“In his 30-year career, Hugo Race has lived a thousand lives and played the role of songwriter, producer, musician, performer, head of a record label (Helixed). His music went from folk to lounge, from "trance industrial blues" to psychedelia, from world music to electronics. Starting from post-punk Melbourne in the 1980s, he took fascinating paths that led him from Africa to Turkey, from Berlin to Romagna…”

In 2009, after two decades and 12 albums with his hypnotic psyche-blues Berlin-based True Spirit, Hugo Race (ex-Bad Seeds, The Wreckery) recorded his first solo album in ‘classic songwriter’ mode. Weaving together folk songs, desert blues and the band’s Italian roots, the album was called ‘Fatalists’, and the band who created it thereafter took the Fatalists name. Working closely with Italian guitarist/producer Antonio Gramentieri (aka Don Antonio), Fatalists also included key partner Diego Sapignoli on drums and percussion, Arizonan violinist Vicki Brown (Calexico) and bassist Erik Van Loos (Willard Grant Conspiracy). The Fatalists debut album was recorded by Italian producer Franco Naddei at his Cosabeat studio in the Romagna, Italy, and released to critical acclaim in 2010 by Interbang Records in Europe and Other Tongues Records in Australia. Australian music portal Drum Media wrote:

‘Melbourne native and now international tourist Hugo Race has released an LP that not only reassures the world of his prolific nature but also the depth of talent, vision and mesmerising songcraft of which he is capable. Hugo Race’s history as a member of the Bad Seeds and The Wreckery has often bound his name to the Melbourne mafia, yet on Fatalists he has revealed his penchant and undoubtable knack for writing death ballads which, whilst lying in the realm of traditional folk, exude a morose and at times fragile sonic quality. Whilst the solo work of Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Rowland S Howard and Hugo Race all share aesthetic and aural similarities, they also are highly individual works from unique and creative figures. Race has perhaps created the opus which will define his long career.’

Based in Italy, and with the addition of bassist Francesco Giampaoli, Hugo Race Fatalists toured extensively in Europe and Australia and released the albums ‘We Never Had Control’ (Interbang/Gusstaff Records 2012), ‘Orphans’ (Gusstaff 2014), and ‘24 Hours To Nowhere’ (Glitterhouse Records 2016). Antonio Gramentieri left the group in 2017 to pursue his solo career as Don Antonio. Guitar wizard Giovanni Ferrario, with whom Hugo had worked in The True Spirit and Sepiatone, quickly replaced him and the band recorded ‘Taken By The Dream’ (Glitterhouse 2019) and now the projects’s defining work - ‘Once Upon A Time In Italy’ (Santeria Records 2022).

“The incisiveness of the arrangements coagulates in the sound of guitars, violin strings, keyboards and rhythmic cadences aimed at recreating an extremely hypnotic and disturbing electroacoustic texture, permeated by ambient effects and soundscapes with a strong narrative and imaginative impact. In this amazing mosaic, in which each tile is set with an elegant aesthetic sense, to shine with a slightly more intense light are the nostalgic dream-pop reflections of Bow And Arrow, the crepuscular bluesy veins of Symphony (paired with the more lyrics and orchestral of the title track) and the feverish voodoo-cajun mantricity of Gotta Get High. By virtue of all this, "Taken By The Dream" is simply a jewel of an album, destined to become a milestone in the multiple discography of Hugo Race.” (Olindo Fortini, Sound Contest)

Recorded during the 2020-21 pandemic, Once Upon A Time In Italy brings together Hugo’s diverse lyrical meditations with a sound drenched in desert blues and the echoes of Italian film scores. Critically acclaimed as the band’s masterpiece, the album contains a bonus EP of four songs in Italian language versions entitled ‘C’era Una Volta In Italia’. Besides the core group of Sapignoli, Giampaoli and Ferrario, the album features Melbourne musicians TJ Howden from The Hungry Ghosts and rising star, vocalist and songwriter Georgia Knight. Hugo describes the new Fatalists album as “very personal, with the ups and downs, the lockdowns, the collapses, the memory, the oblivion, the loss, the identity… it was the hardest record I've ever had to write. and it's a new departure for the Fatalists as a band”.

“Once upon a time in Italy also serves to cure oneself from loneliness and abandonment, from being forced into an apartment in Melbourne dreaming of happy times in Italy (Hugo Race lived in Sicily). And perhaps it is precisely starting from an imaginary of warm and sunny lands that the sounds of this record arrive, which has inside the films of Sergio Leone and the music of Morricone, which smells of dust, thirst, sweat and ghost towns. Hugo transforms himself into a cowboy who tells the story by the light of a nocturnal hearth, under an expanse of stars, in a remote place, after a day on horseback. And his story can only be a tormented story, where the polarity between positive and negative intertwine together, up to the final duel where the protagonist is faced with his enemy, who, in this case, is himself.” - Claudia Losini, OffTopic magazine

“Talking about this Australian artist without falling into the obvious is really difficult. Either because we are in the presence of a total musician or because every time the leader of True Spirit is able to amaze us with transversal material that could come out of any car stereo but always manages to reach unique expressive heights. In his journey, it does not matter whether it was carried out with a ramshackle car or a limousine, there are the 60s, there is the desire for revenge of at least a couple of generations, there is the songwriter and even a little of pessimism for how the world goes, but above all you will find a series of pieces that can drag you into the abyss and then show you the light.” - Lorenzo Becciani, Soffisocore