Saru L-Qamar

Phantom Limb boss and musician James Vella - aka A Lily - announces his first release for the label Saru l-Qamar, setting archival Maltese home recordings to new music for an album of nostalgic quasi-ambience and cross-generational dialogue. From the 60's until the modern era, it was common for Maltese families to receive reel tapes from relatives abroad. Maltese emigr s resettled in Australia, the UK, Canada etc. would record their news onto cassette - often in the form of ghana, traditional Maltese song - and mail the tapes back home. Amazingly, through the superlative archival work of Malta's nonprofit heritage foundation Magna Zmien, many of these tapes still exist. A Lily (Phantom Limb boss and musician James Vella, who is Maltese) was allowed access to Magna Zmien's collection and in late 2022 began creating new musical works responding to these recordings. These works make up the oneiric bliss of new album Saru l-Qamar [Eng: They Became The Moon], his first release on his own label. Arranged alongside hardware synthesis and 'minimal DAW intervention', the recordings take on ghostly, spiritual new qualities. Simple storytelling and news-sharing ('there was a burglar in the house yesterday', 'I can't tell you how much I miss Malta', 'do your utmost to spend all your money at the feast') become plaintive and evocative elegies for friends and family lost to time. 'This is the meaning of the album title,' Vella writes. 'Though these people have left us, they can never be tr

Tracks

1~1~Zezina Ddoqq Is-Shab
1~2~Kemm Nixtieq Li Qed
1~3~Flimkien Nghaddu Mill-Bieb
1~4~Hajti Kollha, Qalbi
1~5~Nitolbu Lil Dawk Li Lejlu
1~6~Thallinix
1~7~Erba' Ahwa
1~8~Sirna L-Qamar
1~9~Issa, Kuljum, Ghal Dejjem Z?Ghaz?Agh

Details

Format: Vinyl LP
Artist: A Lily
Release Date: 05 April 2024
Genre: Ambient / Meditation / Inspirational
Label: PHANTOM LIMB
Distributor: Rocket Group