CSI: the reunion in the places of the Resistance. A film is also on the way

by Claudio Fabretti

29-01-2026

CSI are reuniting after twenty-five years, choosing as their starting point Montesole, one of the symbolic sites of the Italian Resistance and the largest Nazi-fascist massacre carried out in Italy. The new tour, titled “In viaggio”, will kick off on August 28th right in Marzabotto, the very place where in 2001 the band's story last played out in public, with the P.G.R. concert dedicated to don Giuseppe Dossetti.

The places

The decision to start again from Montesole isn't only geographical. As guitarist Massimo Zamboni explains at the Casa della Memoria in Marzabotto, where the band presented its long-awaited reunion, "Montesole teaches you to keep quiet. We came here with Guido Harari to shoot photos for the tour launch. We all stayed silent, for a long time, in front of the ruins. And we never took the photos after all. It's the world telling its own story, you just have to stand there and listen." A dimension that has always belonged to CSI's music, rooted in memory, in history, and in the fractures of the twentieth century. Seven dates are planned, in venues far from the big circuits and heavy with meaning: from Villafranca di Verona to Egnazia, from Spello to Alba, all the way to Catania. A journey that binds together places and conscience, true to the band's identity.

Giovanni Lindo Ferretti reaffirms a clear distance from any didactic or militant function: music remains a fragile gesture, part of life's mystery, unable and perhaps not even meant to resolve the world's conflicts. "Montesole was supposed to be a reading of Dossetti's writings," he recalls, thinking back to that last concert. "Demanding texts, because we wanted to pay tribute to the 'obedient monk', to give him complexity. Our songs as hymns to peace? Songs can be hymns to war or to peace, depending. You shouldn't ask songs to solve the world's problems. A song is a small thing, it's part of the mystery of life. And I try not to demean the mystery of life."

The anniversary

And yet CSI's body of work has, like few others, run straight through recent history: "Gothic Line", released in 1996, remains one of the most radical records in Italian rock, bound up with the memory of the Resistance, the war in the Balkans, the writing of Fenoglio and the vision of a fractured Europe.

The memory evoked by CSI is not a peaceful one. Both Ferretti and Zamboni bring up family histories marked by war and by opposing choices, confirming an unresolved tension that has always run through the project. Born in 1992 from the ashes of CCCP, the band embodied the shift from the end of ideologies to the struggle of living in the present, right up to their split following the 1998 concerts in the Balkans.

Today the reunion brings the classic lineup back together, with Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Massimo Zamboni, Gianni Maroccolo, Ginevra Di Marco, Francesco Magnelli and Giorgio Canali. Tickets for the shows will be kept affordable, in keeping with a history that has always stayed on the fringes of the music industry. The project also includes a film directed by Davide Ferrario and already looks ahead to 2027, for a collective return that would ideally close the circle.

The reunion arrives on the thirtieth anniversary of "Gothic Line", released in 1996 following their debut with "Ko del mondo". A symbolic anniversary for one of the most influential bands on the Italian rock scene of the Nineties. But the event also comes after the return of Cccp – Fedeli alla linea, the band featuring Giovanni Lindo Ferretti and Massimo Zamboni, who wrapped up their "last call" with a tour following their 2023/2024 reunion. Memorable shows, including the final date in Taormina this past July 30.

Fans had been hoping for a CSI reunion from the very start, and the rumors grew more persistent when, in October, Gianni Maroccolo posted on Instagram a photo together with his now-reunited comrades in arms.

Talk of a reunion had already been fueled by Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, who some time ago, on stage at the “Degustare Books” festival in Rubiera (Reggio Emilia), told Andrea Scanzi: “The reunion is in the air.” Since then, small clues and crossed appearances have kept the curiosity alive, reinforcing the sense that something was really happening.

Dates and tickets

Meanwhile, ticket sales for the tour's other dates, produced and organised by Otr live, continue at a brisk pace. After the sell-out on 28 August in Marzabotto, the calendar includes: 29 August Marzabotto (7pm, new date), 31 August Villafranca, 2 September Fasano, 8 September Alba and 12 September Catania. Presales are open on Ticketone and at the usual outlets.

The Film

The project will also include a film in progress directed by Davide Ferrario, and fits into a wider plan: a prelude on July 4 in Mongolia with Ferretti and Zamboni, and a full collective return set for 2027, conceived as the close of the journey begun with "Tabula Rasa Elettrificata". The first stop, however, remains Montesole, the place chosen to launch the tour and stand as the symbolic touchstone of CSI's history.