Hypno Hippo

No Belly

Ant Lion is an ensemble of four multi-instrumentalists whose birth dates cover four decades (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s), a natural assumption to the varied sound of the band: Stefano Santoni (artistic producer, in this band mainly bass), producer and founder of Kiddycar and Sycamore Age; Isobel Blank (vocals), eclectic artist and songwriter; Simone Lanari (guitar), producer and member of Walden Waltz; Alberto Tirabosco (drums) - the youngest -who was already active in the hardcore punk scene.
Ant Lion’s sound certainly reflects the influence of the late 70s / early 80s’ New York scene. Nonetheless the assimilated punk no-wave attitude is enriched by spontaneous and sometimes unexpected polychromies. The different generational and cultural backgrounds of the band members, mean that in their first album you could identify diametrically opposite elements. So it may happen to feel jazz-rock influences teared by punk rips, or hardcore drums matching with polyrhythms and complex harmonic games, closer to contemporary classical music. You could find yourself in places where no-wave and trip hop are tied in an alienating milonga or where prog elements - in the oldest sense of the word - blend with obsessive choirs stolen to minimalism, fragments of a visionary free jazz, or rather, due to the absence of studying in this discipline, of a “fake jazz”.
Metropolitan nights’ atmospheres in which a traditional Japanese instrument like koto, an orchestra xylophone with bow tie and the harsh sound of a false and rotten Les Paul just escaped from a "second hand shop", meet by chance and - without wondering why - begin an intense dialogue.
The band's name refers to an insect whose metamorphosis transforms it from a creepy larva to a sort of elegant dragonfly, an expression of that original oxymoron. A mixed genesis of which this music is a manifesto.

Ant Lion

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