Caterina Barbieri will release a new album of reworks featuring Lyra Pramuk, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Kali Malone, Nyege Nyege’s Jay Mitta, and more on Editions Mego.

Fantas Variations maps out eight new variations of “Fantas,” the epic opening track on Caterina Barbieri’s 2019 release Ecstatic Computation.

For the project, Barbieri invited friends from a variety of musical backgrounds to create a more inclusive landscape in terms of stylistic, geographical, gender, and generational balance. The results are a diverse array of approaches and instrumentation which blur the boundaries between the acoustic and electronic.

Longtime friend and collaborator Kali Malone rearranged “Fantas” to a slowed-down, austere, and eerie version for two organs. Evelyn Saylor created a piece for a vocal ensemble consisting of her, Lyra Pramuk, Stine Janvin, and Annie Garlid, joining forces to express the choral, psychedelic, and vitalistic nature of the piece. Barbieri’s former guitar professor at the Conservatory in Bologna, Walter Zanetti, composes “Fantas” for electric guitar.

Another standout is Jay Mitta’s singeli reinterpretation of “Fantas,” which transpires with pitched-up percussion and turbo-fast polyrhythmic patterns.

Tracklisting

01. Evelyn Saylor (feat. Lyra Pramuk, Annie Garlid and Stine Janvin) (Fantas Variation for Voices)
02. Bendik Giske “Fantas for Saxophone and Voice”
03. Kali Malone “Fantas for two Organs”
04. Walter Zanetti “Fantas for Electric Guitar”
05. Jay Mitta “Singeli Fantas”
06. Baseck “Fantas Hardcore”
07. Carlo Maria “Fantas resynthesized for 808 and 202”
08. Kara-Lis Coverdale “Fantas Morbida”

Fantas Variations LP is scheduled for April 2 release. Meanwhile, you can stream Bendik Giske’s “Fantas for Saxophone and Voice” in full via the player below, and pre-order here.