Still Corners - Elf Power - Clea Anaïs’ - Diandian

Photo - Bernard Bur

Still Corners - Far Rider.

Ahead of a massive tour throughout Europe and the US this Spring, Still Corners have released their seven-minute desert-noir odyssey, ‘Far Rider’.

With the sun at its peak a weary desert traveller picks their way across the soft sandy floor trying to forget a lost love or maybe a past best forgotten. Crystal clear guitar lines drift in and out as the bass weaves and snakes over a tight drum beat. Tessa Murray croons steady as a pulse, as the song winds like a caravan toward the orange horizon.

Tessa explains, “This song is about leaving, lost love and finding yourself somewhere on the journey, really it’s about redemption. I recently drove 6000 miles across the southwest to feel the sun on my face and think.  We used the dreamlike nature of the song to capture the landscape and a hypnotic feel to conjure up the long and lonely travel days.”

‘Far Rider’ follows on from the release of their recent single ‘Heavy Days’, and highly-praised 2021 studio album ‘The Last Exit’, which received standout reviews in NME, DIY, Uncut, The Quietus, Mojo and many more Still Corners will be heading off on tour in 2022 throughout the US and Europe to support their recent releases.

stillcorners · Far Rider

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Photo - Jason Thrasher

Elf Power - The Gas Inside The Tank.

Yesterday, the Athens, GA-based psychedelic folk band Elf Power announced they have signed with Yep Roc Records. To celebrate the partnership, the band released “The Gas Inside The Tank,” their first single release since 2017’s full length album Twitching in Time.

“‘The Gas Inside the Tank’ lyrically touches on seemingly separate but interrelated themes such as reincarnation, evolution, digital information overload, and an imagined post-apocalyptic future world of deserted cities in which inhabitants resort to siphoning gas from abandoned vehicles,” explains Andrew Rieger. “This was the first song written for an album we’ll be releasing later this year. It mixes organic and artificial elements together, with drums and drum machine mixed together, and slide guitar and organ alongside gurgling moog keyboards and synth bass.”

"We are very excited to be working with Yep Roc! So many of our friends and collaborators like Robyn Hitchcock, The Apples in Stereo, The Minus 5, and the No Ones have worked with the label, so we're looking forward to joining the Yep Roc roster,” said Elf Power.

“We are thrilled to welcome Elf Power to the Yep Roc Records roster,” said Yep Roc’s Co-General Manager Mariah Czap. “For the past 28 years, they've been such an important influence in the indie music community. Our team has known Andrew and the band since around 2004, as they've collaborated with a number of Yep Roc artists past and present over the years. We're excited to officially add them to our label family!”

Elf Power formed in Athens, GA in 1994 and have released 13 albums, two EPs, and a handful of singles, while touring North America, Europe, and Japan many times playing alongside acts like R.E.M., Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Neutral Milk Hotel, Guided by Voices, Arcade fire and many more. Albums such as 1998's Dave Fridmann-produced A Dream In Sound and 2008's collaboration with the late folk rock icon Vic Chesnutt, Dark Developments, have cemented the band’s reputation as the finest purveyors of modern melodic psychedelic folk rock around. The band became known as a member of the much heralded Elephant 6 Collective.

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Clea Anaïs’ - Stars Still Dying.

Clea Anaïs’ compositions centre on two things: their multifaceted artistic sensibility, and an emotional intelligence as sharp as a shard of bright-coloured crystal. Clea is a multiethnic artist, raised in Canada by a Mauritian dancer and a British painter.

Clea works with all kinds of interesting contemporaries in interesting places, undertaking a cross border commission in 2021 by the Canadian Consulate as part of the “Connecting Perspectives” initiative. Clea has toured in Canada, Japan, Europe, the UK, the USA, and New Zealand. Their session work spans many genres, having worked with Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) on his project Music for Heart and Breath, attending residencies at the Banff Centre, and recording with bands like Woodpigeon, 100 Mile House, Reuben and the Dark, and Astral Swans. Clea has shared the stage with groups including members of Broken Social Scene, Dan Mangan, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Cold Specks, City and Colour, and Of Montreal, to name a few. Much of this has happened with Clea’s collaborative band RALEIGH, who Alternative Album of the Year in the 2018 YYC Music Awards.

Now undertaking new music on her own, her debut solo album, Circle Zero, recalls the genre defying production and inimitable vocals of Lana del Rey, grounded in the nostalgic groove and lush pop stylings of Beach House and Japanese Breakfast. Clea’s first two self-released singles garnered 7k views each on YouTube, with “Hazy Days” spending multiple weeks on CBC Radio 3’s Top 10 playlist. Clea creates art that moves in interesting ways; throughout there are moments that are vulnerable and these moments move you because they are some special combo of being listenable, evoking memory, and feeling new.

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Diandian - I'm Still Mi.

We are pleased to include Diandian today with the beautiful new song 'I'm Still Mi', we will let her tell us all about herself - Diandian is an Asian American cellist, singer, and engineer. As a Stanford University graduate of engineering and music programs, she uses her unique skills in the sciences and arts to create innovative pieces with the cello.

Formerly a classical cellist; she has previously won international competitions and performed at venues such as at the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, The Grammy Museum, Tsuen Wen Town Hall in Hong Kong, Shanghai Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for SoCal Sunday Night on Classical KUSC. Her upcoming tour venues for 2022 include the Grammy Museum, LAX, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Stanford Concert Hall.

Along with producer Taylor Franklyn, diandian creates her first independent release, "Planet Pink" featuring her singing debut, cello, and original songwriting. Diandian's first independent release. Bittersweet melancholy with soft vocals, cello, and dreamy beats.

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Buffalo Rose - Lost Tuesday Society - Primer

Photo - Zian Meng

Buffalo Rose - I Give You The Morning.

"I Give You The Morning," is a gorgeous selection from Pittsburgh Americana sextet Buffalo Rose, who partnered with GRAMMY-winning folk legend Tom Paxton for a gorgeous EP called Rabbit released today via Misra Records.

"I Give You The Morning" is a classic love song written by Tom Paxton, who also lends his vocals to the track. With goosebump-inducing harmonies and delicate instrumentation, "I Give You The Morning" radiates sunshine and warmth from every note.

If you think you know what acoustic music is all about - just wait. Buffalo Rose takes the folk styles of the past and gleefully blends them with modern, contemporary flair. If a smile was a band, it would be Buffalo Rose.

Rabbit is a perfect release for the last gasp of winter; as we pin our hopes on spring, eagerly awaiting the days of more and more sunshine, this new EP will warm up any who listen. Combining Paxton’s honed writing skills with the instrumental prowess of Buffalo Rose, the album’s themes are derived from the hope of doing all we can do to find what we’re looking for. In this EP, these seven musicians explore answers to many questions, and they have a blast doing it.

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Lost Tuesday Society - Spinning Wheels.

'Spinning Wheels' is the latest offering by Swansea based 6-piece Alternative Folk band 'Lost Tuesday Society'. Taken from their successful latest album 'Bee Skin Rug' the band explore a darker sound and show a diverse dynamic following the bright and airy 'Lights' which was playlisted on the BBC Radio Wales 'Welsh A-List'.

Swansea Alt-Folk band ‘Lost Tuesday Society’ have announced a brand new single entitled ‘Spinning Wheels’ which has just been released independently.

Lost Tuesday Society are Jay Browning (bass) Alfie Scheinman (guitar, flute, vocals) Sarah Birch (guitar, vocals) Darran Browning (guitar, vocals) Simon Jones (drums) Kate Ronconi (violin, vocals) Lost Tuesday Society are a 6 piece band who have collectively come from a variety of differing musical backgrounds and therefore bring with them a range of personal influences; from traditional and alternative folk, grunge and shoe-gaze, funk, psychedelia and rock.

The result is a unique blend of music with intricate compositions, strong hooks and melody lines combining in a huge dynamic sound that has people up on their feet.

With four vocalists (Sarah, Kate, Darran and Alfie) in the band the harmonies are interesting, beautiful and an important element to the Lost Tuesday Society sound. With a heavier back line and driving rhythm section ( Jay and Simon) and two accomplished guitarists (in Alfie and Darran) the new material presented today has a maturity and edge which is beautifully enhanced by weaving strings (Kate),flute(Alfie) and melodica (Sarah).

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Photo - Carrie Pitzer

Primer - Warning.

We have the new single + video from Alyssa Midcalf's Primer project - directed in the Mojave desert by Jax Anderson. It's called "Warning." Here's what Alyssa has to say about it:

Warning is a celebration of the end of a toxic relationship. It’s a grand finale to the record and to a years long cycle of pain and anguish. I wrote the song during a hard turn in my life. I spent so much of my life with someone who siphoned my energy and depleted my whole world of color and light. I had to come to terms with knowing I will never be able to change the past or get that time back but I could meditate on the fact that I am no longer in that place.

And about the video location: I chose to shoot the video in the Mojave desert because it’s where I grew up. I spent all my teen years trying to reject the desert; feeling stifled and isolated there and wanting so badly to move as far away as possible. And now that I have moved away to many different places, I’ve been able to accept that it will always be my home regardless of where I go.

“There were experiences that hit me hard emotionally, moments in my life that hit me in a weird way,” Alyssa Midcalf shares when asked about the inspiration behind her latest album, Incubator. “I felt like the only way to process them was to write about them.” In 2019, under the performance moniker Primer, Midcalf released her first solo album Novelty. The vocalist and electronic producer has put the full wealth of her experience into her sophomore album, Incubator, sharing honest, and sometimes harrowing, stories from her own life through a pop-tinted lens.

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Basement Revolver - Hate Moss - Hailey Whitters - Carleton Stone

Basement Revolver - Dissolve.

Basement Revolver has always centered around the friendship of bassist/keyboardist Nim Agalawatte and guitarist/vocalist Chrisy Hurn. Lead guitarist Jonathan Malström and drummer Levi Kertesz round out the band’s larger-than-life sound.

The band’s catalogue spans back to their breakout single, 2016’s “Johnny.” That single, and their self-titled EP from the same year, led to their signing with Fear of Missing Out in the UK, and later, Canada’s Sonic Unyon Records.

Heavy Eyes, their debut LP, built on their aesthetic which merges hardcore-inspired indie and ambient dream pop. In support of that they toured throughout the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany. With tour plans on hold through 2020, Basement Revolver found time to wrestle with questions about identity, faith, mental illness, and sexuality.

Their sophomore LP, Embody, is explicit about these new ideas and new thoughts, addressing them with a deeper sound and crisper production to adroitly express the complexity of the world. It is an album of friendship, of working out identity together, and making deeply personal art.

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Photo Ruggero Lupo Mengoni

Hate Moss - Eremita.

Bringing to mind the broodingly intense works of Dead Can Dance or Liars, crossed with the philosophical songwriting of De André and Tom Zé, it’s a twitchingly paranoid and quietly exhilarating hint of what to expect on new album ‘NaN’.

Directed by Ian Carvalho, the single is accompanied by a misleadingly lo-fi video, which reveals hidden depths with repeated views. Shot by the band in a single-take using the Datamosh technique, it follows the band as they traverse through the scenic town of Monopoli in Puglia, Italy. The Mediaeval setting of warm-colored palaces on a summer evening soon begin to glitch chaotically with pixelated footage; and hint that all may not be as it seems… Speaking about the video Tina adds:

“The idea of contrasting the beauty of that historic city centre with the digital “dirt”, created by Data Mosh, fascinated us because it represents the message that the music expresses very well: The conflict. This is solved by the protagonist "abandoning the field" and crossing a counter-current path that leads from Aesthetic Beauty, represented in the video by the Madia Cathedral square, to Ethical Beauty, represented by the church of Purgatory, important for its representations of the various "Memento Mori.”

Produced and Mixed by In A Sleeping Mood with Hate Moss, the “Eremita” also features guest appearances from Donato Panaccio (Bass and Arp Guitars) and Mauro Polito (percussion). It was mastered at Loud Mastering studios by Jason Mitchell.

Hate Moss is an Italo-Brazilian duo formed by Tina and Ian in 2018. Formed in London and currently living a nomadic existence, the duo have performed on numerous stages across South America, Europe and the Middle East, while drawing crowds at international festivals like the Venice Biennale (IT), Locomotiva Festival (BR) and Goiania Noise (BR), earning a cult following in the process.

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Photo - Harper Smith

Hailey Whitters - The Neon.

The Iowa-born, Nashville-based rising Country star Hailey Whitters has released her new single “The Neon” from her highly anticipated third album RAISED that will be released on March 18 via Pigasus Records/Songs & Daughters/Big Loud Records. The single arrives with a Harper Smith-directed lyric video shot at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Nashville, TN. RAISED is now available for preorder.

“I wrote ‘The Neon’ with Lori McKenna and Rodney Clawson about a broken-hearted bender on the town,” Whitters explains. “It was our first time writing together and Lori brought in the title. I think the next line that came out of the room that day was ‘here comes the sad part’ and we instantly knew it was this ‘tear in my beer’ type lyric. I love getting to tap into this song emotionally every time I sing it. Whenever I'm feelin' blue, there's no broken heart a barstool and a cold beer (or shot of tequila) can't fix.”

Last month, Whitters released the album’s debut single “Everything She Ain’t,” which was praised by American Songwriter, BrooklynVegan, Rolling Stone and Billboard who said, "Whitters has proven herself a stellar songwriter and artist in equal measure… handclaps and sweet fiddle lines boost Whitters’ charming vocal and razor-sharp wordplay.”

The 17-song album was co-produced by Whitters alongside producer Jake Gear, who produced Whitters’ 2020 release THE DREAM and the subsequent deluxe album LIVING THE DREAM, and was engineered by Logan Matheny. The album also finds Whitters reconnecting with co-writers Brandy Clark, Nicolle Galyon, Hillary Lindsey, and Lori McKenna.

RAISED finds Whitters reconnecting with her Midwestern roots and hometown of Shueyville, IA, reflecting on family, first kisses, and life amid sprawling cornfields. “This record is where I'm from, this is me. It feels like the prequel to THE DREAM,” explains Whitters. “These are the people and this is the place that made that 17 year old girl leave everything she'd ever known to pursue a career in country music and not give up over the last 14 years.”

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Carleton Stone - Ice Age.

Carleton Stone, an award-winning artist, a songwriter with a growing list of credits, and a founding member of Port Cities, has recently added producer to his list of accomplishments.

Carleton has three solo records to his credit, multiple awards, and has toured internationally. An outstanding writer, Carleton has written songs for and with such diverse artists as Donovan Woods, Classified, Bobby Bazini, and Neon Dreams. 

Carleton’s producer debut was Willie Stratton’s “The Way She Holds Me,” and his fall will be jam packed with producing Willie’s new record, songs by Chudi Harris, and his own new solo release in June 2022.

 

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Colatura - Abigail Lapell - Ruby Tingle - Little Wretches - Stella Diana

Photo Credit: Justin Buschardt

Colatura - Scars.

New York City trio Colatura released their latest single, “Scars,” this week, sharing a video homage to the earliest days of television musical performances. Colatura’s debut album, And Then I’ll Be Happy, will arrive April 22, with a hometown performance set for that night in Brooklyn, at The Sultan Room [tickets here]. Prior, they will head to Austin, Texas for this year’s SXSW Music Conference.

Discussing the single, the band noted, "‘Scars' explores the dark fantasies of revenge you might indulge in, about someone who has caused you pain. It’s wanting to hurt someone who has hurt you and thinking that doing so will heal your own pain, but also knowing deep down that it won’t actually make the pain go away. But you indulge the fantasy regardless.

The chorus is rooted in doo wop, but in a dark way (doo wop noir, if you will), so in the video we wanted to reference that by doing a recreation of a '50s girl group soundstage performance, but to make the movements more robotic and unnerving, and also have it feel like a kind of strange afterlife limbo.

The emotionlessness of the singing and the movements seem on the surface like the pain is gone, but we wanted to use the juxtaposition of dark and light imagery to make it clear that even when you try to bury it, the pain will still live beneath the surface and be a part of who you are regardless. Not to be completely bleak, the flowers growing from our bodies show that there can be some regrowth and beauty even in the damage."

Featuring the triple songwriting attack of Jennica (bass/vocals), Digo (guitar/vocals) and Meredith (guitar/vocals), Colatura been called, "Fleetwood Mac with shoegaze guitars," by Fadeaway Radiate, and described by Popmatters as, “Drawing on a range of influences from '50s female-fronted outfits to Manchester post-punk and all manner of noisy things, Colatura sounds both of and out of its time, delivering music that seems to have always been.” Sonically, their foot is in a number of genres, writing music that is sometimes dreamy, sometimes heavy, with pop-leaning melodies and post-punk atmospherics.

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Abigail Lapell - Ships.

With a cyclical, hypnotizing guitar part and foggy, maritime imagery, Toronto songwriter Abigail Lapell’s new song “Ships” crashes on top of itself again and again until its subtle power tops the seawall and floods the landscape. Sounding like a mellower Sleater-Kinney or Laura Veirs with a horn section, “Ships” explores the insatiable, contradictory impulses that drive doomed love and other addictions, or as Lapell puts it, “Leaving versus staying, quitting versus relapsing—familiar shores and uncharted waters.” 

The idea of opposites attracting—or repelling—shows up in the song’s arrangement, too. What begins as a soft indie rock head-nodder—with drums (Dani Nash), bass (Dan Fortin), and guitars (Christine Bougie)—starts to sneak in a horn or two, a step on the overdrive pedal, and layers of vocal harmonies before climaxing with a wild sax solo only met in energy by Lapell’s reactive vocals. Fortunately, cameras caught the whole recording process at Montreal’s hotel2tango recording studio, and today, Under The Radar premiered that footage in the music video for “Ships” who stated, “Lapell’s latest single sees her follow further in a folk rock direction, taking full advantage of her band’s explosive live chemistry.”

“Ships” is the second single from Lapell’s upcoming album Stolen Time—out April 22nd on Outside Music. Fans can hear the previously-released “Pines” at this link and pre-order or pre-save Stolen Time right here. Abigail will also appear at this year’s SXSW on March 16 at Stephen F’s Bar

The upcoming Stolen Time strikes a balance between Lapell’s acoustic debut, Great Survivor, and her two rockier Chris Stringer-produced records, Hide Nor Hair and Getaway, while bringing a live-off-the-floor 70s folk-rock vibe and more structural experimentation to the table on songs that feel expansive in their scope—unhurried, psychedelic, and other-worldly. Lapell’s band underscores and meets the power of her vocals on songs like “Ships,” a wild sax solo seemingly enticing her higher and louder to meet the crashing waves. But many of Stolen Time’s standout tracks are solo acoustic guitar songs, backed by little more than Lapell’s harmonica, pump organ, or accordion. “Old Flames,” with Lapell’s melodic fingerstyle guitar mimicking flickering embers, is a bit of an answer song to Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” and the swirling and woozy “Scarlet Fever” was inspired by an elderly relative’s tales of being quarantined as a child. “Land Of Plenty” was influenced by Lapell’s family history of escaping the Holocaust by immigrating from Eastern Europe to North America, as well as more recent immigration stories.



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Ruby Tingle - Flood.

Audio visual artist and performer Ruby Tingle is set to release her first solo EP ‘Lagoons’, on No Such Thing Records, in conjunction with her public gallery exhibition at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery. ‘Flood’ is the first single to be released from 5 track EP, exploring the romance of dancing alone at night in an imagined wetlands, whilst desiring connection with someone else.

The remaining 4 EP tracks are based around Warrington Museum’s collection of amphibians and reptiles, and the artist’s lifelong connection with these animals throughout her own emotional experiences. Ruby’s music mixes natural sound processes and high range celestial vocals to compose original and dreamy, experimental “music from the swamp”.

She is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist working with progressive electronica in Manchester, represented by No Such Thing Records and PAPER Gallery Manchester. She exhibits and performs regularly across the UK and Europe, including Saatchi Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, 48 Hours Neukolln, Axel Orbinger Berlin, Art Basel, HOME, sluice___ and Chethams Library. She is also one half of cinematic bass act Dirty Freud with whom she performed and headlined stages at Glastonbury 2019, and recently released EP ‘Love in the Backwater’ with Modern Sky.

Recent commissions include new compositional work for Lancashire Encounter and upcoming collaborative performances for British Art Show 2022. She has been awarded 2022’s Manchester Jazz Festival Originals Commission and will also exhibit at the Whitaker Gallery in 2023.

 

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Little Wretches - Running  (Was the Only Thing to Do).

With the 2020 release of their album, "Undesirables And Anarchists," indie folk rock pioneers Little Wretches hit the ground "running." The album received national college radio airplay on over 115 AM/FM stations in North America. Propelled by international iTunes chart hits like "Ballad of Johnny Blowtorch" and "All Of My Friends," Robert Andrew Wagner and company have amassed more than 130K Spotify streams. Their Youtube videos are quickly approaching 70K views. Now, the Pittsburgh-based band has released their most poignant video yet.

The music video for "Running (Was The Only Thing To Do)" was released on February 15th, 2022. Taken from "Undesirables And Anarchists," the Wagner-written song was inspired by Cecil B. DeMille's movie, "The Ten Commandments" and band member/spotlight vocalist, Rosa Colucci's life story.

Wagner tells the story behind the song: "Prior to joining The Little Wretches, Rosa Colucci had never sung in a band. She'd been the only white soloist in a predominantly African-American Gospel choir, and she'd sung some karaoke, but that was the extent of it. Shortly after Rosa joined the band, Scott Mervis of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, 'Rosa Colucci is the best thing that ever happened to The Little Wretches.' Given Rosa's vocal power, audiences came to expect her to have a 'spotlight' number in band's live shows, so she asked me to write something for her."

"Rosa is an April baby, the season of Easter and Passover, and I wanted to have a song ready for her birthday. Watching Cecil B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS on television while strumming my guitar, I paused to marvel at the big scene when Charlton Heston as Moses raises his staff and God parts The Red Sea. Bondage and hopelessness behind them and the impossible before them, what would the average Israelite do? What else could they do? RUN! Believers and non-believers alike. Oh, well... Here goes nothing. Or everything. I recalled Rosa having told me that she'd been on her own since the age of fifteen. The details are for Rosa to tell, but I saw the parallels. EXODUS. Let My People Go! In her own way, Rosa had fled a kind of bondage and leapt into an uncertain future with only faith to guide her."


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Photo - Oriana Spadaro

Stella Diana - Sleepless Girl.

"Sleepless Girl" is the first single off Stella Diana's awaited new album "Nothing To Expect", set for release on 22-2-22 via Vipchoyo / A State of Flux Records. Well established as one of the most appreciated acts in the international underground scene, the Neapolitan band pushes even further the boundaries of their sonic venture.

Like the praised previous album '57', 'Nothing to Expect' masterfully interwines new wave, dark post-punk textures and spirals of shoegaze light, this time highlighting a more brazen opening towards the melody.

As the band says: “In this new album we tried to create the soundtrack of something that ends, something that can never be again. The air you breathe is something ultimate, something that puts an end to everything. The sound is dark, sinister, evocative and compressed, very compressed. The first single, Sleepless girl, absolutely represents this atmosphere. The mood is rarefied and full of reverb.”

Named after the ancient name of planet Venus (Morning Star), Stella Diana were formed in 1998 in Southern Italy’s city of Naples by Dario Torre (vocals and guitar) and Giacomo Salzano (bass guitar), joined by Giulio Grasso on drums.


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