Essaira

A punkstrial trio straight from the guts of underground Bologna, made up of singer and performer Paola Paganotto and musicians Angelo “Gelo” Casarrubia (guitar and effects) and Nico Pasquini (guitar and synth). Formed in 2023 in a post-Covid scenario, the band immediately threw itself into intense live activity, during which it released the 7" “Dramla” / “Xirxe”, tracks later included on their debut album “From The Guts Of Essaira” (2026). On it, the trio crafts a lyrical and sonic collage, between industrial-punk, EBM and noise-punk, openly standing against a complex era that seems bent on erasing or flattening, at all costs, whatever is perceived as genuinely alternative, “other”, and therefore somehow monstrous — effectively embodied by Paganotto's unsettling spoken word, which looks to Throbbing Gristle's “D.O.A. The Third And Final Report Of Throbbing Gristle”, incorporating echoes of the diabolical litanies of Diamanda Galás.

(Martina Vetrugno)