New Cosmic Psychedelic Prog Rock: PSYCHOWATERMELON

The multifaceted musical genius of Alex Savelli. We found him between Jazz and 70s improvisation with Massimo Manzi in 2019, with Nostress in 2000 in the name of great Rock songs with instrumental spaces, in 2021 in the Italian Kidd project with Ivano Zanotti and a parterre of great guests in a sort of all-Italian disco-festival. A few years after these projects, the founder of Pelican Milk is back with an old partner, Tommaso Michienzi, with a completely different proposal: Psychowatermelon.

Savelli and Michienzi met for the first time in 2005 during Pelican Milk and Ares Tavolazzi‘s improvisation sessions that would give life to the soundtrack of Ultima cena tra le nuvole (produced by Ass. Le Nuvole and Pocart on Pasolini’s Last Supper). What united them was their common passion for Rock, Psychedelia, Space Rock, Electronics, Humour, Cinema, Soundtracks and more and the same interests still unite them today. Over the years Alex and Tommaso have dedicated themselves to improvisation, playing a lot in the studio, making soundtracks and participating in the production of various records including Gettare le basi by Savelli and Manzi, Doing Nothing by Savelli and Nostress, L’onda by Antonio Stragapede and more. This long journey led them to the foundation of the Psychowatermelon project, which finally debuts with Ghostpiracy.

Immersed in their love for Psychedelia, for the Cosmic Rock of the 60s and 70s, for instrumental landscapes in which to lose themselves and find themselves again, for an ancient but now more than ever revolutionary idea of Rock played with humanity and fragrance, Alex Savelli and Tommasi Michienzi imagined a record that could give voice to their passions and brought their instruments into play: guitars, basses and vocal strings for the former, the latter’s electronic collection of synths, theremins, plug-ins and other magic toys. Decisive was the contribution of a talented young drummer, Andrea Lamb D’Aniello, who gave a twist to the material already set up. Invited to play on very spartan loops or sequences, the drummer had to imagine dynamics, evolutions and scenarios that were barely hinted at; later, many of those minimal references were completely abandoned and the duo worked on what the drummer had created. An unusual way of composing and producing that gave Ghostpiracy, mastered by Pino Salviati, great freedom of expression.

The only guest on Ghostpiracy is vocal performer Luca Fattori, who played an alien who finds a piano in Aliens On Piano. The mixing was taken care of by the duo, as were the evocative titles of the tracks, which required much meditation and discussion, given Ghostpiracy‘s mainly instrumental nature. Amid shifting and reckless tracks with echoes of Pink Floyd, Krautrock, vintage Electronics, heretical Progressive and Psychedelic fury, Ghostpiracy is a grand homage to the freedom of music.