This is an excellent album that once again shows the versatility of Turin-born Daniel Colussi for the Italian label, Quindi. The artist has used this alias for three years now – the first album was a 2020 cassette album, Desire, later pressed on vinyl due to demand in tandem with the release of 2022’s Memory’s Fool. 

The album cover is a homage to the Jean-Claude Vannier 1972 debut, L’Enfant Assassin Des Mouches and the content on Toronto-based Daniel Colussi is similarly expansive. Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean features melancholic poetry cuts akin to Leonard Cohen, but with added melodic infusion. Colussi has once again found distinct arrangements of players to traverse gently lilting art and folk rock, through to orchestrated ballads.

Album opener Lightning On A Sunny Day utilises drum machines and synths to the musical palette, with nods to post-punk and hybrid pop sensibilities – think Defunkt meets The Woodentops.

Turin-born Colussi has drifted through various bands, guises and styles over the past 20 years, but since settling into Fortunato Durutti Marinetti as a vehicle for his songs, he’s found a strong musical identity that shows a wide range of influences. 

The artist himself dubs his musical expression as “poetic jazz rock”. The label adds: “…with a sideways glance – it’s not exactly poetry, far from trad jazz and it doesn’t really rock, yet the tag feels uncannily like it fits, just like the curious music it’s used to describe.” 

“It’s at once entirely his own style and yet comforting and familiar. The lyrics might sweep you into the singer’s inner world, similarly to the experience listening to late 60s Tim Buckley, or you might well inhale the mellow jazziness of the harmonic movement like you would Joni Mitchell on Hejira.”

Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean by Fortunato Durutti Marinetti is out on Quindi Records on November 3.

The album was performed by: Josh Cole: double bass, electric bass; Daniel Colussi: vocals, guitar, bass, keys; Jessica Delisle: vocals; Paul Erlichman: electric piano; Craig Fahner: synthesizers; Brandon Gibson-De Groote: violins and arrangements; Alex Hamlyn: saxophone; Stefan Hegerat: drums; Blake Markle: Fender Rhodes, electric vibraphone; John Nicholson: saxophone; Anh T. Phung: flute; Kevin Schmidt: bass.