Santeria Records 2022 / Helixed 2020 / Published by Peermusic

The new Hugo Race album Once Upon A Time In Italy is a musical and lyrical tour de force. Recorded with his band Fatalists and Australian guest stars Georgia Knight and TJ Howden the album features 10 powerfully emotive new songs and one cover – Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man.

“The first demo’s were recorded in late 2019 with the band in Italy. A few months later the world shut down and for the next twenty months I was stranded in my Melbourne apartment… I never felt so alone. I called the Fatalists in Italy, Checco, Diego and Scorpio Joe, exchanging songs and ideas to forge a path through the void. New songs slowly emerged from dreams and memories, writing about the past with no glimpse of the future in sight, there was a lot of damage to process. My thoughts and lyrics swirled around my years of connection with Italy and the stories we tell ourselves to make it through hard times. The themes are so personal that I abandoned the album many times then came back to it, like a toxic romance. I love this album and the incredible band behind it. We also made Italian versions of the songs because Italy is in our roots and fate permitting, Fatalists will be back on the road come springtime 2022...”

Hugo is an internationally based underground living legend, ex-Bad Seeds, ex-Oz postpunkers The Wreckery and since 1989 a maverick producer performer songwriter with Dirtmusic, The True Spirit, more at: hugorace.com. In his own words: