“Terminalia Amazonia” is the new expression of jazz core veterans Zu, and it is a project that has the taste of a slow journey in pursuit of a moment. For the past four years the band’s members have regularly visited an undisclosed indigenous village on the Ucayali River close to the border between Peru and Brazil, where they could learn about the woven songs of the Amazon, being taught to sing them, and eventually record them.

“Terminalia Amazonia” is a 72 minutes long composition that finds its physical shapes into a double vinyl album (coming in two versions: black or transparent) and a compact disc, that will be released on October 11, 2019.

“Terminalia Amazonia” is a co-production between Archeological Records and House of Mythology, 
with conceptual development by Andrea Stillacci from the french branding agency Herezie.

On the early days of the project, soon after Massimo Pupillo’s return from Peru, the band asked Archaeological Records to curate and coordinate the work for an album about the knowledge and experiences that they acquired when in the forest, and together they decided to organize a live show in order to have a ritual master that would be still alive when working on it in studio.

The artists didn’t just recollect their memories in tranquillity, as they had a field recording (of a Shipibo ceremony that they could witness and record) to guide them, and after a few days of improvisations on those precious memories they went on a stage that was set for the occasion in Firenze (during the DioDrone festival) and recorded the set that would have later become the “Terminalia Amazonia” record. 
A ceremony of sound celebrated into another ceremony of sound.

Named after the binomial name of a tree, this work had a long incubation in its making. It took more than four years of trials and errors to find the right way to communicate this very crucial and ineffable personal experience. The result is a long and slow exploration into the magical and healing powers of plants, sound and chant.

All field recordings were made in an indigenous village on the banks of the Ucayali river in the Peruvian Amazon (thanks for the collaboration on this go to Laura Dev from University of Berkeley). 
 “Terminalia Amazonia” is also the first instalment of the new-found original line up of Zu – 
Jacopo Battaglia (who took a pause from Zu when formed Bloody Beetroots), Luca T Mai (Mombu), Massimo Pupillo – this time recording in quartet with our longstanding sound engineer Lorenzo Stecconi.

“Terminalia Amazonia” represents the very first sessions of the old line up together in one room, creating new sounds together, but it represents a moment of radical change as the artists chose to use only vintage electronic synths as EMS Synthi, OSCar, Roland System100M, Arp2600, Octave-Plateau Voyetra Eight (courtesy of synth collector Cristiano Bocchi). 

This is together an act of joy and of sacred sadness for the state the forests of the world.

“Terminalia Amazonia” will be premiered at RomaEuropa Festival in Roma (Italia), on 4th October 2019.

Zu : "Terminalia Amazonia"

D Futuro Remoto

B Memoria Antica

A Porta Arborea

C Dimora Ancestrale

Archaeological Records is a publishing house and record label inspired by music archaeology.

What is music archaeology? What 'music' has never been recorded?
Ancient music is poorly catalogued and remains largely unknown, but with research these forgotten forms, ancient melodies and instruments can be re-imagined and reborn. ‘Archaeological record’ is a term used in archaeology to denote all archaeological evidence. It includes the physical remains of past human activities as well as contemporary artefacts.  
 
AR is a project based on the belief that research into new and existing archaeological records can be analysed and theorised in new ways. This re-evaluation will be examined by researchers and sound designers, musicians and audio explorers who will develop ideas of unheard territories and uncharted channels, creating the 'new' from the 'ancient'.  
 
AR will focus on the history of music and the apparently unknowable.  
 
Inspiration for AR also comes from timeless sound experiences. For example, consider a natural cave and its acoustic environment, a bouche d’ombre with its eau verticalle and its stillness. The cave is in a state of continuous transformation yet its primary characteristics remain the same throughout the millennia. 
 
Early sound sources still in use also provide endless inspiration. The human voice or animal 'voices', their skins reappropriated into drums or their bones hollowed into wind instruments. Certain stones that sing when beaten and others sculpted and carefully positioned that make the wind sing their songs.  
 
For AR, exploring the history of sound is a mission beyond time, through ineffable dimensions. A mission that requires original observation and thought which will document and define 'archaeological sound'.  
According to the International Study Group of Music Archaeology’s “Meaning and Goals” :  
“... ultimately what was played in ancient times must remain in the dark of the past, and much fantasy is needed by modern musicians to imagine how melodies and rhythms may have been composed. Strictly speaking, only the sound of the instruments can be revived - these are the possibilities and limits of Music Archaeology.”
Determined to find new possibilities, AR supports projects that look at (and stress) the elasticity of the epistemological limits described by ISGMA: projects curated by researchers and artists together. Believing that the blurring of the genres is the most desirable approach when planning art projects inspired by science (or vice versa).