Matteo Ciminari is an Italian, London-based guitarist-theremin player-composer-producer. Mentalcoredrillings is Cimirani’s sixth album as bandleader or co-leader, and it was recorded at Cantiere Sonoro in Porto San Giorgio in 2024.
Cimirani leads a quintet and composed the ten pieces that reflect his inclusive aesthetic, embracing the clever fusion of Frank Zappa, the driving, polyrhythmic spirit of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, spiced with West-African grooves, with layered, and cut-up dissonant shifts à la John Zorn’s Naked City. He uses the same musicians who played on his previous album as a bandleader, Fried Hippocampus (Chant, 2020) – reed player Maurizio Moscatelli, double bass player Mattia Borraccetti, and drummer Luca Orselli (on one piece only), and adds keyboard player Simone Maggio and drummer Michele Sperandio.
The ten pieces are structured as mental ‘core samples’, all delving into polyrhythms, odd time signatures, and intricate harmonies. Ciminari knows how not to fall into the complex, acrobatic-technical pits of fusion, and injects healthy doses of eccentricity and irony, with an experimental yet playful, improvised edge, dissonance, and odd effects to keep the music fresh, engaging, and surprising. The cover artwork by drummer-producer-painter Alessandro Vagnoni faithfully reflects the exploratory but amused spirit of the album.
Eyal Hareuveni
Matteo Ciminari (electric guitar, theremin), Maurizio Moscatelli (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, recorder), Simone Maggio (electric piano, synthesizer); Mattia Borraccetti (double bass); Michele Sperandio (drums), Luca Orselli (drums)
