Savana Selvaggia

Description

Eight years after the masterpiece Africa Oscura, Four Flies revisits Giuliano Sorgini’s afro-dark universe, unearthing and compiling another suite of previously unreleased music recorded by the Roman composer for television documentaries in the mid-1970s. Savana Selvaggia is a tribute to the continent that left the deepest mark on Sorgini’s creative trajectory. Traversing ancestral percussion, synthesizers, enigmatic themes, and mystical expanses almost like a spiritual journey, Savana Selvaggia conjures an imagined Africa suspended between ethnographic documentary, psychedelia, and Kraut electronics. While part of the record echoes the mysterious, hypnotic atmospheres of Africa Oscura—it opens with a sequence of tracks where bird calls, primitive tumbas, and bewitching melodies envelop us in the jungle—Savana Selvaggia also evolves towards a sunnier, more contemplative dimension. On “Wild Life”, for instance, the savanna theme takes shape through an irresistible weave of percussion, acoustic guitar, electric bass, Hammond organ, and flute, while on “Alba sulla savana”, Edda Dell’Orso’s wordless vocals add a suspended, lyrical quality, evoking an otherworldly sense of serenity. It is precisely in these moments that Savana Selvaggia seems to reconnect with another of Sorgini's masterpieces, Zoo Folle, sharing the same fascination with the animal world and the same ability to transform nature and sound into dreamlike matter—not to mention a shared sonic palette of drum machines, Moog, and Solina. The connection is so striking as to suggest that some of these pieces may originate from the very same 1974 sessions that birthed Zoo Folle. Artwork and lettering by Luca Barcellona, who also designed Africa Oscura. Savana Selvaggia will be available on LP and digitally from 30 October.