At the beginning of March the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, an international and inter-generational art+science collective based in Southern Tuscany, was notified of the acceptance of an abstract which the JBCM submitted for one of its “concerPTs” to be held at the ninth “Living Knowledge” conference. The conference is part of the activities run by the Living Knowledge Network, focused on subjects conducting or supporting research developed with and for communities. Considering the spirit of the JBCM project, and the track record of this collective, we are at home in this context.

Now that we had a “GO” from the organizers, we enter a preparation phase which is compounded by the international event, but which needs to be maintained.

At this stage we are interested in identifying venues and/or musicians (especially guitarits or percussionists/drummers) along a path which will reach Groningen travelling from Southern Tuscany. We expect to confirm the itinerary following a co-design phase which we will close around mid-May.

For more information, we can start by sharing with you the abstract which we submitted a few months ago. In the next days we will be publishing more news and indications on how to support the tour (for more information in the meantime: [email protected] or whatsapp +393317539228)

The Jug Band dalle Colline Metallifere, aka JBCM (or Metalliferous Hills Jug Band, in English) is an international and inter-generational collective proposing a combination of music and environmental practice, where melody, rhythm, storytelling and outreach are merged in the same space, often (but not always) with limited monetary funding sources. The JBCM is based in one of the lesser known parts of Tuscany, spanning across the provinces of Grosseto, Pisa, Livorno and Siena, and where the typical “Tuscan postcard” themes are mixed with the legacy of one of the largest mining areas in Europe, and a geothermal energy district, thus combining rural and industrial issues and perspectives. The JBCM was launched 2018, after three years of preparation, merging expertise by professionals with multiple years of research experience on environmental, territorial, rural, and musical issues.

In particular, the JBCM has combined the guitar and vocal capabilities of two Tuscan rock boys, with three albums and hundreds of concerts around Italy, the 50+ years of activity of a supposedly retired German street musician, who also happens to be a certified biodynamic agriculture advisor and a hand-made print master, all aggregated by a German-born British-raised Tuscan-blood PhD who decided to do something for his parents’ homeland, starting in 2007 by bringing a team of 20 players of an ancient hand ball game (a version of what in the Netherlands is known as kaats) from the Metalliferous Hills to be part of the Summer Calendar of the Chicago, Illinois, Department of Culture, and triggering multiple interidisciplinary engagement projects thereon.
The combination of these paths has led in less than three years, with circa 50 events and an initiative launched in March 2020 in full lockdown mode (see Participatory Lithology in Falling Walls Engage 2020), to evolve from a proof-of-concept phase, to an operating non-formal education platform, using live music as its primary, but not exclusive, vehicle.
The Groningen gig on June 30 will be the flagship event of our 2022 non-formal education tour, calling at* Cecina, Milano, Brenner Pass, München Berlin, Hamburg, Groningen, Gent, Köln, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Milan, and Genova.
One month before the tour, a list of songs and topics which will be used as the basis for a jam session during the presentation will be published, with the goal of auditioning new members for the project, to be invited for future projects.

The JBCMS’ non-formal education tour 2022 will be documented via our social media (tending to 20000 people and with intercontinental visibility), and will be part of a docu-fiction we are producing about our work, to be distributed in early 2023. The activity is proposed in the context of one of the sub-groups of the ECSA “Empowerment, Inclusiveness, and Equity” working group (Andrea Giacomelli proposed the JBCM format as a sub-group
in 2019 …please see when this happened http://www.pibinko.org/pibinko... ), although is it currently not funded by any ECSA-related project

(*) These locations where indicated in early January. The actual locations of the tour will be verified over the coming weeks.