This is one of those pairings that’s an absolute head-slapper; so obvious once it’s said out loud, like duh, how could you not see that coming? The Mon, which is Urlo from Ufomammut‘s let’s-get-even-weirder experimentalist outfit, and semi-solo atmospheric singer-songwriter Kariti pairing up for a tour makes rare sense, especially right now.

The Mon‘s 2025 release, Songs of Abandon (review here), may only have been one piece of a two-parter still to be concluded, but its being based around acoustic songwriting makes the material well-suited to complement Kariti, whose Still Life (review here), retained a singular identity while conjuring ambient depth to coincide with the emotional weight of the expressive voice at its center. You’re telling me these two are gonna end up doing songs together?

Well, uh, that sounds awesome. Here’s where it’s gonna happen:

The Mon + kariti – European Spring Tour 2026

Tickets: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15527272

In Spring 2026, I’ll finally bring Embrace The Abandon on the road.

After having to cancel the December shows with a heavy heart, being able to announce these dates now feels like a quiet victory, a return to something that needed time to grow.

I’ll join forces with kariti, an artist I deeply admire and a friend for many years, to present our new records: Embrace The Abandon, my two-part journey out on Supernatural Cat, and Still Life by kariti, out on Lay Bare Recordings.

Two different voices, two personal paths moving in parallel, meeting on stage each night.

A shared space where sound, silence, vibration, and emotion can unfold freely, shaping each performance in a unique and unrepeatable way.

This tour exists thanks to months of work, trust, and genuine human connection, and to all the promoters, venues, and people who believed in this idea from the very beginning. I’m deeply grateful to finally make this happen, and I truly look forward to sharing these moments with you.

We’re currently working on the final dates and confirmations.

​If you’re a promoter or venue curator and feel this journey could resonate with your space and audience, I’d be very happy to hear from you and explore the possibility of building something together.

THE MON + kariti – European Tour 2026

18/3 — HR — Zagreb — Mochvara
19/3 — AT — Vienna — Arena
22/3 — DE — Berlin — K19
24/3 — DE — Halle — Hühnermanhattan
25/3 — DE — Bremen — TBA
26/3 — DK — Copenhagen — Lygtens Kro
27/3 — SE — Stockholm — Nalen Klubb
28/3 — NO — Oslo — Mausoleum Vigeland
31/3 — DE — Hannover — Stumpf
01/4 — BE — Kortrijk — The Pit’s
02/4 — BE — Leuven — Chapel Of Our Lady Of Fever
03/4 — NL — Eindhoven — Effenaar at ’t Rozenknopje
04/4 — NL — Utrecht — Black Earth at Moira
05/4 — DE — Karlsruhe — P8

https://www.urlothemon.com
https://themon.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/urlo_the_mon
https://www.facebook.com/urlothemon
https://www.youtube.com/@TheMon_official

https://www.supernaturalcat.com
https://www.malleusdelic.com
https://www.instagram.com/SupernaturalCat_recs
https://www.facebook.com/Supernaturalcat666

https://linktr.ee/kariti
https://kariti.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/karitimusic
https://www.facebook.com/karitimusic

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/

Kariti, Still Life (2025)

The Mon, Songs of Abandon (2025)

The first thing to know is that The Mon‘s acoustic-strum-folk-meets-psychedelic-drone offering, Songs of Abandon, is part one of a two-part cycle, with the intention that a darker, reportedly more ritualistic instrumental complement titled Songs of Embrace to follow in 2026. Between those two titles, one might imagine Songs of Abandon to be somehow colder or starker in some way, and while I won’t discount the lone human presence of Urlo (also of Ufomammut, the Malleus graphic arts collective, and the Supernatural Cat record label behind this release) at the foundation of this material, the experimentalism behind his songwriting in this project, resulting in moments like the intertwining vocal layers of “Hourglass” or the synth-infused (I think) classical-but-foreboding shimmer of “Little Bird,” doesn’t necessarily sound as lonely as one might expect. Or perhaps it’s a more cosmic kind of loneliness.

That is, while Songs of Abandon has been posited as composed during a darker period for the artist making it, Urlo‘s search for catharsis, comfort, whatever it might’ve been, in these songs lends them a fullness of sound and an immersive aspect that resonates beyond the intimacy of a solo, guy-with-guitar singer-songwriter. While not at all without its quiet spaces from the organ line and tapping cymbals of the introduction “Smiling Dog” and the surprisingly straight-ahead acid folk of “Two Stones” — and onward from there — the 10-song/35-minute collection is never entirely still, and it never loses that human presence and sense of expression.

There’s a balance being struck between those sides, surely, but it’s a malleable thing as well, and the guitar gets used differently between a chord-strummer like the first half of “The Hidden Ghost,” which shortly gives over to a distorted amplifier hum for a different kind of echoing, ethereal noise that brings an almost sneaky hypnotic aspect ahead of the fading in guitar strum of “Hourglass,” and the subsequent “The Moon and the Devil,” where the guitar and keys hold sway together for a darker atmospheric affect.

If you caught wind of the grim mystique that pervaded The Mon‘s 2023 LP, EYE (review here), or the ceremonial drone of the earlier-2025 single “Major Arcana” that coincided with a tarot series by Malleus, then Songs of Abandon will likely be a departure. While never quite as Eastern-tinged as, say, Lamp of the Universe — there’s no sitar, for example — there is communion with something beyond the self happening in the material, but it happens in a grounded way.

I don’t know the recording process for a piece like “Two Stones” or the later “The Fluorescent Sand,” which has a keyboardy intro but is so much more about the vivid emotional expression of Urlo‘s vocals that despite being just two and a half minutes long, it stands out from what surrounds, but I’d imagine it varies. Songs of Abandon was put together over a couple years, and so it seems likely that during that time, different songs would have different instrumental foundations. That said, on balance for the record as a whole, it’s Urlo‘s seeking voice and questioning guitar doing the underscoring.

Or so it feels to the listener, anyhow. It’s not that the running water, the synth or certainly not the electric guitar figure throughout and at the end of the penultimate “Beautiful Star” are somehow superfluous to the song itself. That is not, not, not what I’m saying. But even for a self-recording multi-instrumentalist, the practical reality is that one’s hands can only be doing so much at one time, and if Songs of Abandon became a repository for Urlo during the time of its making of this kind of acoustic-guitar-based material, then that doesn’t mean what’s been built up around that isn’t essential.

Especially for a work and a project that is so committed to ambience and to realizing expanded definitions of heavy in its arrangements, these elements are more than the finer details they might otherwise be. As much as the tag ‘experimental’ implies throwing sounds at a wall and seeing what sticks, Songs of Abandon finds its solace in both the human outreach and in the otherworldly vibes pervading around it. Those looking for some glimmer of Ufomammut‘s crush may be able to transpose some likeness to the layered-in shouts of “Mayhem,” but if anything, this record sees The Mon step further into itself than did EYE or Urlo‘s prior output under the moniker.

At very least, it’s operating in a different way, and with a more direct focus on folkish human expression. As to what this might portend for Songs of Embrace, it’s more fun to speculate than it is useful, especially since that second-of-two release is impending and likely not years off and not such a long wait. Urlo has used three descriptors for the answer to this outing, and they are “darker, ambient, and ritualistic,” so that’s what I’m going on.

That would be a shift in sound from much of Songs of Abandon, naturally, but if those characteristics are providing the ’embrace’ in that title, then one can only say it will function similarly to how Songs of Abandon seems to dwell in the aftermath of abandonment, seeking and maybe even finding some relief in the writing and playing. In that way, Songs of Abandon is the most personal work The Mon has yet conjured and that also retains its ambient/experimental mindset makes it that much more individualized.

To be continued, then…

The Mon, Songs of Abandon (2025)

The Mon website

The Mon on Bandcamp

The Mon on Instagram

The Mon on Facebook

The Mon on YouTube

Supernatural Cat website

Supernatural Cat on Instagram

Supernatural Cat on Facebook

Malleus website

So the deal is this. The Mon, which is the experimental/arthouse solo-project of Ufomammut bassist/vocalist Urlo, is set to release two albums. The first, Songs of Abandon, is out Nov. 7 and there’s a video up from it now at the bottom of this post. You’ll find it mellow, psychedelic and melancholic in a resigned kind of way. That’s on purpose. The second, Songs of Embrace, will be out in Spring 2026 and promises a somewhat brighter point of view. The two together form a (Voltron! no it’s not Voltron) duology titled ‘Embrace the Abandon,’ seemingly intended to showcase both perspectives through Urlo‘s layered solocraft.

That’s an easy sign-me-up as the video for “Your Eyes” finds Urlo taking a walk in an alternate dimension, subdued acid folk resulting in a sprawl of atmosphere in which the ebow-ish sounds and acoustic strum reside. At three and a half minutes, it’s over before you know it, but the sense of exploration remains resonant from The Mon, and I wouldn’t expect things to be so light/dark binary between the records in terms of the actual listening. If you’ve, say, been alive for five minutes or so, you know these things are rarely so cut and dry.

Info and vibe came courtesy of the PR wire:

THE MON: Ufomammut Solo Project To Release Songs Of Abandon – The First Of A Two-Album Series, Embrace The Abandon – November 7th On Supernatural Cat Records; “Your Eyes” Video And Preorders Posted

Embrace The Abandon is the new project by THE MON, the solo vision of Urlo, vocalist/bassist of the long-running Italian heavy-psychedelic trio Ufomammut, as well as the co-founder of the internationally renowned poster art collective Malleus Rock Art Lab and of the independent label Supernatural Cat.

Where Ufomammut projects massive, otherworldly soundscapes, THE MON offers a more vulnerable and introspective experience. The music moves through shadowy electronic landscapes, ambient textures, and hypnotic dark folk, always guided by an emotional core that searches for meaning, balance, and transformation.

The name THE MON evokes several layers of meaning: a contraction of “demon,” “monk,” and the Japanese word 門 (mon, meaning “gate”), a symbolic passage toward altered states of consciousness and inner truth. This duality of light and dark, sacred and profane, runs through the entire project.

THE MON’s Embrace The Abandon is structured in two complementary chapters – Songs Of Abandon and Songs Of Embrace – the project depicting a journey of duality: loss and surrender on one side, acceptance and rebirth on the other.

The first chapter of this journey, Songs Of Abandon is perhaps the most intimate and vulnerable work Urlo has ever created. Born in a moment of solitude and personal darkness, the album originated from a radical exercise: writing one song a day, for nine consecutive days, using only acoustic guitar and voice. Later, these sketches were shaped into fully realized tracks, with lyrics and subtle layers of sound – not to overwhelm, but to underline the fragile, raw atmosphere that pervades them. The result is a stripped-down, emotionally charged collection that embodies an inner search: the power of music as a tool to face abandonment, to dig into oneself, and ultimately to glimpse the possibility of an embrace.

Songs Of Abandon was written, performed, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Urlo at The Howl, Italy, between 2023 and 2025, and as with all Supernatural Cat releases, completed with artwork by the Malleus Rock Art Collective.

The first preview of this project arrives through a video for “Your Eyes.” Urlo states with its unveiling, “‘Your Eyes’ closes Songs Of Abandon and was among the very first pieces I wrote for the project. It was 2021 and I set myself the task of writing one song a day for nine days, armed only with my acoustic guitar. Those sketches became the nine acoustic tracks that form Songs Of Abandon. Shaping them into their final form was far from easy. When the mix was finally complete, ‘Your Eyes’ revealed itself as the perfect ending, the closing of a circle. It marked a time when abandonment became a confrontation with myself, a way to re-embrace those eyes through my own gaze. From that darkness, the second part of the album would eventually rise.”

With Embrace The Abandon, THE MON reaffirms itself as one of the most personal and uncompromising projects. It is a body of work that fuses vulnerability and strength, speaking directly to the listener with sincerity, leading them through shadow towards light. An intimate yet powerful sound experience, intertwining the minimalism of acoustic folk with the dark, visionary tension that has always defined Urlo’s artistic path.

The second chapter, Songs Of Embrace, is an instrumental counterpart – darker, ambient, and ritualistic – and it will be unveiled in the Spring of 2026.

Songs Of Abandon will be released digitally, on CD, and on vinyl – with both a standard LP pressing and a limited pressing of 100 copies – on November 7th. Those who preorder the limited edition of Songs Of Abandon will have early access to an advance preorder of Songs Of Embrace as well. Find preorders at the Supernatural Cat webshop HERE: https://www.supernaturalcat.com/home/?s=the+mon&post_type=product

And in the USA at “A Thousand Arms” HERE: https://www.athousandarmsstore.com/collections/themon

Songs Of Abandon Track Listing:

1. Smiling Dog
2. Two Stones
3. The Hidden Ghost
4. Hourglass
5. The Moon & The Devil
6. Mayhem
7. Little Bird
8. The Fluorescent Sand
9. Beautiful Star
10. Your Eyes

[Photo by Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni.]

https://www.urlothemon.com
https://themon.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/urlo_the_mon
https://www.facebook.com/urlothemon
https://www.youtube.com/@TheMon_official

https://www.supernaturalcat.com
https://www.malleusdelic.com
https://www.instagram.com/SupernaturalCat_recs
https://www.facebook.com/Supernaturalcat666

The Mon, Songs of Abandon (2025)

The Mon, “Your Eyes” official video