Vaghe Stelle - The Full Stream Ahead: The Prologue

Vaghe Stelle - The Full Stream Ahead: The Prologue
Although only his second release for Nicolas Jaar's Other People label, The Full Stream Ahead: The Prologue EP is deep in Daniele Mana's catalog as Vaghe Stelle. What could have initially been described as a dance music project in 2009 has followed an oblique path to become more varied, complex and poetic.

In the "personal statement" accompanying this EP's press release, there's an embedded fiction at play. Framed as mythic journey, a prologue that sets the scene (presumably for an upcoming album), our protagonist Vaghe Stelle searches for information via the titular stream. This mix of archetypal storytelling with a cyberpunk twist can be a useful entry point to what might at first be a curious and esoteric record. But given time to unpack the music, it resolves, even on its own, into finely crafted and transportive world-building—usually the aim of most sci-fi. The marching band snares of "Through The Looking Glass" evoke earthly origins, but little else does. The clever build-up and structural composition of "Collapse" belie its unstable name.

The phrase "vaghe stelle" translates from Italian (Mana is based in Turin) as "vague stars"—an apt moniker. At its best, The Full Stream Ahead: The Prologue is both beautiful and fascinating, but there remains something distant and unknowable here.