Guitarist and vocalist Matteo Dossena of Pescara, Italy, psych-drifters Sherpa will release his first solo album under the banner of Year of Taurus on Jan. 15, 2021. Titled Topsoils and issued through his own Astral Concrete Sounds label, the 32-minute offering brings eight songs that run a line between the post-Yawning Man psych-desert tonality of “Wise Woman” and the washing folk-gaze of “Tethered to the Moon” later, ahead of the jazzy synth, hand percussion and intertwined keys of closer “Piedi Nel Lago.”

In an era of quarantine, the opening title-track shimmers, drumless, and wanders with a sort of purposefully-setting-out drift, but melody is no less central to that leadoff than to its side B counterpart, the more straightforward “Gate Goats.” Dossena works with several others throughout these tracks, bringing guest vocalists Caterina Vignoni and Michele Tobia in on “Topsoils” itself and “Piedi Nel Lago,” respectively. That bookending effect is heightened by the inclusion of bass and drums on most of what takes place between. “Wise Woman,” “Fever, When I Was Young,” “Linesight,” “Gate Goats,” and “Tethered to the Moon” feature the bass of Sherpa‘s own Franz Cardone and the drums of Giuseppe Sericola, who recorded his own parts for Topsoils, mixed most of and mastered the album and has done recording for Sherpa as well.

Dossena himself would seem to handle percussion on the penultimate “Daddy” and “Piedi Nel Lago,” and the former might be programmed — it’s hard to tell — but the effect of having the drums depart earlier than the bass from an album that spends most of its run working as a trio is to give the listener a gradual feeling of fading into the ether. Even with some rhythmic punctuation behind it, “Piedi Nel Lago” feels like the gentle letting go that the entirety of Topsoils has driven toward since the succession of tracks across the two LP sides began with the soft fade-in of “Topsoils” at the outset, the ringing electric guitar and acoustic woven together with a gorgeous fluidity that balances intimacy of purpose with a marked feeling of expanse.

Those familiar with Sherpa‘s two Sulatron Records LPs, 2018’s Tigris & Euphrates (review here) and 2017’s Tanzlinde (review here), will perhaps find that Year of Taurus works from similar impulses in bringing together acid-folkish melodies and a ready sense of post-rock float in the guitar that proves hypnotic early on such that the atmosphere in the more acoustic-led “Wise Woman” — the noted Yawning Man tone comes in later — and the build-up of “Fever, When I Was Young” feel abidingly natural as shifts not only from one to the other, but within themselves.

“Linesight” follows suit and holds to its central progression for much of its four minutes, as it and “Gate Goats” offer as much movement as basking, bringing about “Tethered to the Moon,” which is arguably the most fervent melodic wash on a record not shy with them. Certainly the loudest. But it never veers into the abrasive — the song or Topsoils as a whole, for that matter — and its ending sets up the closing duo’s going-gone sensibility simply by stopping cold, the slow whispers that start “Daddy” marking the beginning of a somewhat minimal-feeling but engagingly ambient flow, which, again, is backed by the experimentalist vibe of “Piedi Nel Lago,” as Dossena wraps the debut from Year of Taurus with a quirky serenity.

Reportedly comprised of older material reworked during COVID-19 lockdown, it is a presence different enough from Sherpa to warrant being listed as another project entirely, and while can’t be sure when/if Dossena as the band’s compositional spearhead will pursue it further, Topsoils sets a vast scope for itself, remaining coherent even as it seems moment by moment to turn to vapor, and trusting the underlying songcraft to guide its audience through, which it successfully does. If developing that as a distinct entity from Sherpa a project for Dossena over a longer term, Topsoils is an ambitious and welcome beginning.

Ahead of the release of Topsoils on Jan. 15, you can stream the premiere of “Fever, When I Was Young” below. Some comment from Dossena follows, as well as more info on the recording.

Please enjoy:

Matteo Dossena on “Fever, When I Was Young”:

“Fever, When I Was Young” is one of the first songs written of the album. It’s a song about anxiety, melancholy, childhood memories, protection. It’s a song about my mother, the smell of the bread cooking in the oven, the protection I felt ,when I was a child, wrapped in her arms.

“Topsoils” is the first album of YEAR OF TAURUS, solo project by MATTEO DOSSENA (main composer, singer and guitarist of SHERPA).

The album collects songs composed between 2011 and 2020, a set of clippings and songs discarded over time which, during the lockdown between March and May 2020, were recovered, revisited and covered with new sound textures.

The record is about memories, about the melancholy that hides in the plots of time, about friends and feelings that no longer exist; time swallows everything up and our lives necessarily flow too fast to be able to give space to every nuance. The 8 tracks of TOPSOILS try to collect all this by transforming the sonic journey between a pastoral psychedelia and shoegaze.

“Topsoils” avails itself of the participation of Giuseppe Sericola (drums) and Franz Cardone (SHERPA) on bass. Mixed and mastered by Giuseppe Sericola and Matteo Dossena.

“Topsoils” will be released on January 15th for the newborn label ASTRAL CONCRETE.

Year of Taurus is Matteo Dossena (Voices / guitars/ Synth / Percussions)

“TOPSOILS” additional musicians:
Giuseppe Sericola: drums on (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Franz Cardone: bass on (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Caterina Vignoni: Voice on “Topsoil”
Michele Tobia: Voice on “Piedi Nel Lago”

Recorded in my old house in Montesilvano, between March 2020 and May 2020.
Drums recorded by Giuseppe Sericola at Arcade Studio.
Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 mixed and mastered by Giuseppe Sericola
Tracks 1, 7, 8 mixed by Matteo Dossena and mastered by Giuseppe Sericola

Year of Taurus on Thee Facebooks

Astral Concrete Sounds on Thee Facebooks

Astral Concrete Sounds on Bandcamp

Tags: Astral Concrete Sounds, Italy, Pescara, Sherpa, Topsoils, Year of Taurus, Year of Taurus Topsoils

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