The project

A reinterpretation of famous songs dedicated to the South African leader

When the news of Nelson Mandela’s passing arrived in December 2013, we were deeply touched. We felt a special affinity between us and Mandela, as well as between us and the fight against apartheid. It was a link from far away, from the time we had made ours the song “Biko” by Peter Gabriel, which we had joyfully played at the end of our concerts 35 years prior. Then each of us took different paths (only Gigi became a professional musician, drummer of Ligabue, Clandestino, CSI, Mangala Vallis, LAssociazione)

We never thought that this hymn to freedom would have led us to reunite after so many years to collect and reinterpret some of the most significant songs dedicated to Mandela and to other protagonists of the movement of the liberation of South Africa.

For us, then young musicians, Mandela was the symbol, while he was still in prison, of the fight against injustice and apartheid. Today, after his liberation and the subsequent events that have transformed the history of South Africa, we can say all the more so that he remains a symbol, but now a symbol of reconciliation and peacemaking. We believe that this is the greatness of Mandela, and that freedom is the keyword to proclaim it.



The idea came about in this way: “Free” is a revisitation of famous songs by various artists dedicated to Mandela and to the fight for the liberation of South Africa. We wanted to play them in our way, also inserting original musical parts composed by us, and by adding at the end our personal contribution, an unpublished song entitled “The road to freedom”. To realize the cd we made use of the contribution of many musicians, including friends Andrea Fornili (Stadium guitarist) and Max Cottafavi (guitarist of Ligabue).

We are proud to have dedicated this effort to Nelson Mandela. We think that telling about him through music and songs dedicated to him is the best way to deliver him to the new generations, alive and finally “Free”.

The proceeds of the crowdfunding will be donated to the library of Wattville township, recently named to Bruna and Giuseppe Soncini (Reggio Emilia), in the municipality of Ekurhuleni in Johannesburg.

“Free”
Biko (Peter Gabriel)
Ordinary love (U2)
Mandela day (Simple Minds)
Asimbonanga (Johnny Clegg)
The road to freedom (Tokio)

You can listen to the CD demo in our site: http://www.tokio2014.it/freeproject_it.html

With patronage of:
Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Rome - Italian Embassy in South Africa Italian Institute of Culture in Pretoria - Hellenic, Italian and Portuguese communities of South Africa

Sito web: http://www.tokio2014.it
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tokiovrb
Youtube: http://www.tokio2014.it/biko