1. Damian Dalla Torre – I Can Feel My Dreams

Damian Dalla Torre is an Italian saxophonist based in Leipzig, who collaborated with some of London’s top jazz musicians for 2022 debut album Happy Floating. For its follow-up, he decided to explore a completely different world of music, inspired by field recordings of the natural world made while working as an artist in residence at a music school in Chile. There’s very little jazz here, and barely any saxophone – instead he and an international cast create nine shimmering, dream-like meditations, drawing comparisons with Windham Hill-style New Age music, the ambient Fourth World music of Jon Hassell, and Floating Points’ Mercury prize-shortlisted collaboration with Pharoah Sanders.

You'll seldom again feel as close to beauty's universal truth after you’ve engaged with the lushness of Damian Dalla Torre’s second album. The Italian multi-instrumentalist takes elements of gentle minimalism (the hypnotic 'Memo') and subtly experimental electronics, then marries them to an expansive sense of mysticism. Using harp, sampled choral voices and field recordings from South America and the flutelike warmth of the Andean quena, tracks ’Santi’ and 'Domenica' cast an alluring, vividly technicolour spell that you hope will never wear off.

Damian Dalla Torre is a jazz saxophonist who barely plays any saxophone at all on his utterly divine and beatific latest album, I Can Feel My Dreams (Squama Recordings). Inspired by field recordings of nature made during a spell as an artist in residence in Chile, he assembles an international cast to create nine shimmering, dream-like meditations, pitched somewhere between jazz and ambient music. Detailed enough to transcend the New Age tag, it’s a genuine contender for album of the year, reminiscent of Floating Points’ collaboration with Pharoah Sanders and the Fourth World explorations of Jon Hassell.

Leipzig-based saxophonist, composer and producer Damian Dalla Torre has been on the improvisation/experimental music scene for some time, working with notables such as Antonia Hausmann and the excellent Brigade Futur 3. Recorded during a university residency in Chile, for I Can Feel My Dreams Torre incorporates field recordings of forests and mountains surrounding Santiago, and makes particular use of the quena, a traditional Andean flute. Intoxicating soundscapes fill this record, and it's to Torre's great credit that at no point
does anything feel predictable. Strangely beguiling fragments of guitar, flute, harp and piano drift and coalesce, forming shifting patterns over a backdrop of natural sounds. In I Can Feel My Dreams, Torre takes us on a journey as strange, wondrous, revealing and beautiful as any Attenborough documentary. Ambient music for the heart and the head.

Der Morgen eines schönen Sommertages lässt sich auf Social Media begrüßen, mit Frühsport oder Müsli. Unsere Empfehlung: Damian Dalla Torres neues Album auflegen, dazu ein Heißgetränk nach Wahl. Gerade wenn der Geist noch umnebelt ist, die Koordination nach acht Stunden in der Horizontalen noch wackelig, spürt man den soeben abgerissenen Träumen vortrefflich mit „I can feel my Dreams“ hinterher. Der studierte Jazzer Dalla Torre, der in der Experimental-Hochburg Leipzig lebt, gehört als Saxofonist zum Line-up feiner Bands wie der Crucchi Gang.
Der Mann weiß, was gute Popsongs brauchen – und wie man sie dekonstruiert. Vielleicht ufern seine fein ziselierten Ambient-Kunstwerke deshalb nie ganz aus, bleiben ungreifbar und verträumt, aber nicht beliebig. Jede Menge Field Recordings, Harfen, Blasinstrumente, Stimmen und Gitarren sind in das Album geflossen – Dalla Torre hat sie in der Postproduktion so liebevoll verfremdet, dass sie nach warmherziger Filmmusik klingen. Fühlt sich nach einem künftigen Klassiker des Ambient an.

Leipzig-based tenor saxophonist, composer and producer, Damian Dalla Torre has shared his brand new single ‘Acryl’, taken from his upcoming record I Can Feel My Dreams. The track is an escapist, ambient collage that stirs the senses with its oscillating reverberations and an exciting indication of what is to come from the artist’s next project.

The new record will follow on from Damian’s 2022 debut Happy Floating, an ambitious collection of sprawling, amorphous soundscapes that recognised his ability to paint from a palette of disparate influences. With his new single, he continues to work in technicolour as he further refines his experimental blend of Jazz and Electronic music. Ahead of the release of his new single, we caught up with Damian to find out a little more about about his roots as an artist and the genesis of his upcoming record.

Growing up in Italy, what was your first introduction to music?

My grandmother had a neighbour, "Franzl," who played baritone saxophone in the local music band. I was about 4 years old, and whenever I visited, I was allowed to take a look at this honey-golden shimmering instrument in its case lined with ruby-red velvet. Since then, the fascination with this instrument has never left me.

You studied Jazz in Vienna, those early years are of course, crucial in establishing the blueprint of your artistry. What were the most important lessons you learned during your time there?

Being accepted into the conservatory in Vienna was a dream come true for me and marked the starting point for the professionalisation of my music career. I still vividly remember feeling completely overwhelmed when I first attended ensemble class; all my fellow students were at such a high level, and I could hardly believe that I would have the opportunity to grow in such an environment over the coming years. I think what these years have taught me is to work hard develop a vision, and stick to it consistently, as well as the importance of an openness to all genres of music, meeting like-minded people, connecting with them, exchanging ideas, and learning from them.

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