Astrobal’s New Album “L’uomo e la natura”: A Dreamy Blend of Pop and Melancholy

The latest album by Astrobal evokes a comic strip by graphic novelist Robert Crumb titled A Brief History of America. It depicts the transformation of a landscape over centuries, beginning as a barren plot and evolving into a densely urbanized area cluttered with polluting cars, gas stations, and a tangle of power lines.

The final panel of the strip presents three future scenarios: an ecological disaster (reminiscent of Interstellar), a fun future (where sci-fi becomes reality), and an eco-utopian solution.

A Brief History of Melancholy

While desolation seems inevitable by the century’s end, Astrobal, straddling the last two vignettes, opts to soothe us (and himself) with illusions. Emmanuel Mario (his real-world name), esteemed drummer and companion of Stereolab and Aquaserge, also delivers with L’uomo e la natura, a work he might well have titled A Brief History of Melancholy. Melancholy about what? It gets technical: about melancholy itself.

Isn’t it the essence of his music—synthetic, largely instrumental, crafted with a collection of retro instruments alongside beloved friends—to evoke the misdirected memories of a time when imaginations, though liberating, were not constrained by the harshness of a suffocating reality?

Strength of the Theme

It’s said that for Astrobal, “music is a pretext to tell stories”. However, it feels quite the opposite. Passionate about city pop (Japan’s 80s golden era), Brazilian and Balearic vibes, old soundtracks, and other space-age funk genres—these are sounds steeped in gentle languor with a self-sufficient evocative power. The musician is primarily in pursuit of musical themes, those indelible marks that sear into memory. “A melody can encompass my entire life”, he sings on L’uomo e la natura (part1) Una melodia i miei recordi, a key track from this album—alongside the grand Miami 2064, which succeeds where Sébastien Tellier’s Pépito bleu stumbled into baroque grandiosity.

One must be firmly grounded in one’s convictions to dream so vividly and be so wholly devoted, body and soul, to bringing those dreams to life. In doing so, he manages to continue creating new sources of wonder for a lifetime.

L’uomo e la natura (Karaoke Kalk).
In concert at the Olympic Café, Paris, on April 29.