Not Waving - What Is Normal Today? (2021)

Not Waving meets Silvia Fendi - 3rd generation matriarch and creative director of Fendi - on a primo LP of Italo pop élan, offering a rich counterpoint to his run of more introspective sides with Mark Lanegan and with the likes of Jonnine and Marie Davidson.

The project began in January when Not Waving was commissioned to compose the soundtrack for Fendi’s FW21-22 Men Fashion Show. Fendi supplied voice notes explaining the themes and inspirations which were then fed through Natalizia's battery of FX and arcane processes to create a modernist eulogy to elegance and drama.

There’s a sort of perverse art-meets-commerce theme running through the title track that reminds us of those gauche Kompakt rooftop pool parties that were all the rage with pitchfork writers back in the mid-late 2000’s, but once you get passed that you feel Natalizia twisting the brief to his own ends - be it on the padded/morose downstrokes of the gorgeous "Rainbows Appear” or the more funereal 'An Infinite Spectrum’, like some schaffel monster deployed at half time.

On 'I Wanted To Talk To You’ Not Waving’s full pop chops come out at their most delirious and best, chanelling the camp majesty of Pet Shop Boys via Villalobos’ Sei Es Drum gems, before closer 'And Darkness’ casts a shadow with its pining pads, angelic chorales and slow arpeggio - as Fendi ponders wistfully over the top.