EGOERA – Fortuna

Egoera came to light in 2013 in Athens. This name has a two-fold interpretation that the trio preferred not to conclusively solve in one sense or the other, initially born from the Basque word for situation, it can also be a reference to the era of ego in Greek. After recording some demos and singles and playing live around Greece, here they are finally trying their first full-length album, with a curious title given the pandemic context in which it came out: Fortuna (luck in Italian).

For some reason, the title and the somewhat minimal aesthetics of the album (in addition to the nice message in Italian left to me by the band inside the package) reminded me of s f o r t u n a, a masterpiece by the Italian band Fine Before You Came, an album that explored a different area of post-, but which in a certain sense derived from a similar sensitivity. From a musical point of view, Egoera are part of that branch of instrumental post-rock close to names like God Is An Astronaut and If These Trees Could Talk, an impression also encouraged by the time-lapse video shot for the opener “Hiru” (noon in Japanese, or three in Basque).

Yet, in the seven songs that make up Fortuna, we can find several ideas coming from different currents (such as the saxophone in “Galilee” or the violin in “Alyeska”), just as the titles and images recall places and languages from all over the world. From the cover photo taken in Senegal to the use of “Fortuna” in Italian, from the image of the steppes to that of Rojava, Egoera brought together an intense and tortuous musical journey in search of fragments of beauty scattered in space and time.

It is a pleasure for me to officially welcome another solid act that emerged from the Mediterranean Sea region, in a post- scene that has now spread everywhere and continues to intertwine with the most diverse styles. If you look at this environment with interest, keep an eye on Egoera in the coming months.