Ahead of the release of his new album ‘Positioning The Sun’ this Friday (14 Oct), Milan-based Singer-songwriter QUARRY is pleased to present the video for one of its stand-out moments: “Beyond Any Sense”.
Blending gently chugging guitars and jangling percussion, the new track sees Quarry perfect his ability to channel immense and existential issues through earworm melodies and rousing instrumentals.
Written in Quarry’s home studio in Milan in 2021, the artist played all of the instruments on the track, with many of his first takes “which were meant to be scratch tracks” ending up in the final mix.
Inspired by John Lennon’s solo material and grappling with the complications that come with living in the modern world, Quarry explains: “”Beyond Any Sense” has an undercurrent of awkwardness to it, giving voice to the experience of feeling uncomfortable in this social framework. The track expresses my conflicted feelings about liquid modernity. Consumerist technology, the desire to imitate the latest market’s way of life and an algorithmic world that rearranges our lives all seem to steal my soul — and I need it back.”
Directed by Vicenzo Campisi, the accompanying video sees Quarry deliver two disparate renditions of the track alongside one another: one stood at a microphone in a conventional suit, the other performed through a megaphone, wearing a slightly more galactic get-up. The artist adds: “The concept of the video was to maintain a balance between the stereotype world that algorithms lead us to and the way we truly are.”
Watch the video for ‘Beyond Any Sense’ – BELOW:
Creating affecting music that revolves around love and loss, ‘Positioning The Sun’ has a knack for capturing the overwhelming weight of the world’s complications. Recorded in Milan between 2020 and 2022, the record is a warm and expansive one: full of beauty and melody, and with a multi-coloured quality.
Quarry explains: “I wanted to make an eclectic album. I started writing a sort of soundtrack to an imaginary movie. But then I realised that I was locked in my tiny home studio with this new pandemic bursting into planet earth, and I was writing songs about isolation, distance, separation. It was the soundtrack of that particular time. Pandemic permeated the album with a sense of loneliness and concern, and when it was almost finished the outbreak of war in Ukraine made the songs more relevant.”
Quarry’s new album artwork depicts a stylised worn-out sun with markings over it. While Native Americans used this “Days and Nights” symbol to tell the time via the position of the sun, it would also provide Quarry with the inspiration to begin writing his latest album and inform its title. Although Quarry’s ‘Positioning The Sun’ doesn’t signify the passage of time, it instead serves as a vessel for the artist to travel through space and time with non-linear limitations; its songs sometimes landing in dark places, sometimes in brighter ones.
He adds: “The positive thing is that I used a lot of words like ‘breathe’, ‘dreams’, ‘light’ and ‘free’, which means that it’s not a sad album. There’s hope and joy in it. I attempted to convey the abrupt and continuous transitions from black and white to colour using various ambiences, atmospheres and instrumentation — always feeling that the songs could be easily played on an acoustic guitar.”
Quarry is the alias of Italian-born multi-instrumentalist and Singer-songwriter Vittorio Tolomeo. Self-taught, he began playing the drums and guitar before playing in a handful of bands in Italy, releasing two EP’s with indie labels and writing the theme song for a popular radio show.
Living between Milan and London, and playing across Europe both solo and with various bands, the musician released two critically acclaimed solo albums, ‘Prize Day’ and ‘Super Arcade’. His notable single “Micro Plastic People” also gained attention for its exploration of the socio-environmental issue of microplastic pollution.
With his band Prizeday, Quarry has performed at festivals like The Great Escape, played a run of shows supporting Arthur Brown and premiered a short film at Cannes Film Festival. His solo material has also featured in a range of TV shows including Animal Kingdom, Top Gear, an advert for Vans and Italian film ‘La mia ombra é tua’, and garnered praise from a range of tastemaker names including Rolling Stone France who described his music as “highly contagious”.
The feeling of living suspended in time during the pandemic led Quarry to produce his new album, ‘Positioning The Sun’, a record that strengthens his vision that the unique power and energy that can be found in music have the ability to completely transform listeners’ inner worlds. The album receives its worldwide release this Friday (14 October).
QUARRY – ‘POSITIONING THE SUN’ TRACKLIST
1. Beyond Any Sense
2. This Is The Story
3. New City Comes Along
4. Kick The Void Outside
5. Dream Free Dreams
6. Breathe The Stars
7. Freedom
8. Merge
9. Radio Inner World
10. Higher Higher
11. Flash of Lightning
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