Massimo Pupillo

There’s a lot of work behind the scenes in Headphone Commute headquarters. All the email reading, promo sorting, and, of course, the listening and writing take up lots of time to make sure that I can bring you honest music on a regular basis. Sometimes, my “job” is mitigated through the trusted filter of a record label. After all, they invest more than just time into their supported artists. There are many such examples where I can turn to a favourite imprint and pretty much enjoy every single release. For many years now, since 2006 to be exact, I have been following the output of an Italian label founded by Alessandro Tedeschi, which he called Glacial Movements. As the name implies, the music put out by the imprint specializes in glacial and isolationist ambient soundscapes, “places that man has forgotten… icy landscapes… fields of flowers covered eternally with ice…” It’s a beautiful place, and I have been a fan of the albums, including that of Tedeschi’s own Netherworld project. Today, we’re stepping away from these desolate territories of the inevitable future and instead take a look back at the ancestry of the past. In particular, the new album by Massimo Pupillo turns our attention towards the Indigenous people of the Arctic, who have been inhabiting some of these [in]hospitable lands since the dawn of human civilization. The track I am premiering for you today, “Horagalles”, is titled after the thunder god, often depicted with a sledgehammer in one hand and a cross-hammer in the other on the Sami shaman drums. It’s a beautiful and slightly eerie piece, full of enigmatic worship, belief in the unknown, and, of course, the distant rolls of thunder.

We know it
engraved in our cells
The origin
To feel the primordial song
We need to have
A childish interest
For the universe
Living in a hint of islands
Far and true
Atlantic and remote ones
A hint, that’s enough
To find each other
Where time didn’t exist
When there was only space
When there were mountains and seas and sky
And unnamed creatures
With roots like plants
Who extracted new forms of language from the force
To make the passage on earth more tender
To find a song that could ease the burden of love

I’m intentionally skipping over Massimo Pupillo’s intensive background and catalogue, as you can read all about it on the Bandcamp page. While you’re there, make sure you also read the lengthy poem accompanying the release (an excerpt from which I have quoted above). The full album is out on October 20, 2023. Beautifully mastered by Lorenzo Stecconi and available as a digital download or on a limited edition compact disc.