Avant-Garde Group tellKujira Release Their Self-Titled Debut Album

Italian avant-garde quartet tellKujira has released their self-titled album through Superpang Records. It was recorded in December 2021 with the help of the Emilia Romagna Music Commission and Area Sismica. It is the result of eight-handed writing after a number of highly wanted artistic residencies despite the challenges associated with the pandemic time.

tellKujira is Ambra Chiara Michelangeli (viola/fx), Francesco Diodati (guitar/fx), Francesco Guerri (cello), and Stefano Calderano (guitar/fx). The band was formed in the autumn of 2020 as an ‘imperfect’ chamber quartet with two electric guitars instead of violins: music moves between contemporary, electronics, art rock, and free jazz and is based on improvisation sessions. This approach establishes a fluid musical path that is open to contamination and moves towards abstract soundscapes, ambient, polyrhythm, and industrial timbres. A diverse combination that is not afraid to dismantle any language.

Although the band had a distinct character from the start, its music evolved swiftly. During the study sessions, the themes explored were deconstruction and fragmentation. The live performances gradually evolved into moments of total absorption, increasingly serving as a site of deliberate re-composition. This effort eventually led tellKujira to a Fragmentarium, a tool for gathering and rearranging pieces based on an instruction code that generates an unlimited palette of possibilities. This strategy allows them a lot of freedom while keeping the composition rigour.

In November, the band is performing shows in Italy and Austria.

They have also been invited by the prestigious IRCAM in Paris for a residency. It will last three weeks and will be supported by Creative Europe.

Tour Dates:

11/11 – Milano, IT – Camera del Lavoro
11/16 – Graz, IT – Interpenetration
11/20 to 12/06 – Paris, FR – IRCAM Residency

tellKujira ‘tellKujira’ album artwork