautiful thing is this, that despite everything, the essence, the strength, the determination and the pride has always remained the same, so culture, tradition and language are never lacking".

And today that star still shines, the “Badde boys” from Nuoro celebrate their thirtieth anniversary with style. A live album (“30 years always with you”), a book that is also the group’s autobiography and a tour that will once again set the squares ablaze with all the energy accumulated in decades of music, meetings and social battles.

In the new album – an anthology of what they have become over the years – there are exceptional guests : Elio e le Storie Tese who sings “A muso duro” by Bertoli and even translates “Shpalman” into Sardinian thanks to the Tenores di Neoneli, with the magic of Matteo Muscas’ launeddas intertwining the sounds. It is a sonic orgy that mixes tradition, experimentation and self-irony, the group’s trademark.

The Istentales started from a farm on the outskirts of Nuoro, driven by the intuition of Gigi Sanna , a charismatic leader who transformed a passion into a movement. They were the first true “agro-shepherds of rock”, those who went up on stage after a day among sheep and hay, bringing with them the voice, the scents and sounds of that world.

Yet, their music has been able to communicate with everyone: from Cristiano De André to Eugenio Finardi, from Bertoli to Tullio De Piscopo. Not just stage and music, but also a lot of solidarity: like when, in 2017, they led a thousand sheep on a ferry to Cascia to help the farmers hit by the earthquake. It's called "sa paradura" and it's the ancient rite of peasant solidarity that becomes at the same time a political and poetic act.

Today, despite a few white hairs and half a century on their shoulders, Istentales are still there: stubborn, generous, free. They have walked the thin line between folk and future, between dialect and distortion, between stage and pasture and they have done so with the obstinacy of those who do not want to be just the soundtrack of a changing land, but also the voice of that agro-pastoral world that resists despite the changes.

And so yes, thirty years after the first concert in Lula, it's time to celebrate. But above all to continue playing.

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