On Saturday 19 September, starting at 6:30 pm, “Rock X Gramsci” returns to Ales, the musical event organised by the Antonio Gramsci Birthplace Cultural Association of Ales, now in its 23rd edition.

As per tradition, the festival intertwines music and thought, bringing center stage to the figure and relevance of Antonio Gramsci, the communist intellectual born in Ales on January 22, 1891.

The title chosen for the 2026 edition is "The Sovereignty of the Law," taken from an article published by Gramsci in the Piedmontese edition of Avanti! on June 1, 1919. In this text, the author reflects on the meaning of freedom and the law and on the relationship between the individual, the state, and society, questioning the idea that the Albertine Statute had guaranteed Italians a true "sovereignty of the law."

Behind the apparent legal equality, Gramsci observes, profound social inequalities persist. Added to the contradiction between theory and reality is the criticism of a state that, in the postwar period, returned to exerting ever-tighter control over society, to the point of becoming a "barracks state."

The reflection also addresses the supposed neutrality of the law: according to Gramsci, it reflects the power relations present in society and ultimately protects the interests of the ruling class. Also central is the critique of the figure of the "individual-citizen" in bourgeois society, embedded in a system based on competition and opposition between individuals.

A reflection written over a century ago, but which still retains a surprising ability to interrogate the present and raise questions about the relationship between freedom, rights, the state, and inequalities.

Monica Mureddu will read the text from the Rock X Gramsci stage, accompanied by music by composer Stefano Guzzetti.

From interviews to concerts

The evening will kick off at 6:30 pm at the Dalton Music Association, with the usual interview with the bands featured in Rock X Gramsci, curated by Claudio Loi, editor of the online newspaper Sa Scena and a long-time friend of the association.

The event's central moment is scheduled for 10:00 PM, with a reading of Gramsci's text. This will be followed by music with the three guests of the 2026 edition: Calcinacci, TV Shock, and Elli De Mon.

Opening the live show will be Calcinacci, a Cagliari-based trio formed in 2025 and composed of Monica Mureddu on vocals, Marco Mancini on guitar, and Stefano Guzzetti on bass. The project was born from a blend of autobiographical writing, life fragments, and musical exploration. The result is a raw, essential music, deliberately imperfect, that explores themes such as work, precariousness, relationships, lack of communication, the digital revolution, and war.

In May 2026, Calcinacci released their debut album, "NOI," ten songs born from an instinctive and shared creative process. The group has already performed their project live in various venues, including the Cueva Rock in Cagliari and the terrace of the Nivola Museum in Orani. Mancini and Guzzetti were among the founders of Antennah, while Mureddu and Mancini shared the experience of Chiodi Blu, two important groups in the Sardinian independent music scene.

Elli De Mon, stage name of Elisa de Munari, will then take the stage. This one-woman band builds its own sonic universe through guitar, bass drum, snare drum, rattles, saturations, and Indian psychedelia.

Her music draws on the blues tradition of figures like Bessie Smith, Fred McDowell, and Son House, traversing punk, stoner, gospel, and psychedelic sounds. An artist with extensive international experience, Elli De Mon has shared the stage with numerous leading figures in the rock and blues scene and has toured in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland.

In 2025, she released "Raise," a concept album in Venetian dialect that blends gospel, ballads, stoner, and traditional music reworked with a dark twist. In 2026, she released "Grembo de Pria," a 7-inch LP in Venetian dialect, with proceeds going to organizations supporting and protecting women experiencing abortion.

Closing out the concert program will be TV Shock, a band formed in Cagliari in 2020 and strongly linked to the traditions of '77 punk, old school punk rock, rock 'n' roll, and sixties garage.

The group, composed of musicians from various historic Sardinian bands, began developing their first songs during lockdown, culminating in the release of their debut album, "In Your City," in 2023 on Madrid's Take The City Records. Since then, TV Shock has performed their music on stages across Italy and Spain.

At Rock X Gramsci they will perform with the new lineup consisting of Federico Cocco on drums, Nicola Erdas on bass, Alessandro Ladu on guitar and Umberto Manduchi on vocals.

The evening will conclude with an aftershow featuring DJ CrampeX. Admission is free.

(Unioneonline)

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