Maurice Louca’s Elephantine – Moonshine LP

Sub Rosa 2023. Clear vinyl. Maurice Louca’s Moonshine shines brightly with a live, raw, collective sound. The Elephantine band is incredible: Double drummers Tommaso Cappellato & Ozun Usta; Piero Bittolo Bon on alto, Daniel Gahrton on baritone and Isak Hedtjarn on clarinet; Rasmus Svale Kjærgård Lund on tuba; Rosa Brunell on bass; Els Vandeweyer on vibraphone; Louca on guitar/lap steel/synth. As Asher Gamedze puts it in his essay below: “Abstract territories of freedom, always grounded, expansive, multiple, internally differentiated, and elephantine.”

Excerpts from “Not by Its Own Light”, written by Asher Gamedze

….sounds like the additional level of consciousness that a drinking session seems to open up once it enters the early hours….

….a mood reminiscent of a babalas (South African term for hangover) made more intense by electronic mutterings of worlds gone by and worlds to come….

….To my ear and feeling there is a sense of fatigue but also of determined resolve like a wedding band who has been playing for hours, and whose morale has been lubricated by libations funded by the festive pockets of the party guests….

….Moonshine grew out of Elephantine in a collective and organic way. Apart from the drummers, the process of recording the ensemble’s debut album was the first time Maurice had met and played with all the other musicians. Through recording the first record and touring it, they got to know each other quite well (‘family’ is the word Maurice uses to describe their relationships), and the group of musicians became a band….