Honesty Flowers is the fourth studio album from Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessio Ferarri under the Upupayāma moniker. The epic double album offers Upupayāma’s ever mind-blowing brew of organic psychedelic rock meets global grooves at its most percussive, lively and distorted. Equally hedonistic and heady, it courses through rhythmic funk grooves, doubled-down scorched fuzz riffing, winding motorik jams, tranquil drones and pastoral acid-folk across its seventy minute run time.
A six-piece band live, where things take a more ever-evolving improvisation-based approach (we saw them live at Fuzz Club Eindhoven and you can experience a taste of that on ‘Live At Fuzz Club Festival ’25’ LP), on the recordings Ferarri writes, plays and records everything himself – guitars, keys, flute, sitar, and an arsenal of percussion all feature.
Never not working on new music, Ferarri started laying down these new tracks in his home barn studio in a small mountain village overlooking the city of Parma before its 2024 predecessor ‘Mount Elephant’ even hit the racks. The result was mixed by Chris Smith at Kluster Sounds (Kikagaku Moyo, Wax Machine) and mastered by Joseph Carra (King Gizzard, Babe Rainbow, ORB)
On the new record, Ferarri says: “Honesty Flowers was born from listening to lots of funk music from all over the world, lots and lots of African music, and from listening to myself as I spent whole nights playing all kinds of percussion instruments. I would fall into a sort of trance and play the same rhythm for hours on congas or on a djembe. It’s an album that was born above all from the beauty of being able to narrate the unknown and recognise yourself in it, which could translate into telling stories and bringing them to life.”
Opening with an 11+ minute aural explanation ‘Fliiim / Laliīmph’ harks back to krautrock legends Can, especially in the chaotic motorik backbeat which underpins the first half but then there a seamless transition to the calmer, more melodic second half with worldly influences shining boldly through. Ferrari says about this “I think of ‘Fliiim’ and experience it as if Can had wanted to write a funk song, while ‘Laliīmph’ continues the whole thing, taking us to a Mongolian prairie on horseback towards an unknown destination, like a flâneur of the steppe.” ‘Gilded Meditations’ and ‘Mystic Chords of Memory’ make for a heady combination, the type of sounds that could easily permeate any film soundtrack. The intense array of instrumentation lures you in and leaves you hooked as you mentally work your way through what you can hear. Ferrari describes ‘Oyob’ as being “halfway between a pagan ritual and a classic rock ‘n’ roll track” and is one for the guitar aficionados, with riffs even the staunchest Hendrix fans could give a nod too.
‘’In the Solstice Sun’ hypnotises with its layered drone and repetition, suggestive of ritualistic behaviour. Ferrari says it is about “corruptibility of human beings on a backdrop of gentle drone music, before transforming into pure fun, as if to say -what would happen if tomorrow we all didn’t give a damn about anything and sent everything to hell?” ‘Sound Mirrors’ features duelling sounds, overlapping and vying for attention, while ‘Mokushō’, with its oriental influences and countenance is Ferrari’s interpretation of how waking up in rural Japan feels, with its roots stemming from his first album, creating a thread from his old work through to the present. ‘Old Sky, Wandering Clouds’ feels like a summer walk in long grass after a cloud burst; invigorating and energy renewing. ‘Yuya’ is the one to dance too, its beat and groove are irresistible. Rounding up with ‘Baobab’ and ‘Morning Temple’ the album leaves you with a sense of hope; the day ahead, for the future.
Ferrari’s understanding of sound and worldly knowledge make this an offering to more than just the musical connoisseur, it appeals to the traveller, the wanderer, the lost and the found. Take the Trip with Upupayāma, if you are brave enough.
If you like Goat, Upupayāma are your new favourite band.
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