Valentina Magaletti & Zongamin
World-renowned drummer-composer Valentina Magaletti teams up with Japanese music producer and multi-instrumentalist Susumu Mukai aka Zongamin for the 11th episode of Kuboraum’s Digital Sound Residency.
Valentina Magaletti and Susumu Mukai have been long-time collaborators since Vanishing Twin, the trio formed in 2015 with Cathy Lucas exploring the spaces bridging jazz and psychedelia through a sound at the juncture of minimalism, kosmische, post-punk, and dream-laden, psychedelic pop.
More recently, Zongamin joined Holy Tongue, a studio project formed in 2018 by producer and musician Al Wootton and Valentina Magaletti. Product of an improvised session in East London, Holy Tongue crafts sonic nuances heavily influenced by dub reggae, translating into high energy live sets that invoke the experimental dub of On-U-Sound, the frenetic rhythms of 23 Skidoo, Liquid Liquid and ESG. The result is psychedelic, free-form, high energy, spiritual dub-dance music.
Following on from a trilogy of critically acclaimed Eps, Holy Tongue recently released their debut album ‘Deliverance And Spiritual Warfare’ (2023) on Amidah Records, which channels their diverse influences, from the opening Andalusian catholic march to heavyweight dub via jazz, post punk, mystical percussion tracks and techno.
Valentina Magaletti and Zongamin make a fluid and effortless pair, neatly aligned and in perfect synergy with one another, allowing their own artistic talents to shine through their musical outputs. This becomes evident in their debut record as V/Z of dubby post-punk ‘Suono Assente’ (2023) on AD93, where Magaletti plays guitar and keys, sharing bass, percussion and vocal duties with Mukai, together with special guests as Vanishing Twin’s Cathy Lucas, Coby Sey and Venus Ex Machina. Veering away from the psychedelic pop of VT, V/Z leans more heavily on influences from hip-hop, dub, post-punk and electronica, with a more open and fluid approach.
“Whilst its brief twenty-eight minute runtime flashes by, leaving us gasping for more, Suono Assente never feels rushed. Making the temporary existence of this transient brilliance feel even more exceptional. No sooner has its presence lifted us, than it’s vanished once more, leaving a gaping void that can only be filled by immediately circling back to the start and dropping the needle once more.” (The Quietus)