Italian singer-songwriter Marta Del Grandi releases her new album ‘Dream Life’ on 30th January 2026 via Fire Records, her first new music since the effortlessly refined devotional pop of her ‘Selva’ album in 2023.
“While Selva had a poetic and bucolic nature – in my head I can picture each song as an oil painting – Dream Life has a more contemporary approach, with lyrics touching political and social issues, a more explicit personal storytelling and a more defined pop sound. It’s more like a photobook, more defined and detailed”. – Marta Del Grandi
The “Antarctica” / “Neon Lights” double A-side single arrives today, the first taste of ‘Dream Life’, an upbeat dancefloor-friendly evolution of her unique sound.
“Antarctica” addresses the world’s ethical dilemma shaking us out of our comfort zone with a funky riff reminiscent of Talking Heads in their prime infused with Laurie Anderson-like abstract phrasing.
“Antarctica is a track that found its shape during a late evening solo session, when a melody I had in mind for days naturally fell on top of a sequencer I was playing around with. It’s a song that I particularly love, talking about climate and social injustice with a playful and non-literal language.” – Marta Del Grandi
“Neon Lights” underlines the sentiment but tackles it on a more personal level, its fuzzy guitars and roaming bass offering a harsher slice of rebellious self-exploration set in a symphonic swirl of sound.
“Neon Lights is the most difficult composition I’ve written so far. It was a big challenge to find a way to puzzle the different sections, all important and all with different scales and feels. I think this complexity describes well the theme of identity that the song talks about.” – Marta Del Grandi
Both are part of the surreal and somnambulant ‘Dream Life’, a ten-track album that bustles in a field of dreams, a multi-dimensional panoramic snapshot punctuated with serene disillusionment, that transcends musical boundaries as personal hopes and aspirations are cast against the vastness of the stars and beyond.
“Emotionally complex, her songwriting seems to tap into areas beyond words.” Clash
“Coincidences and encounters kept taking me back to the theme of dream, memories and reminiscences, a dimension where the perception of real and unreal is faded and often undistinguishable. The songs reflect this atmosphere and articulate it in different directions, with more introspective moments and more surreal and extravagant parts. All the tracks have a connection with the theme, with a broad interpretation.” Marta Del Grandi
The album reflects a growing awareness that we cannot fully control the future or the outcome of our plans. This thread weaves throughout the record, a journey that is poetic, ironic, and deeply grounded in the present.
‘Dream Life’ is released on January 30, 2026.
