Video of the Day Grotto Terrazza
Grotto Terrazza, the moniker of Munich based art/music/life project of Thomas Schamann, also known for being the drummer of dark post-punkers Bleib Modern, is on the verge of dropping his musical debut album untitled “Stumpfer Gegenstand” [Blunt Object] via a joint label venture with Vienna’s Cut Surface and London/Bologna’s Maple Death Records.
A beautiful intimate album of translucent dark beat poetry, that flickers between rhythmical murder ballads, Neue Deutsche Welle, the early experiments of Palais Schaumburg and the industrial malaise of Cabaret Voltaire; art-punk that plays with musique concrete and finds it’s pop sensibility rooted in EBM and folk noir.
Started roughly in 2017 in Paris while on tour with his band, recorded in both analogue & digital ways, on found, borrowed, bought & given gear, the album is a testament to Thomas’ vision in creating a cohesive ride, a semi-lucid walk through a summer evening encountering ghosts, violence, illusions and dreams steaming from the streets.
Latest preview is the strictly DIY video for the song “Gestalt Bondage”.
“A time-honoured magic tree” is the object of desire and obsession for a woman bound to her window; not only will it feed her but its magic will give her leverage to escape. Watching the woman creates quite a stir within one man causing him to throw all caution and reason to the wind as he tries to bargain for a name and words to win her heart. The tree, being time-honoured, has something much more twisted and perverted in mind for the two bedevilled schemers leaving one in a world of Disturbia.
A motley crew of seemingly disharmonic sounds find an intriguing polyphonic orbit around Thomas’ magnetically hypnotic vocal flux as superbly deep melody-carrying throbbing bass line menacingly grooves through charged static noise along with steady rhythmic mid-tempo drumbeats and seemingly random viscerally abrasive guitar bursts evolve into loud briskly released strums and icy harsh needlings all pass into a swarm of sound swirling around the steady monotonous flow of inaudible baritone vocals unabashedly explain the exotic wonder and mythic fear found in the obsessive mesmeric melody.
A colourfully surreal video keeps in line with the disorganized balance using dramatic neon accents on the set as a holographic man dressed in steampunk garb goes to the cinema with nuns on his mind. An assortment of computer-generated “screens” oozing electric hues play films as Grotto Terrezza, mirroring the salacious lyrics, sways through fields of flowers and intimate showers set against the backdrop of critically acclaimed Japanese cult Norifumi Suzuki‘s ‘nunsploitation’ classic “Convent of the Sacred Beast,” starring Yumi Takigawa. Clips from this flick are shown behind bars as both the film and lyrics have no doubt that bondage is alive and well.
A curiously brilliant synchronized artistic endeavour brings fresh ideas, new sounds, and a cult classic on display while maintaining the individual expression and eclectic flair.
Grotto Terrazza‘s debut full-length album is due out, Cassette and Digital, on June 15th through Cut Surface in a cooperation /w Maple Death Records.
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