KEPLER

Tomat Petrella is a game of two: Turin-based Davide Tomat, who has over twenty years of experience as a multi-instrumentalist, band leader, and sound designer in several Italian projects (Niagara, N.A.M.B., and founder of the Superbudda collective); and musician Gianluca Petrella from southern Italy – one of the most revered and inventive jazz trombone players in the world from the last decade or so (as stated on several Down Beat Critics’ Polls and proven on his Blue Note and ECM releases).

‘Kepler’, their collaborative effort to be released on !K7 on 28 September 2018, has so many textures, intuitions, and complexities that you can hardly list this simply as a “jazz-meets-electronica” project. If we would have to describe this project (…shall we?), “Autechre meets ECM Records” would somehow work: digital, adventurous, and angular landscapes meet ethereal melodies and harmonics, while shades of robotic electro, Detroit-ish techno, and contemporary avant-garde unexpectedly surface & interfere – all culminating in a sonic trip that’s driving, surprising, and deeply emotive at the same time.
It’s not ‘experimental’ for the sake of it. To a certain extent, there’s something analogous with the darkest, cinematic, industrial ambient joints that have so successfully re-surfaced in recent years within the most authoritative electronic music audiences and festivals. But that’s just half of the story. The other half is Tomat’s and Petrella’s sensibilities, generating a carefully crafted interaction with each other’s respective artistic backgrounds and spreading beyond that of an average laptop producer.

The duo announce the album with the release of the double-single ‘Trappist 1 E / Koi 4427 B’. “‘Trappist 1 E’ is the sonic contraposition between what is going to happen and what has already occurred; the contrast between the agitation of not being able to recognize what is imminent, and the feeling of release when it has materialized,” says Tomat of the first track. ‘Koi 4427 B’, which does not appear on the album, is “like watching something very harmonious, gentle, tender, and sensitive trying to grow in its own direction while avoiding what it feels shouldn’t be a part of itself. And even though its nature is kind and delicate, it progressively becomes more jittery, dissonant, and fragmented while struggling to preserve its original qualities and sticking to its own path.”

Time was never an issue. Davide and Gianluca wanted their music and ideas to flow in the broadest sense of the word. This has led to a surprising and moving piece of art where dynamics are never too harsh yet landscapes are never static, stale or predictable. We invite you to put your heaphones on. Press play. Listen calmly & carefully. And come back and talk to us after hearing the very last note.