Member of the indie-pop band Penelope Isles, as well as guitarist in the service of CMAT, Jack Wolter, after sharing the first recordings with Malka Spigel and Colin Newman's Immersion on the album “Nanocluster Vol 2”, reaches the long-awaited debut as Cubzoa.
“Unfold In The Sky” is an eccentric mix of electronic, folk, dream-pop and psychedelia, openly inspired by groups such as Radiohead and Tortoise, but sufficiently personal to arouse interest from critics and the public, a change of direction decided for Wolter after his singer-songwriter debut in lo-fi from over a decade ago.
The reciting voice of Anna B Savage, the clear guitar reverberations, fast rhythmic tempos and carpets of electronics intertwined with icy and alien voices immediately begin a powerful, kaleidoscopic whirlwind of sounds and suggestions (“In 2 Worlds”), which at the end leaves a melancholy trail, which the voice of Nanna Schannong of Lowly leads towards delicate and pulsating dream-pop settings in the luminous “Choke”.
The first two tracks of the album are already quite intriguing and full of promise in themselves, but Cubzoa's refined bedroom-pop has many cards to play, starting with the biting riff of guitar dueling with one drum machine in the more elaborate and vibrant “Barcelona”, up to title track which closes the album by intertwining acoustic and electronic music, giving space to a faint nostalgia.
“Unfold In The Sky” is a record that works on different listening levels: the almost osmotic nature of the sounds creates an apparent stylistic homogeneity that slowly reveals shoegaze echoes (“Buckle Up”), obvious Radiohead references (“MidAirCollider”) and folk indulgences that are absorbed into an elegant dream-pop body (“I Dreamed A Beach”).
In this sunny and comfortable scenario Jack Wolter introduces fragmented and decomposed sensations (“Chewin' On My Lips”) and abrupt turns towards cold and sharp tones where they alternate loops and noise (“Dance With Me”), underlining the exploratory nature of “Unfold In The Sky”.
Cubzoa is a name that we will hear for a long time to come and this first album is a combination of many seeds whose future fruits will be interesting to discover.
02/01/2026
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
