**Matias Aguayo & The Desdemonas - Sofarnopolis (Crammed Discs)**

Add Date: 10/10
Focus Track: 4, 3
FCC: Clean
Format: Top 200, World, Electronc

Artist Info: “I didn’t plan to do an album.” says Matias Aguayo of his latest project, the multi-dimensional concept album by his new band, The Desdemonas. “For me the fundamental creative moment is the one in which there is no focus on a result but one in the moment.” The moment he speaks of is captured across a double album, taking in electronic-tinged nods to post punk, visceral rhythms, hypnotic grooves and a free form sense of experimentation and idiosyncrasy that touches upon moments of rock, disco and dystopian dub.

However, a conventional band this is not. Sofarnopolis is not just the name of the album but also a fictional location and backdrop for the record. “The record is the soundtrack of a series of fantasies around a fictional city called Sofarnopolis - or maybe Sofarnopolis is just a state of mind - and the Desdemonas do the soundtrack to all that fantasy.” he says of the project’s rich tapestry. So thought out is the fictional location for this record that Aguayo has thought of people and places in it beyond his own band. “Sofarnopolis is an imaginary city, maybe in a parallel world, where bands are still the hottest thing and the record industry is big. There are bands like the Desdemonas, Solid Bass, Cold Fever and Jonnie Frugo that play in different clubs, The Rabbithole being the most legendary one. It’s about a bunch of kids experiencing that legendary period.”

The sonic eclecticism of the album matches the vastness of the ideas and concept within it. Stylistically, the album opens with the Twin Peaks-esque "6am" and by "Nervous" has taken a Can meets PiL approach and by the album’s closing moments on "Antidoto" it broods with menace and cinematic tension. It’s an album that requires a full plunge into it, complete immersion and absorption and in many ways it was created like this as an antidote to the times. “I want to create a complex album experience that shall be reflected on many levels, it will need some focus, and it will need time, and I want the audience to have the chance to dive into it and discover things with time, which is somehow opposed to the perception of working in these days of social media frenzy, psychopathology and short attention spans.”