Ostuni Bound, NOW! (LP)

Rome, late afternoon, 1974. The light comes in over the colossal hills, the way it only does for an hour before the city forgives itself for the day's noise. Axe fi eld is on an urgent quest to create cinema in the form of sound as a romantic alternative to disposable tools. He is looking for a sound so e ff ortless he is not sure it can truly exist, but only be felt - somewhere between a fi lm score, a heartbeat and a late night dinner at his favourite trattoria. Ostuni Bound, NOW! is the debut album from Amsterdam-based electronic artist and composer Axe fi eld, bringing club-heavy bass music together with the drama and romance of 70s Italian cinema. The narrative and emotions within the record stem from a romantic setting in Southern Italy that unexpectedly turned violent, forcing Axe fi eld to fl ee the city after receiving the death threat "non provocare morte". At its heart is the belief that romanticising life can lead us towards deeper human meaning, o ff ering a di ff erent route from the hyper- capitalist pursuit of e ffi ciency that increasingly shapes how we live and create. Throughout the album, Axe fi eld worked through three characters representing innocence, control and destruction, using each as a framework for decisions in production, composition and mixing. The album features Amsterdam-based rising UKG talent DANN and Johannesburg-based Kamohelo, frontman of Swedish electronic group O ff The Meds. It's all starting to feel like cinematic time travel in which beauty is reintroduced in the realm of contemporary dance. Released on Intercept alongside a beautifully crafted vinyl edition, Ostuni Bound, NOW! feels like the soundtrack to a fi lm that was never shot. Somewhere behind him, a projector he cannot see begins to turn, playing a fi lm for an audience that has not arrived yet. As they arrive, he is the one who ultimately presses play. And just like that, Ostuni Bound, NOW! Begins where Rome has always begun: beyond function and beauty and all that lingers in between.