Mount Elephant is a shimmering tapestry of organic psychedelia, weaving drifting, pastoral meditations with the joy and rhythms of Eastern music and the luxury of taking things slowly. This is Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessio Ferrari’s third Upupuyāma record and first for Fuzz Club.
It’s a journey through traditional Bhutanese music, Thai disco, and Anatolian psych, filtered through a lens of lysergic acid-folk, ‘70s kosmische, and stoner rock. Expect dream-like instrumentals that flirt with the edge of fuzzed-out riffing.
In a live setting, Ferrari is joined by a six-piece band that thrives on ever-evolving improvisation. However, Ferrari took the solo route for the recordings, layering guitars, keys, flute, sitar, erhu, and percussion in his mountain barn studio overlooking Parma. Mixing was handled by Chris Smith at Kluster Sounds (Kikagaku Moyo, Wax Machine).
The album opens with “Moon Needs the Wolf,” starting with a soft psych-folk intro of acoustic guitar, sitar, and flute—sparked by a memory of wolves howling during lockdown. The song soon erupts into a lively wah-riding motorik groove, only to dissolve into a chaotic burst of soloing and scattered percussion.
“Thimpu,” inspired by Ferrari’s exploration of obscure Bhutanese music, envisions a future visit to Bhutan. The track’s name playfully mispronounces the capital’s actual name, Thimphu. Meanwhile, “Fil Dağı” (Turkish for “Elephant Mountain”) revisits a song from Ferrari’s debut, drawing from Anatolian influences and imagining people dancing around a fire in nature.
The sprawling, 10-minute “Moon Needs the Owl” delivers a psychedelic world-disco groove, beginning with an uplifting rhythm that gradually fades into a sublime haze. Ferrari likens it to a night at a Thai disco in the ‘70s, complete with the sound of smashing wine bottles and a joyous atmosphere that gives way to dawn.
The atmospheric “Dabadaba” follows, featuring a playful flute and a deep, resonant shamanic drum. The album concludes with the title track, “Mount Elephant,” which captures the odyssey-like essence of the record: an initial serene meditation on an endless, unmapped mountain that crescendos into a monumental fuzz bath designed to blow out amplifiers during live performances.
Mount Elephant is a journey into the heart of psychedelic exploration and cultural fusion. Ferrari takes listeners on a transcendent ride through realms of sound that are as diverse as they are captivating.
From the serene echoes of Bhutanese and Turkish influences to the energetic haze of Thai disco and stoner rock, this record revels in its unpredictability. I’m sure many of you know of Upupuyāma already, but for those who don’t, the new record is a perfect spicy dish of world psych good for fans of Goat, Acid Rooster, Altin Gun, Edena Gardens, Minami Deutsch, and more. Enjoy!
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