Unnatural Self (LP+CD)

“Unnatural Self” is the title of Paolo Tarsi’s new album, out on Monday 6th May through Anitya Records. Preceded by the single “Opium”, enriched by collaborations with Blaine L. Reininger (Tuxedomoon), John Helliwell (Supertramp, Pink Floyd) and Malcolm Holmes (original drummer with OMD – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark), “Unnatural Self” is a record with nuances at times dark and visceral, at times light, almost ethereal.

After a series of works devoted to experimentation, Paolo Tarsi gives us an album of electronic rock with a fascinating and immediate sound, behind which lies great attention to the smallest detail and infinite care for every textual and sonic nuance without forgetting that love for research that characterized his previous creative phase.

Composed entirely by Paolo Tarsi, recorded, mixed and produced in his Anitya Studio in Pesaro, the Bass Line Audio in Manchester, Banana Studios in Milan, PB Studios in London and in an apartment used as a recording studio in the south of Berlin, the record began to take shape during the post Covid-19 period.

“For me, the pandemic period coincided with a moment of strong reflection in which I tried to understand what is really keeping us from breathing”, so Paolo Tarsi. “My latest EP featured with Percy Jones, bassist for Band X and Soft Machine, and was born during the constraints related to the pandemic. After that work entitled “I Can’t Breathe” I felt the need to broaden my message. So, I began to personally write not only the music, but also the lyrics of my songs to bring the reality that surrounded me more into focus.”

As a result, the album “Unnatural Self” is a record in which to immerse yourself from top to bottom and to let yourself be carried away by songs full of electronic flashes, close to synth-pop as well as to rock and avant-garde, with references to post-punk elements and new wave, capable of bringing out submerged sounds and rich resonances to be discovered in a current context.

In each song, elegant and refined atmospheres follow one another: revealing in “Perfect Machine World”; visionary in “Spiritual Home”; almost anguished and melancholic in “Ballet Mécanique”; up to the cosmic ambient atmosphere in the short instrumental “Tabula Rasa”.

A total of eight tracks performed by six different voices – Andy Wickett (Duran Duran), Blaine L. Reininger (Tuxedomoon), Steve Hovington (B-Movie), Andrew Evans (Birmingham Electric), Marc Lewis (The Snake Corps), Eugene – which bring together topics of the kind of technological development versus the fragility of nature, up to environment protection and the madness of war in general.

With this work Paolo Tarsi is implementing an ideal progression of his previous albums, “Furniture Music for New Primitives” and “A Perfect Cut in the Vacuum”. As he resumes the sonic compactness from the first one, and, at the same time, he recovers the spontaneity of the sound, both electronic and incisive, of his second, creating a perfect and irresistible amalgam to listen to.

Alongside digital distribution, a deluxe edition of “Unnatural Self” will be published containing the original album plus thirteen bonus tracks in a limited edition of 300 copies, with mastering by Amaury Cambuzat, guitarist of faUSt and leader of Ulan Bator.

The vinyl contains the eight songs from the album in their original version and features musicians of the caliber of Chris Haskett (guitarist with David Bowie, Rollins Band and Tool), Carl Jones (The Snake Corps), Livio Magnini (Bluvertigo), Franco Caforio (Litfiba), Alessandro Gerbi (C.S.I.), Fulvio Muzio (Decibel). In addition to the vinyl, the CD will contain all singles’ remixes, which are produced by Malcolm Holmes (OMD – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark), Jonteknik, Steve Lyon, MoReVoX, [ MONOTONOISE ], Jørgen Thorvald, Fernando Abrantes (ex Kraftwerk) and alternative versions with the collaboration of Kenny Hyslop (ex Simple Minds) and Andrea Tich.