Mother Island
Cosmic Pyre

Anita Formilan, Diego Pianalto, Giacomo Totti, Nicola Bottene, Nicola Tamiozzo, and Nicolò De Franceschi arrive from Vicenza.

Together, they are Mother Island and play music generally definable as psychedelic, as suggested by their name – Mother Island derives from a distorted reference to the hallucinogenic mushroom known as mother iceland – and the covers of their albums, inspired by the psychedelic art that was popular in the sixties.

Also active in that decade were the groups that became the main source of inspiration: Jefferson Airplane, Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground and Nico, Beatles, and Iron Butterfly, to name just the most representative.

However, there are more recent references to My Bloody Valentine and Brian Jonestown Massacre, essential to avoid the risk of being yet another and essentially useless piece in the mosaic of retro-mania: not just psychedelia, therefore, but also rock’n’roll and blues.

Along these lines, Mother Island combines strictly vintage raw materials with a melancholic attitude – by their own admission – but the artifact has decidedly modern flavors.

«Cosmic Pyre» is the debut album, released in 2015 in the vinyl edition only, which allows the beautiful cover artwork by Federico Zotta to be fully appreciated.

The sound is generally psychedelic: in this sense, «Death Valley Summon», «Disguise», «Willow Tree», «Naughty Girl», and «Sirbonzodequincey» are faithful to the classic stereotypes of the genre.

Sometimes, however, Mother Island does not shy away from poppy references: the opening «A Little Bit Harder» and «Night, Day and Night», in their brisk power pop stride supported by brilliant guitar riffs and the constant counterpoint of the organ, and «Drag Along», which melts the pop melody in acid, are exemplary in this sense.

More often, the inclination prevails toward the "heavy" digressions of the aforementioned Iron Butterfly, as well as to harshness with a vague grunge flavor: obligatory mentions for the beautiful «Electric Son», where the ghost of the harder and angrier Jefferson Airplane lives on, and «Flyng Pigs», which comes close to the most vigorous desert rock territories.

It is precisely along these trajectories that Mother Island seems to move with maximum ease, highlighting an unusual cohesion for a debut group and, individually, the charisma and significant technical skills of singer Anita.

Nevertheless, there has been no shortage of those who pointed out that Mother Island arrived at the debut with fifty years of delay: a criticism that is more than inappropriate because the derivation of the proposal does not undermine the result in any way, absolutely credible and perfectly fitting in its time.

In 2016, Mother Island released their second album «Wet Moon», confirming them as a group absolutely worthy of listening and support.