Jazz:Re:Found 2025 transforms Cella Monte into the musical capital of the summer Obongjayar debuts in Italy with new projects and comebacks that expand an international lineup
From Wednesday 27 to Sunday 31 August 2025, Cella Monte, a jewel of Monferrato and UNESCO World Heritage site, will once again become one of the European capitals of contemporary music thanks to the 2025 edition of the Jazz:Re:Found Festival. After a first announcement that had already raised expectations, the second wave of artists confirms and strengthens the event’s central role in the Italian summer calendar, with a line-up that embraces the most innovative contaminations between jazz, electronics, afrobeat, soul and visual experimentation. Among the highlights of this new announcement are Obongjayar, making his Italian debut with the second album “Paradise Now”, and Joe Armon-Jones, already acclaimed at the 2024 edition with Ezra Collective and now returning as a DJ. Alongside them, a constellation of talents including Anders Sicre, a historic voice of Le Mellotron and key figure of the Paris scene; Fulu Miziki, an electro-punk ensemble from the Democratic Republic of Congo; Dean Bryce, the mind behind the successes of Boiler Room and Peggy Gou; the duo Retromigration & Zopelar, blending Ghanaian house-jazz and Brazilian electronic music; Mab’ish, a multidisciplinary performer exploring genres and artistic languages; and Will Santt, a rising star of Brazilian music navigating between bossa nova and experimentation.
The connection with electronic music and club culture is reaffirmed by the presence of Leo Mas, with a DJ set celebrating 35 years of Ranch afterparties, and Gino Grasso & Luca Trevisi with “Boogie Nights”, while the collective Handson Family and the Viennese showcase Little Beat More further reinforce the international character of the programme. Among the most significant projects is The Italian Jazz Wave, curated by Kety Fusco: a music scouting lab that will bring the best new voices of Italian nu-jazz to the Ecomuseo stage, through a daily curatorship inspired by the Le Guess Who format and alongside the already announced selection by Lefto Early Bird. Another key element will be the installation project “Ancestral Intelligence” by Shiro Fujioka, US-based artist and producer who will transform the festival spaces into an aesthetic journey through afro-futurism, celebrating 50 years of the masterpiece “Space is the Place” by Sun Ra with a widespread installation blending artificial intelligence and cosmic vision.
This second wave adds to the already announced Róisín Murphy, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Adi Oasis, Nubya Garcia, Rosie Lowe, Matteo Mancuso, Benji B, Coco Maria, Natasha Diggs, and many others, outlining a rich, visionary artistic proposal always in dialogue with the present. The Jazz:Re:Found Festival is made possible thanks to the support of institutions such as Compagnia di San Paolo, Regione Piemonte, Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Cella Monte, and by long-time sponsors such as Castello di Uviglie, main partner since 2022, as well as other brands like Carlsberg, Red Bull and Ginuensis. Fifty years after Sun Ra’s iconic film, the Festival relaunches a fundamental question: is space still the place of our imagination or, in the future ahead of us, is the real horizon of rediscovery found within our ancestral intelligence?
