Product Description
2 Slow Ray
3 Little Big Paradise
4 Expanse Swamps
5 Spore and Dust
6 Neogene
7 Uninhabited
Styles: Ambient, Electronic, New Age
Jarguna writes:
My 41st album is meant to be a moment of freedom, carefree and light. As a dark and mysterious age envelops the future of humanity, uncertain worry arises. With Neogene we reconnect with Mother Earth and a previous time of plenty.
The Neogene is a great epoch that appeared about 23 million years ago when the dinosaurs were already extinct for 40 million years. It is a period where the great predators are roughly those we still know, but man is not yet the protagonist. The Earth is still in its primitive state — that is no one has yet changed the course of rivers, plowed the land or felled trees, except nature itself.
The sound texture of this album is a light ambient with acoustic “scents” — strings, harps, piano, distant voices with synthesis structures and loops. They want to accompany the listener to sweet, idyllic moments as close to nature as possible. I imagine lush forests, full of biodiversity, small and large paradises distributed everywhere. The greatest therapy for the human being is to reconnect with Mother Earth in a peaceful way; life is not competition or desire for conquest since we already have everything. We are a present but discreet observer, participatory but not aggressive, respectful but completely enveloped with all senses open and receptive.
In Neogene there is no mystery, no challenging spiritual tests — it is a heavenly and imaginary era where everything is at one’s disposal.
Release: February 18 2022
Cover photo by Fabrizio Bosio
Reviews Editor –
A review from Expose
Marco Billi released his first album using the name Jarguna in 2006. The Bandcamp page for his latest, Neogene, states that this is his 41st album, so needless to say he has been one busy guy over the years; since 2009 he’s been averaging about four releases a year (some in collaboration with others), and the amazing thing is all of them are worthy of attention, especially for listeners who love ambient soundtracks. Neogene refers to the geological period within the Cenozoic era, comprising the Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene epochs from about 26 million years ago right up to the present. It began after dinosaurs had been extinct for a good forty million years already, and the great predators are roughly the same as they are today. Humans hadn’t arrived on the scene yet, and the earth was still in a pristine condition.
The sounds and textures that Jarguna has assembled here are soft, gentle, sparkling, and intensely beautiful, filled with lush tonal colors and powerful imagery, consisting of a mix of dreamy synthesizers, muted and processed acoustic instruments, found sounds, and studio magic as the glue that ties it all together. Titles like “Spore and Dust,” “Blue Horizon,” “Little Big Paradise,” “Expanse Swamps,” and “Uninhabited” are among the titles of the seven tracks that make up the set, which flows beautifully together, evoking scenes of warmth, brilliance, and natural beauty, swirling around the listener in slow moving waves and scintillating stars. Yes, there is a lot of intensely powerful ambient music being produced these days, and Neogene ranks among the finest. -Peter Thelen