“The Rome based rock ensemble Mardi Gras has delivered their album “Sandcastle,” consisting of Liina Rätsep’s transcendent vocal and Fabrizio Fontanelli’s evocative acoustic guitar work, Alessandro Matilli’s stirring piano and keys, Carlo Di Tore Tosti’s thunderous bass grooves, Valerio Giovanardi’s seismic drumming and Fabrizio Del Marchesato’s scorching electric fretwork, have delivered sonic magic that burrows in deep beneath the skin .The brooding, cinematically charged opening of “The Dance of the Sand” already tells you we’re in for an emotional descent down into the darkest corners of humanity’s psyche.
The gorgeously layered indie/art rock textures Mardi Gras offer up make the perfect sonic tapestry for their evocative storytelling: Each composition is a rich, nuanced narrative of the fragility and resilience of the human condition.Del Marchesato’s scorching fretwork, Giovanardi’s earth shattering grooves, Rätsep’s inimitable vocal performances that wavers harmoniously between haunted croon and soul shattering wail all detonate in searing tracks like thunderous “Cross the Line” and angular “Wake Up” but at its heart, the album “Sandcastle” is its strongest when it finds the sweet spot between light and darkness, beauty and dissonance. While it does so nobody’s soul is in any danger, Mardi Gras instills even the album’s bleakest, darkest, most brooding moments with a rich sonic palette and poetic lyricism that makes it impossible to resist.
It becomes a profoundly human experience—full of life’s hard truths and difficult complexities, full of pain and doubt, yet also still seeking solace and meaning. These eight compositions are an actual artistic declaration made from the flames of life experiences in triumph and in defeat, so overall Sandcastle is a transcendent, captivating jewel from start to finish for longtime fans and new initiates alike. Mardi Gras have alchemized their many influences and creative ambitions into a single Rattling statement of art, signaling through sound. Let this ensemble’s intoxicating musical nights and shadows utterly envelop you.
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