Tulei is a project born in Milan out of the friendship and collaboration between saxophonist Andrea “Jimmy” Catagnoli and Davide Domenichini of Al Doum & The Faryds. The album features a distinct spiritual jazz sound in which the saxophone takes center stage, but without sinking into the roots of the more canonical free jazz approach of legends like Archie Schepp, Alice Coltrane, or Pharoah Sanders. Rather, the sound draws on more personal, elegiac and minimalist atmospheres, often with a visual and cinematic flair. Light sax loops suggest delicate aquatic movements, soft and ethereal impressionistic touches, subtle whirlpools of emotion that fade into the post-twilight darkness. The saxophone is the breath of solitary nights, lyrical and dramatic moments, requiems, or subdued fanfares that expand into a single universal whisper. A deeply meditative and solemn progression evokes 1970s South African jazz and certain structures more akin to free improvisation. The image of coral on the cover suggests the totality of this pervasive impressionistic tone, a slow movement through sound, a gradual immersion into dreams and visions.