“Unsustainable Noise” is a track from the upcoming second album, CARE, by quartet FUWAH. This home-recorded album stems from the thematic conceptualisation of self-reflection and contemplation. It draws inspiration from the multidimensionality embedded in different aspects of caring, and “Unsustainable Noise” explores one of these facets.

Formed more than a decade ago, the quartet FUWAH was the collaboration between vocalist Maddalena Ghezzi and double bass player Luca Pissavin. The duo became a quarter when saxophonist  Filippo Cozzi and drummer Fabrizio Carriero joined the group. Together, they infused hypnotic grooves with sax and voice harmonies on this track as well as the whole album that developed organically from their previous album, Eŭropo: sen limoji (Europe without borders).

“Unsustainable Noise” can be thought of as a commentary on the ever-increasing noise around and within modern cities. Our incorrigible greed for modernity has, inadvertently, started taking a toll on our physical and mental health. This tumultuous cacophony around us, in a poetic sense, has made us deaf to ourselves and others around us. This song makes a point that the more noise there is, the more there is a need to be loud with our voices.

The track kicks off with a displaced drum groove and vocals and, before long, is joined by the other two members. Maddalena’s overtone-rich voice accentuates the gravity of the words she sings. The timbre of the saxophone compliments her voice and acts as another voice in dialogue with her.

The lyrics touch on two pressing issues that Maddalena experienced in London— the unforgiving and inhumane city life, especially for young people, and the objectification of the female body.  The deafening noise of London in this Twenty-first century buries the voices that scream for a saviour, but this track stands as an irrepressible and piercing battlecry against that.