Iosonouncane :: Zustissia

Six of the eight titles could have come straight out of a case file: a sheepfold in the mountains of Sinnai, a prison, a sister, a question put in court, two initials, a sentence measured to the day. The other two are a lamb that saw the sun and a name, Beniamino.

Zustìssia, Sardinian for justice, came out on 30 October 2026 on Tanca Records. It collects the music that Jacopo Incani, who records as Iosonouncane, wrote for the film of the same name, Francesco Piras’s first feature, shown at the Rome Film Festival and released in Italian cinemas on 15 October. It is the latest instalment of “Il suono attraversato”, Incani’s series of music for the screen. His score for Elisa Fuksas’s Da tutta la vita had come out a few days before.

The film follows the case of Beniamino Zuncheddu, a shepherd from Burcei, in Sardinia. On the evening of 8 January 1991, three men are killed at the Cuile is Coccus sheepfold, in the mountains of Sinnai. The only survivor says at first that he did not recognise the attacker and then, some seven weeks later, changes his story. Within two years Zuncheddu’s life sentence has become final. He is acquitted on 26 January 2024, after more than three decades in prison.

The album differs from the film’s soundtrack. Alongside “L’agnello vide il sole” and “Beniamino”, which accompany two pivotal moments of the film, are pieces written for the production that did not survive the edit. Heard on its own, the record leaves the telling to its titles. “Buoncammino” is the name of Cagliari’s old prison. “Augusta” is his sister. “MT” appears to stand for Mauro Trogu, the lawyer who took on the defence in 2016 and got the case reopened. “L’assassino è in quest’aula?” (Is the killer in this courtroom?) is a question no trial should leave open for thirty years.

Tradition reaches this record already filtered through technology. The sounds that emerge recall old instruments and places cut off from the world, and the ear stays there until the island closes in and becomes a prison. The tension can be felt even without images, and without a sung word before the final track.

The voice arrives with “Beniamino”, where an acoustic guitar and a synth carry a melody halfway between Radiohead and Sardinian tradition, and the piece moves like a devotional procession towards its saint. The lyrics tell the story of an imprisoned shepherd.

In the film, on the evening of the arrest, the television in the Zuncheddus’ house is showing the Sanremo festival: Pierangelo Bertoli and Tazenda sing “Spunta la luna dal monte” a few minutes before the police arrive. That song, broadcast live, belongs to all of Italy. Incani’s music has to deal with what comes after.

The last two tracks are also the longest. “32 anni, 8 mesi, 23 giorni” runs to almost eight minutes, “Beniamino” to almost nine. Together they take up more than two-fifths of the record, time given over to a sentence and to the man who served it.