Futuro Ancestrale, the ensemble around saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Giuseppe Doronzo, was born from the idea to combine contemporary improvisation and non-western music traditions. In Elsewhen, electronics play a central role along with ancestral instruments borrowed from Chinese, Albanian or Chadian traditions. Doronzo's concept of convoking those sounds and cultures in the same musical space is a way to celebrate, and to create a vibrant dialogue between histories.

TRACKLIST

1. Eye of the Hurricane (6:22)
2. Ghostline (3:53)
3. Scindone (5:50)
4. Elsewhen (5:11)
5. Blind Needle (3:26)
6. Saturno (4:26)
7. Underrun (3:33)
8. Faló (5:05)
9. Driftlight (8:09)

Eye of the Hurricane (excerpt)

Ghostline (excerpt)

Scindone (excerpt)

Elsewhen (excerpt)

Blind Needle (excerpt)

Saturno (excerpt)

Underrun (excerpt)

Faló (excerpt)

Driftlight (excerpt)

 

PROGRAMME NOTES

Elsewhen, the second album by Futuro Ancestrale, continues the celebration of ancestral musical cultures, now placing them in dialogue with electronic music. A recurring sense of duality runs through the record, expressed in both its musical language and its instrumentation.

“Scindone” takes its name from an ancient Apulian pagan-religious prayer, whispered by farmers to the sun before entering the fields. “Faló”, inspired by the Chadian kakaki, recalls a nocturnal fire rite marking the passage from winter to spring, a ritual common in many parts of the world under different forms and meanings. These traces of ceremony return in the album’s sonic imprint: in “Ghostline”, the cyla dyjare (Albanian double flute) intertwines with drums and electronics, evoking a shepherd’s timeless journey. “Eye of the Hurricane”, featuring the hulusi (Chinese gourd flute), is built on a transcendental pulse set by Andy and Frank, while Yannis’s live sampling gathers these elements into a distinct sound world, summoning textures and sonic eras from distant places and times. The project continues to unfold in the spirit of collective instant composition, leaving room for spontaneous creation and opening a space to honor the present.
— Giuseppe Doronzo, 2026

BIOGRAPHIES

Giuseppe Doronzo

Giuseppe Doronzo (1987) is an Italian award-winning baritone saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist living in Amsterdam. His musical journey revolves around deep exploration of the baritone saxophone while embracing an evolving array of traditional instruments gathered during his travels. From the Chinese hulusi to the Albanian longari double flute, the Iranian ney-anban and the bass clarinet, each has found a place in his expanding sound world, shaping his saxophone voice and propelling his music into microtonal and culturally hybrid territories. Doronzo’s musical research emerges from an intricate blend of contemporary classical music, jazz improvisation, electro-acoustic compositions, and non-Western traditions. Straddling the line between composition and improvisation, his work bridges the modern and the ancient, drawing inspiration from the Mediterranean’s vast cultural heritage. While respecting the history and essence of each instrument he embraces, Doronzo reimagines their sonic potential — shaping them into an expressive, experimental language that transcends cultural and musical boundaries.https://www.giuseppedoronzo.com/

Frank Rosaly

https://www.frankrosaly.com

Andy Moor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Moor_(guitarist)

Yannis Kyriakides

CREDITS

Giuseppe Doronzo - baritone sax, hulusi, cyla dyjare
Yannis Kyriakides - live electronics, sampling
Andy Moor - electric guitar
Frank Rosaly - drums

Recorded at Schenk Studio (Amsterdam) by Jan Schenk, February 2025.
Mixed by Yannis Kyriakides, Andy Moor, Giuseppe Doronzo.
Mastered by Daniele Antezza.
All music by Giuseppe Doronzo (Buma/Stemra), Yannis Kyriakides (Buma), Andy Moor (PRS), Frank Rosaly (BMI), except for Track 1, 3, 8 by Giuseppe Doronzo.
Liner notes by Giuseppe Doronzo.
Cover art and design by Isabelle Vigier.

Made with support from Sena Music Production fund.
© Unsounds - Tora Records 2026, cat. no. U94-Tora07.
A joint project Unsounds and Tora Records.