santilli: surface

For the latest release in their ongoing International series, Into The Light Records takes the listener to Sydney and the dreamy, softly spun musical world of talented multi-instrumentalist Max Santilli. Surface is Santilli's debut album following years spent working alongside Jacob Fugar in Ken Oath Records-signed downtempo duo Angophora. It draws on a personal archive of home recordings made between 2016 and 2018 using a range of guitars, synthesizers, and acoustic percussion instruments. As you'd perhaps expect, it's an intimate and personal set that wraps drowsy, slowly-shifting musical flourishes around gentle, sun-kissed rhythms and suitably spacey chords. Santilli offers subtle nods towards his various inspirations -- think the mesmerizing ambient-jazz fusion of Michael Bierylo, Steve Hillage's timeless early ambient works and the intricate acoustic guitar playing of Steve Tibbetts and Miguel Herrero -- while forging his own distinctly lo-fi and otherworldly path. As a result, Surface is an album of impressive depth and diversity, held together by Santilli's reflective, emotion-rich vision.