Big Mama Society - Berlin Album Release Concert

Big Mama Society - Berlin Album Release

Big Mama Society – A Debut Album About Transformation, Identity and the Power of Change

When music doesn't just sound but truly transforms – it has arrived. With his debut album "The Big Mama Society" (XJazz! Music, October 16, 2026), Italian composer, guitarist and producer Enrico Olivanti presents one of the most ambitious and multifaceted projects in the current European jazz scene: a ten-piece multicultural ensemble that doesn't merely bridge the boundaries between genres, cultures and sonic worlds – it dissolves them.

Transformation is the central theme of this album – not as an abstract concept, but as a lived artistic experience. Inspired by C.G. Jung's theory of individuation and the Taoist principle of Wu Wei, the music of "The Big Mama Society" traverses a vast stylistic spectrum: from electronic soundscapes and Mediterranean melodies to tango, Brazilian rhythms, jazz improvisation and symphonic elements. Each stylistic shift is not a rupture but a metamorphosis – a passage from one world into another.

The "Big Mama" stands as a universal archetype: the transformative, cyclical principle of life itself. Growth, migration, crisis, rebirth – the album accompanies this journey with an emotional directness that invites listeners to embrace their own transformation.

Enrico Olivanti, born in Italy and long based in Berlin, writes for orchestra, chamber ensembles and electronics – and brings this multiplicity into every composition. What sounds on this album does not emerge from theoretical construction, but from the lived experience of a man who exists between cultures, languages and musical worlds, and who has found his artistic voice precisely in that in-between space. As a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden and a DAAD scholarship recipient, he combines academic depth with an unmistakably personal perspective. The album's themes – migration, individuation, spiritual fulfillment, the acceptance of change – are not abstract ideas, but chapters of his own story.

"The Big Mama Society" is also the first expression of a larger artistic research project: Pacha Sonora – a transcultural initiative bringing together Andean cosmology, sound and participatory music-making, conceiving music as an ontological space of transformation. What sounds on this album is the first step of a long, world-spanning journey.

The release concert takes place on October 17, 2026 at the House of Music, Berlin – featuring the complete ten-piece ensemble: Karoline Weidt and Domino Spada (vocals), Matej Korbelic (trumpet/flugelhorn), Edgar Neumann (baritone saxophone/bass clarinet), Zuzanna Wiszowaty (violin), Johann von Ruthendorf (cello), Carlo Ferro (piano/synthesizers), Kevin Knödler (electric bass), João Raineri (drums/percussion), and Enrico Olivanti (guitars/bouzouki/electronics/direction).

"The Big Mama Society" is released on October 16, 2026 on CD and all digital platforms via XJazz! Music.