Until We Fossilize

Whereas Marta Del Grandi spent much of the previous decade based in Belgium, where she made her way as a jazz singer, she returned to her native Italy to record her solo debut album, a set of varied indie art songs assembled under the title Until We Fossilize. Heavily inspired by intercontinental travels in the late 2010s, it looks to affiliated histories, stories, and myths that she learned along the way for its lyrical content. The title of the album itself refers to the marine fossils located at the peaks of the Himalayas. Compositional in presentation, and influenced musically by the likes of Ennio Morricone, the soundtracks of David Lynch, exotica, and the '60s California sound, the album begins with the brief, myth-based "Taller Than His Shadow." Spacy, mechanical noise and ominous, sustained synths and low strings open the track in advance of Del Grandi's spoke-sung narrative and improvisatory piano accompaniment ("I couldn't read his mind, but I could tell/That I would be left