Review: Taxology ‘A Deep Dive In The Colourful And Mysterious Garden Of Mr. Taxology’
For a burgeoning band, the debut album almost invariably serves as the ultimate arbiter of their future musical journey. It is an unyielding expectation that this initial offering must not only be musically flawless, showcasing impeccable craftsmanship and sonic cohesion, but also profoundly innovative, pushing boundaries and carving out an entirely fresh sonic identity. Such a monumental release is then tasked with generating an undeniable buzz to please the ears of every listener and music critics alike.
What Taranto, Apulia, Southern Italy miraculous psych experimental cinematic duo Taxology has delivered with their most fascinating debut album, A Deep Dive In The Colourful And Mysterious Garden Of Mr. Taxologyis a soundtrack composed of small windows and colourful paintings that shimmer with atmospheric and cinematic moments made to be part of everyone’s daily life. Theirs is a story of two teenagers, classmates at a music-focused secondary school, that began experimenting with sound together. Their names are Andrea Rizzi and Giuseppe Bitonte, and together, they decided to build not just a band, but an entire artistic universe from scratch. That universe became Taxology.
The name is a play on taxonomy – the scientific discipline responsible for describing and classifying all living organisms. The duo pulled it out of that context entirely and placed it at the centre of a philosophical project of surprising ambition. It is a poetic act. It is a way of looking at the world; at emotions, at inner states, at the strange and shifting landscapes of the human interior and giving everything a name, a place, a taxonomy.
They are also not a duo in the conventional sense. Andrea Rizzi handles drums, percussion, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, vocals, mandolin and viola. He is also the one who records, produces, arranges and mixes everything in his home studio in Taranto, a bedroom space by a teenager who taught himself to do all of it, says everything about the level of dedication and self-sufficiency behind this project. A truly musical architect.
Whereas Giuseppe Bitonte brings his own arsenal to the compositions: acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, keyboards, vocals, piano and saxophone. His contribution sits at the compositional heart of the record. Every track is co-written by both members – the ideas, the melodies, the strange directions the music takes belong to them equally. Together they compose with a maturity that belies their age, constructing arrangements that are dense with timbral detail, full of unexpected turns, and yet never cluttered or self-indulgent.
It needs to be said that Taxology is not a closed ecosystem. The album opens its doors to a small circle of collaborators who each bring something vital. Bruno Vergani is perhaps the most intriguing presence. He is the album’s narrator, a speaking voice that moves through the tracklist like a guide leading the listener deeper into the imaginary garden. He speaks and transforms the album from a collection of instrumental pieces into something closer to an audio journey. Vergani appears across the album, threading the concept together with his voice, giving it a human anchor amid all the sonic exploration.
When I received the album, apart from admiring its minimalistic cover, the first thing I did was open the photo folder, just to check out the duo. And there they were: two hippie types, looking like young alchemists surrounded by bottles containing magic potions. There was something immediately disarming about the image, two souls who seemed to belong to a different pace of life entirely, patient and unhurried.
Then I opened the music files, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was gently inundated by a cinematic orchestration worthy of modern soundtracks by Ennio Morricone or Nino Rota, but with a more experimental edge, emanating with superb musical eclecticism found in the late David Axelrod or DJ Shadow. Fifteen tracks of extraordinary harmonious sonority. The kind of record you don’t just listen to, but you live in it. Fascinating episodes that come to life with every small, satiating breath they take.
the kind of music that shifts your inner state almost without noticing…
Each has a story to tell without subterfuge. The sounds transport you from one state of mind to another, drawing you into their world, where the boundaries of music feel truly limitless. There is no single genre you can pin this to, no easy shelf to place it on. It moves freely between orchestral grandeur and intimate stillness, between the ancient and the experimental, always with the quiet confidence of artists who know exactly what they are doing, and exactly why.
On the track Michelia Aenea – a name for magnolia – you feel as if you’ve been transported to an enchanting world where spring awakens every day. It is a magnificently orchestrated piece, full and warm, the kind of music that shifts your inner state almost without noticing. One moment you are relaxing in your armchair, the next you are somewhere else entirely, somewhere greener and slower and more generous.
The three movements of Flower are magnetic and earthy, transporting you to a world of visionary colours and plays of light. So captivating and joyful, you’ll never want it to end – and when it does, you feel the absence of it, the way you feel the absence of sunlight when a cloud passes.
Clara Lunaris is psychedelic folk with a sound that awakens nature itself – a monumental, orchestral movement crowned with flute and violins that opens something instinctive and old inside you. Daphne Mezereum, like the plant it is named for, purifies and heals you with its sweet, contemplative music. It asks nothing of you except stillness, and that stillness feels like a gift.
The album closes with Pieris Japonica – named for a plant that can survive even in heavy weather, that endures where others cannot. It is an acoustic piece of great intimacy: guitar, clarinet, cello, and Vergani‘s voice, carrying the final words of the record with quiet, unhurried conviction – ‘Blessed by the witch, the children played in the clearing without reason or purpose, and nature conspired in their favour. A seed germinated in the gravel. It expanded like a galaxy…’
That image – a seed in gravel, expanding like a galaxy – is perhaps the most honest description of this album I can imagine of. It begins small and close and intimate, and then, before you realise it, it has become something vast. This is music that expresses the joy of living at any time of the day, with stories that accompany you long after the last note fades.
You press play, not knowing quite what to expect, and you arrive somewhere you didn’t know you needed to be. A botanical journey through states of feeling – each track named for a plant, each plant a key to a different chamber of the human experience. These deeper meanings are tied together by the thread that runs through the whole album: nature, resilience, and the joy of simply being alive.
Label: NOS Records
Band Links: Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Domenico ‘Mimmo’ Caccamo
