SAM KARPIENIA EN
Sam Karpienia has sung and written in Provençal since 1998. This Occitan language of Southern France allows him to weave together in uences as diverse as Mediterranean traditional music and the British folk-post punk rock of his youth.
SAM KARPIENIA
From Kanjar’oc to Dupain and Gacha Empega, over two decades Sam Karpienia has honed a spellbinding voice of unparalleled evocative power. Melodies hewn with an axe, raw lightning-strike emotion pushed to its breaking point—like the wrenching cry of the uprooted. His intense Occitan poetry merges with the trance of an electric mandola, oscillating between the mischievous rhythms of futuristic chaâbi and the searing distortions of apocalyptic rock. A Mediterranean music unlike anything heard before, studded with magic, communal fervor, and fiery wit.
2025 “KARP” SAM SOLO en création
2024 BOUCS! en tour
This creation presents an original repertoire based on inspiring texts from the corpus of contemporary Occitan poets. Sam Karpienia, surrounded by Mathieu Sourisseau and Nicolas Lafourest, is all about going beyond the Occitan area.
This in-between element in their music is a bridge that unites the Latin and Anglo-Saxon worlds, between the clamour of rock and the howling of the Mediterranean.
2017 DE LA CRAU en tour
Since 2017 his new project De la Crau has featured Thomas Lippens on percussion and Manu Reymond on double bass ( Vieilles charrues 2023, Suds à Arles 2022, Babel XP 2023).
1st album released by Pagans, Inouïs distribution ‘Temperi’ 2022.
2011 FORABANDIT
From 2011 to 2016, Forabandit (Buda Musique) 2 albums featuring the Alevi songs of Anatolia with Ulas Ozdemir and the Iranian percussion of Bijan Chemirani.
2009 SAM SOLO – EXTATIC MALANCONI
In 2009 Solo album with Daniel Gaglione and Bijan Chemirani ‘Extatic Malanconi’ on D-Fragment/ l’autre distribution.
1999 DUPAIN
In 1999 he formed Dupain. With Pierre Laurent Bertolino on hurdy-gurdy and Sam De Agostini on drums, Dupain released their 1st album on Virgin EMI ‘L’usina’ in 2000, and played at a number of festivals, including the Francofolies de la Rochelle, invited by Noir Désir in 2002, the Festival d’été du Quebec in 2004, and the Folk Fest in Vancouver in 2004. Three albums followed, along with numerous concerts and support acts, including Noir Désir, Les Negresses Vertes and Manu Chao, until 2007.1998 GACHA EMPEGA
In 1996 he joined Gacha Empega, Manu Théron’s project, a polyphonic trio that revisited the traditional Provençal repertoire, breathing new energy into it. The album ‘Polyphonies Marseillaise’ with Manu Théron and Barbara Ugo was released in 1998 by Empreinte Digitale, distributed by Harmonia Mundi.
Creation hosted in residence by: the label « Fatto in casa » à Coaraze (06), Zutique Production in Dijon (21), La Cité de la Musique de Marseille (13), MUCEM in Marseille (13)
PROCHAINS ÉVÉNEMENTS
Paris, 75019 France
