Jennifer Gentle

Emerging from adolescent explorations involving mind-altering substances and extended psychedelic improvisations, the Italian outfit Jennifer Gentle refined those chaotic origins into lushly distorted orchestral pop. Across the 2000s the group issued four albums whose constantly evolving textures evoked the unhinged pop delirium of Syd Barrett on the 2005 Sub Pop release Valende.

The project began in 1999 in Padua as a duo featuring 19-year-old vocalist and guitarist Marco Fasolo alongside drummer Alessio Gastaldello. It later grew into a quartet when multi-instrumentalist Isacco Maretto and bassist Nicola joined. Blending a taste for whimsical psychedelic wit with expansive, heavily sedated space-rock excursions, the musicians first drew notice through numerous live shows, including support slots for Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley’s side project Two Dollar Guitar. Their initial recording appearance occurred on the 2000 Homesleep Home compilation, sharing space with acts such as Quickspace and the Notwist. The following year saw the release of their debut full-length I Am You Are, which expanded their audience both domestically and abroad. In 2002 they delivered the second album Funky Creatures Lane to further acclaim and also issued the collaboration Wrong Cage with Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple. Lexicon Devil, an Australian label, put out the double-CD Ectoplasmic Garden Party in 2003, compiling the band’s first two records. Signing with the American imprint Sub Pop in 2004 led to the 2005 appearance of their third album Valende. Following a lengthy world tour in 2006, the group issued two experimental efforts: the limited-edition Sacramento Sessions LP and A New Astronomy on the Italian label A Silent Place.

After drummer Alessio Gastaldello departed, Fasolo recorded The Midnight Room solo at his Ectoplasmic Studio, steering the project toward more introspective and hallucinatory terrain. Around the same period Fasolo withdrew from the band to concentrate on producing other artists. Over ten years passed before Jennifer Gentle resurfaced with a self-titled album in 2019.