Alessandro Ferrazzi/Francesco Baldini - A Moon Away From Our Path

 Released: August 17

Sometimes you hear an album in which the vibes are just purely immaculate, with every single element working together in  unique bit of harmony to create a supremely relaxing atmosphere. A Moon Away From Our Path is definitely one of those albums. Born from a spontaneous session between Ferrazzi and Baldini, the album is made primarily from two different synths - the Casio CZ-3000 and the Kong M3 - which gives it a vey distinctive sound that feels both retro and modern at the same time. I have to say, I am a sucker for old Casio synths and keyboards so the tones from the very first track, “Lingering Warp” tickled my ear in the most pleasing way. 

The album has two main mood with the first being what you hear right out of the gate. Chilled out lounge-y vibes with just a touch of cheese are what we get on tracks like “Komorebi,” which leans heavy on some very soft keys an bit of saxophone magic with takes us into a little bit of smooth jazz territory. But then we also get some of that chill lounge in the context of a downtempo lo-fi composition like “Perihelion,” which feels kind of like one of those soundtracks you might hear on an old reel-to-reel projector about outer space. Which ties in well to the other mood of spacey and rather minimal ambient tracks that reinforce that outer space vibe. Tracks like “Channeling” and both “Aurelia Dwellers” opt for long drawn out pads with horn-like qualities and sparse backgrounds. The two moods colliding with one another creates a theme that, to me at least, comes across kind of a spacefaring adventure except with more stops at the cantina then anywhere else. And honestly, I love that.