In the music scene, it may take some time to gestate a record that defines a solo artist or a band's philosophy, the ultimate labour of love, that complete masterpiece able to fit perfectly the often intricated and hard to achieve lyrical and sonic mosaic that defines an exceptional record.
In many ways, this is what, in our website opinion, happened to the Italian Synth-Rock and New Wave collective called Zephiro through their latest album called Baikonur, an exceptional collection of songs that has the unique power of combining uplifting melodies with a fascinating, although occasionally erratic songwriting style, but still with excellent results.
Inspired by the Kazakhstanian city of Baikonur, where several missile test missions were carried out by the Soviet Union all the way back to the late 1950s, the Zephiro collective, made by singer and bass player Claudio Desideri, guitarist Claudio Todesco and Leonardo Santinelli on drums and Electronic Drum Pads, creates a very clever and highly effective sonic bridge between the sound of the Mancunian Post Punk period of the late 70's and the Synth-Wave of the early 2000, a little like British bands like Editors and White Lies so well did too, especially in the early stage of their careers.
Lyrically, the 9 songs (all in Italian but, nonetheless still very stylistically remarkable) included in this highly refined record that is Baikonur, display moments of reflective self-analysis with others a bit more dreamy, one would even say, a little visionary.
The band, from a recording performance perspective, shows a pitch perfect interplay throughout the whole of Baikonur, enriching each song included in the album with individual and collective musicianship of the finest quality.
Although released originally in 2022, Baikonur is one of those precious records that totally deserve to be heard and appreciated even out of the Italian borders, because loaded with so much musical intensity and inspired songwriting. Undoubtedly, Zephiro's own ultimate masterpiece.
Baikonur is out now and it is available to be purchased via Zephiro's Official Bandcamp Page
