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PREORDER
Ships When IN STOCK.
01. Astrobal - S.I.V.A
02. Astrobal - Galassia M81
03. Astrobal - L'abeille pourpre
04. Astrobal - Miami 2064
05. Astrobal - L'uomo e la natura (Part 1) Una melodia i miei ricordi
06. Astrobal - Dernier stop avant Neptune
07. Astrobal - Mer Méditerranée
08. Astrobal - The end of capitalism
09. Astrobal - La Terre c'est l'espace
10. Astrobal - L'uomo e la natura (Part 2) Sogni e realta
ARTIST
TITLE
L'uomo e la natura
FORMAT
LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
KK 136LP KK 136LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
2/7/2025

Emmanuel Mario returns to Karaoke Kalk with his third album under his Astrobal moniker for the Berlin-based imprint. L'uomo e la natura ("Man and Nature") sees the prolific drummer and producer, who has worked with artists such as Laetitia Sadier and label mate Pink Shabab, take a different musical route than before. The French electronic music composer pays homage to the spirit of library music while also making concessions to different strains of pop and even classical music. With only two of the ten songs putting words to the music, L'uomo e la natura is a masterful exercise in the evocation of atmospheres: expressing much while saying very little outright -- show, don't tell. The album was born out of a desire to push the envelope. Taking inspiration from library music artists such as Alessandro Alessandroni or Bruno Nicolai as well as the more cosmic strains of electronic instrumental music, he strove "to create a soundtrack that would immediately bring to mind outer space." The first of the three singles released ahead of the full album, "L'abeille pourpre," captures this spirit with funky rhythms and an overjoyed interplay of different melodies, all tied together by wordless yet terminally catchy vocals. The second single, "Miami 2064," traverses through many different moods in its six-minute run-time: Starting off as neo-noir synth-wave piece, it then proceeds to pay its dues to the masters of the cosmic music tradition such as Tangerine Dream or, of course, Jean-Michel Jarre before slowly descending back to Earth with guitars and dreamy synthetic vocals, playfully punctuated by a plethora of wistful melodies. It is the perfect encapsulation of the open-ended approach Mario follows throughout the entire album, taking full creative license in regards to songwriting and arrangements. L'uomo e la natura rewards multiple listens not only emotionally, but also intellectually. "I also wanted to talk about politics and ecology, because it's impossible not to," Mario notes. Some of the track titles express this more openly than others and the two title tracks sung by Mario and Nina Savary use French and Italian lyrics, respectively. However, as a whole the album leaves things open to interpretation.