Italian Psychedelic project Upupayāma has shared the official visualizer for “In The Solstice Sun Pt. 2,” the new single taken from the forthcoming album “Honestly Flowers,” due out on May 29 via Fuzz Club Records.
Watch the visualizer for “In The Solstice Sun Pt. 2” via the YouTube player below:
“Honestly Flowers” is an epic double album — the fourth studio record by Alessio Ferrari under the Upupayāma moniker — and a vivid, distorted cosmic blend of Psychedelic Rock and world grooves, firing on all percussive cylinders. At once hedonistic and enveloping, it moves through hypnotic Funky grooves, incandescent Fuzz riffs, sinuous motorik jams, drones, and a pastoral Acid-Folk sensibility across its seventy-minute runtime.
Ferrari began recording the new material in his home studio, built inside a barn in a small mountain village overlooking the city of Parma, even before his 2024 predecessor “Mount Elephant” had been released. The recordings were subsequently mixed by Chris Smith at Kluster Sounds (known for his work with Kikagaku Moyo and Wax Machine) and mastered by Joseph Carra (King Gizzard, Babe Rainbow, ORB).
Live, Upupayāma is a six-piece band that embraces a continuously evolving, improvisation-based approach, featuring guitars, keyboards, flute, sitar, and an arsenal of percussion. You can watch some live footage here and here.
On the new record, Ferarri says: “Honesty Flowers was born from listening to lots of funk music from all over the world, lots and lots of African music, and from listening to myself as I spent whole nights playing all kinds of percussion instruments. I would fall into a sort of trance and play the same rhythm for hours on congas or on a djembe. It’s an album that was born above all from the beauty of being able to narrate the unknown and recognise yourself in it, which could translate into telling stories and bringing them to life.
The intro to ‘Gilded Meditations’ comes to mind, where I feel like I’ve entered the hollow of a tree trunk and found a group of people engaged in an ancestral ritual. I think of ‘Fliiim’ and experience it as if Can had wanted to write a funk song, while ‘Laliīmph’ continues the whole thing, taking us to a Mongolian prairie on horseback towards an unknown destination, like a flâneur of the steppe. ‘Mystic Chords of Memory’ is still permeated by the funk I mentioned earlier, but it sounds like it’s being played by some crazy and slightly pissed-off Peruvians. ‘Oyob’ is halfway between a pagan ritual and a classic rock ‘n’ roll track. ‘In the Solstice Sun’ speaks, if I may say so, of the corruptibility of human beings on a backdrop of gentle drone music, before transforming into pure fun, as if to say, ‘What would happen if tomorrow we all didn’t give a damn about anything and sent everything to hell?’ ‘Sound Mirrors’ is exactly what the title says: two sounds that mirror each other, allowing past and future echoes to be here and now. ‘Mokushō’ is a song that dates back to the first album, or rather, it was a collection of riff notes, sounds that I revisited for this album. I like to think that there is always an element of continuity with my previous works. It’s how I imagine waking up in the morning in rural Japan. ‘Old Sky, Wandering Clouds’ also dates back to the time between the first and second albums. It’s the night rain, the trees dripping in the early morning and you’re happy. ‘Yuya’ is a ritual dance from deep Africa. ‘Baobab’ is a group of misfits on an old caravan, it’s a never-ending party. ‘Morning Temple’ is when you wake up in the morning and you know something wonderful is going to happen.“
“Honestly Flowers” is out May 29 via Fuzz Club Records.
Pre-Order/Pre-Save “Honestly Flowers” here: https://upupayama.lnk.to/honestyflowers
Tracklist:
01. Fliiim / Laliīmph
02. Gilded Meditations
03. Mystic Chords of Memory
04. Oyob
05. In The Solstice Sun
06. Sound Mirrors
07. Mokushō
08. Old Sky, Wandering Clouds
09. Yuya
10. Baobab
11. Morning Temple
Read our Review of the previous album “Mount Elephant” here: [Review] Upupayāma – Mount Elephant