Cosmonautics as the art of space travel. This is the metaphor that Riccardo Gola chooses for his first solo record – out now on the Jando Music label – after years of militancy in some of the most creative projects of the new Italian jazz scene. As composer and bandleader, he offers us an acoustic quartet but with a strongly hybridized vocabulary. From the very first listen, one perceives the multiplicity of interests and listening of the eclectic Roman artist (he is also an illustrator and art director) who manages to mix the African-American matrix with a plurality of languages, from rock to electronics, from African music to contemporary classical. With him is a real all-star band of the contemporary Italian scene: Francesco Bigoni on sax and clarinet, Enrico Zanisi on piano and Enrico Morello on drums. A cohesive group that through improvisation and interplay leads the listener — like good cosmonauts — on a journey into the unknown.