Valentina Magaletti– Permanent Draft

London based drummer/experimental composer Valentina Magaletti’s prolific 2022 has seen her tackle a range of projects and ends (maybe??) with one more, the two-song, compact, flexidisc release called Permanent Draft. Magaletti says on her Bandcamp page:

“Conceived as a manifesto for eponymous all-female label Permanent Draft, this limited flexi comes with a booklet of poetry and pictures based on the prime number 13.

Permanent Draft aims to highlight works showing a certain taste for fragmentary, irrepressible creative eruption and lo-fi experiments. Leaving the grandiose apart to pay and bring attention to the sounds, details and anecdotes of everyday life, picking up raw material from the ordinary.

Bitter truths, migrainous fulfilments, dead clowns, broken gods, taffeta fairies, fruit foxes and non-binary empty frames outline these very aesthetics.”

Working with French author Fanny Chiarello, Magaletti composed and performed the musical portions of the two works while Chiarello wrote and voiced the texts. In the first composition, “Migraine,” Chiarello is heard repeating English phrases such as “Make it special” as Magaletti plays intense and musical tom-tom patterns overlaid with dexterous brass touches on the ride cymbal and hi-hat. Other spoken phrases from Chiarello repeat and weave throughout. Magaletti adds programmed sound-effect elements that add depth and color to her percussion. This is followed by “the Bitter Truth,” a brief and sparse piano melody over which Chiarello speaks in French.

More inscrutable and tantalizing brief compared with her other works from this year, Permanent Draft nonetheless shows Magaletti to be a restless and unstoppable creative force. Whether solo or in collaboration, she is a relentless artist, seemingly finding inspiration all around her. Permanent Draft is the definition of leaving the audience wanting more, despite her prolificness this year. Stay tuned to what she has in store in 2023.