Having passed the milestone of fifteen years of activity, Al Doum & The Faryds have become an authoritative name on the circuit underground psych Italian. “Ipnagogico”, their sixth album, consolidates a formula through which the very rich psychedelic sound produced by the Milanese collective mixes with an overwhelming form of ethno-jazz with strong exotic connotations. Sustained rhythms, wind instruments that seek dissonance, electric guitars that do not deprive themselves of contagious solos, in a mode of “calculated improvisation” that leaves room for the technique of the individuals while remaining within the agile limits of the “song format”. A positive, vital, energetic atmosphere, enriched by festive vocal arrangements.
Al Doum & The Faryds are a real musical community, numerically grown over time to the current ten elements, a team that has always maintained the most absolute independence: they record at Guscio Recording, the studio owned by Lorenz (the guitarist), and publish through Black Sweat Records, a label founded by singer and bassist Davide Domenichini. They even have a sister band, with which they share part of the line-up, Addict Ameba, which was talked about a couple of years ago, following the publication of the album “Caosmosi”, another eclectic and visionary project, conceived to break down boundaries, both stylistic and geographical.
In “Ipnagogico” the hypnotic component becomes less marked than in the past (significant streaks remain in “Money II”, the most lysergic moment with its wha wha guitars), giving way to a Carnival of sounds and colors (in “Borracho” it feels like being in Rio), which finds the only meditative moments in correspondence with “Money I” (with a more spiritual vein) and “Utopia II”, which retains something pinkfloydianwith that guitar that at times recalls Gilmour. The album is structured into three fundamental nuclei (“Arise”, “Money”, “Utopia”), each divided into two movements; each nucleus is separated by a further track (“Borracho” and “Party Cells”). Architectures free form for modern world music.
01/30/2026
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
