Subsonica: “The new album is about a present from which there is no escape”

After thirty years together, Subsonica have no intention of turning into a nostalgia machine. In an era in which the past is often a comfort zone, they choose instead to stay within the present, even when it is uncomfortable, stratified, difficult to decipher. “Terre Rare”, their eleventh studio album, out Friday, was born exactly from this tension: it is not a balance sheet, nor a celebrationbut a work that holds together “ruthless present and imagination”, as the band defines it. It is no coincidence that they decided to present it in a space full of maps, directions and coordinates: the Academy of Sciences of Turin. A record that looks forward rather than backwards, and which arrives after a turning point already felt with “Augmented Reality” in 2024. “We have never made choices for simplicity, nor music to become famous: we want to tell and tell ourselves – says Samuel – and after thirty years this is still what we feel necessary to do. After ‘Augmented Reality’ something happened: this record is like a continuation. We are taking the weight of the rankings off our shoulders. When you can let that go, amazing things can happen.”

That lightness is a form of freedom. And it is also the soil on which it is grafted the sound of the record, which moves again due to contamination. One of the sparks is born far from Italy, in Essaouira, Moroccowhere the band spent a week working closely with local musicians, entering a completely different musical dimension. “The music there is ritual, it is spiritual – Ninja and Vicio say – we played with instruments like the grambrì, worked on percussion and lines, jammed with Gnawa musicians: all this ended up in the project“. It is not an exotic foray, but a coherent extension of a path that began in the nineties: electronic, rock and club culture that open up to other languages, once again shifting the center of sound. “We didn’t take any risks, actually – adds Boosta with a hint of provocation – because this is our safe placeour way of making music. There is no risk if you do what you love.”

The more explicitly political dimension of work also fits into this balance between freedom and identity. “Straniero” is one of the central songs: a stance that also passes through a dystopian video directed by Ivan Cazzola, in which clear references to contemporary war scenarios appear. “We wear military uniforms, it’s a choice we’ve taken upon ourselves – explains Max Casacci – we don’t want to alienate ourselves: we don’t hear the screams, we don’t see the rubble, but what happens concerns us. We are aware of the provocation of creating a song in which we also sing in Arabic: it is part of our way of understanding art. We imagine the world to be united, not divided.” “Terrerare” thus crosses themes such as migration, conflicts, technological control, without transforming the songs into slogans, but leaving room for different levels of interpretation. This is also why tension and the need for protection coexist in the album, as in the song “Rifugio”, which deliberately remains open to interpretation.. Even the cover, with a door into something mysterious, tickles the imagination.

“For us, music is not a market, it is connection – underlines Casacci – we belong to a generation that has dared a lot. In this album we talk about borders, those that are crossed and those between life and death. We tell a present from which you cannot escape.” If the present is the center, the past weighs, but in a different way. In these thirty years the band members have also built individual pathsincluding productions, soundtracks and solo projects. A movement that today seems to bring them back to the group with a new awareness. “I will never be able to be anything other than the voice of Subsonica – says Samuel – I only really understood this recently. Even when I was on stage with other projects, I missed the healthy clash with the others. I don’t want to be anything else: today I know it“.

The thirty years thus also become an opportunity to meet the public in a broader way: from the event concerts on 31 March, 1, 3 and 4 April at the OGR in Turin to the photographic exhibition spread around the city, passing through DJ sets and special events. But it is above all live that “Terrerare” will find a new dimension, with a presentation tour starting at the end of June. This is perhaps the real point: not the celebration of a three-decade long history, but the choice to remain within that history without freezing it. A fragile balance, which for Subsonica still passes from where it all began: being together, making music, and continuing to search. Because before being musicians, Subsonica are explorers.