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It's been a relatively intense week with the election in the US on Tuesday, and even though things went the way I hoped (and then some!), I'm still ready for something to help me chill out a bit. That makes it the perfect time to talk about Inhabit, the new album from Italy's Bosco Sacro.
Inhabit is Bosco Sacro's second album, following up on Gem from 2023. The band bills themselves as "dreamgaze," combining elements of shoegaze and ambient music with doom and alternative rock. Bosco Sacro features clean female lead vocals, and this blend of elements, and their Italian origin, makes comparisons to Messa unavoidable. There is a definitely a fair degree of overlap between the two bands, but Inhabit is more streamlined than Messa's most recent album, The Spin. Both bands incorporate a lot of ambient and drone, but Bosco Sacro doesn't incorporate any of Messa's more esoteric influences, like jazz or chamber pop. Instead, Bosco Sacro weaves in some trip hop rhythms, which certainly adds to the dreamlike feel of the album.
Inhabit is focused on the relationship between the self and the universe, letting go of the ego, and exploring primeval mysticism in the modern world. The first lyrics on the album (the title track, "Inhabit") address leaving one's one self to experience the world from the perspective of its many natural elements, and perhaps attaining the Buddhist concept of "non self" in the process: "Inhabit the fragment / inhabit the grain / inhabit the course /
inhabit this pulse / inhabit the note / inhabit the ray / inhabit this force / inhabit no self / inhabit the spleen / inhabit this soil / inhabit this wave / inhabit no self / inhabit the fragment / inhabit the grain / inhabit this breath / inhabit no self."
Inhabit was recorded live in the band's studio space to ensure the eight tracks retained the vital energy of their creation. Indeed, the album buzzes with a vibe that feels interstellar but still organic and human. Indeed, that seems to be the very point of the album - a call to embrace the void and discover the thrumming life of the cosmos that exists all around us.
Bosco Sacro's Inhabit is out November 6 via Supernatural Cat Records.