Clustersun premiered the psychedelic shoegaze offerings of their sophomore album ‘Surfacing To Breathe’ via Rolling Stone, but following up what has been a massive response to their first single ‘Raw Nerve’. Released via Seahorse Recordings, the album dropped on May 19.
Three years after their debut album ‘Out Of Your Ego’, this 4-piece outfit from Catania (Siciliy) have raised the sonic bar, delivering a more complex and layered mixture of gazey reverberations, a massive walls of sound, psychedelic soundscapes and dreamy melodies.Formed in 2013, Clustersun is Marco Chisari (vocals & bass), Mario Lo Faro (guitars), Piergiorgio Campione (synthesizers, keyboards & backing vocals), and Andrea Conti (drums).
Featuring eight tracks, ‘Surfacing to Breathe’ was produced by Clustersun and Alessio Pindinelli (La Casa Al Mare). Combining shoegaze, psychedelia, post-punk and dreampop, the band’s signature cosmic/spacey dark vibe is still intact with lyrics invoking a dreamlike sense of melancholy and emotional fragility.
“The sophomore album is a very tough step for every band, especially if it comes after a strong debut, as our ‘Out of Your Ego’ was,” says Marco Chisari. “We are so much happy and proud of how ‘Surfacing to Breathe’ came out, mainly because we’ve managed to capture how the band sounds live.”
These new offerings are influenced by shoegaze giants Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spiritualized, as well as Ringo Deathstarr, A Place To Bury Strangers, Cheatahs, Minor Victories, and Flyying Colours.
“This album is way fuzzier, more powerful, dynamic, edgy than the debut. Sounds were layered to build a dense, but articulated, sonic wall,” explains Mario Lo Faro. “Also we recorded the songs from ‘Surfacing to Breathe’ while we were touring so they retain that “live” vibe and power, while ‘Out of Your Ego’ had more ethereal and “light” tracks.
Clustersun released their first single ‘Be Vegetal’ on US indie label Custom Made Music and Italian indie label Seahorse Recordings, who released the band’s debut album ‘Out of Your Ego’. The band toured the Eastern USA in support of that album. They have contributed to compilations released via Patetico Records (USA), Raphalite Records UK), Gerpfast Kolektif (Indonesia), Shoegazin’ Your Waves (Italy), and most recently participated in Slowdive and Echo & The Bunnymen tributes issued by The Blog That Celebrates Itself.
Having been awarded the GLOBUS prize for Sicilian artistic excellence, Clustersun has established themselves as one of the most promising acts in the new international shoegaze scene.
“This is an honor and a responsibility, as Italy is delivering some of the most interesting music in the shoegaze-psych-dreampop-
The ‘Surfacing To Breathe’ LP released on May 19 via Seahorse Recordings and will be available on vinyl, as well as CD and digital formats.