CAT#: ULY045
ARTIST: Ross Simonini
TITLE: Themes Vol. 1 & 2
DATE: 10/30/2026
FORMAT: LP
PRICE: $25

docs.google.com/document/d/1VQFvFPDVzkqHpnSzFYcf0o33jvFJVec-RVqOMUbxSQg/edit?tab=t.0

The scene in the film where the protagonist self-actualizes. This is the transcendent moment in which we find polymath Ross Simonini on Themes Vol. 1 & 2 — caught in some time loop of actualization. Theme after theme after theme of Big Moods. Big, almost textural moods bumping their resplendent little heads on The Beyond. And rightly so. This latent suite of compositions is a holy digital artifact nearly lost to the ages. 

In January 2025, the wildfires that destroyed so much of Greater Los Angeles tore through Simonini’s community of Altadena. His home, his art and his recording studio and the DIY art-music space he called ALICIA burned to the ground. As a musician, writer, and galleried painter, the personal treasures Simonini lost in the inferno were immense - and he was one of thousands. While Ross, his wife, their infant child and their puppy all fled, a life of paintings, rare books, sacred items were lost. 

Among Simonini’s losses was the hard drive containing a work-in-progress series of cinematic, avant-pop “through compositions” he called “Themes,” a project he’d been refining for nearly a decade. All the working files melted into chemical vapor. The only versions of the songs left were the unfinished WAV versions saved on Ross’s Google Drive. 

But be not fooled. These are not unfinished songs. And they are presented here just as they should be: Fully-formed — though often liminal and evasive — pieces of modern composition and esotericism sent through an inkjet printer. These are the soundfeels of an escalator ride up to Suncoast Motion Picture Co. with a twenty in your breast pocket; slapping your money down for a copy of Roger Rabbit. A cosmic constellation of orchestral instruments and voices, organic and synthetized, to keeps the ears fresh and nimble. These are the soft edges creeping in on even your most vivid memories. Milk paint hyper-pop and Egg Tempura toejazz. 

Over the years,  Simonini has collaborated with many artists, such as Sam Gendel, Andrew Aged, Daniel Aged, and Themes introduces others, including Lammer (Francis and the Lights), Eliza Callahan (novelist, filmmaker, member of Purr), and his Altadenan neighbors, Paul McCarthy (legendary artist), John, a flutist who Ross could faintly hear blowing through Bach cantatas next door.

All together, this is an impressionistic post-22, a Million music sent through a Ren & Stimpy taffypuller. A data dump Bobby McFerrin midi-life-crisis. Like big bright music echoing from somewhere across the dark lake. Even the briefest of these themes is brimming — nay, frothing over! — with Life, percolating with unique potential, with becoming. Yes, CHOOSE LIFE my dude. This is how you stagger on rejoicing.