wandering away is safer than getting lost on your own

Five years after his first quartet release “Kora” (Aut Records, 2021), Giacomo Zanus returns with a new album titled “wandering away is safer than getting lost on your own.”

Composed and produced by the italian guitarist, “wandering away…” is a collection of little stories — postcards and travel notes that evoke faces, places and sensations to immerse oneself in, get lost in and ultimately rediscover.

Emblematic figures such as Calvino’s silent Palomar — almost a manifesto for the entire project — appear alongside real and remembered places, like “return to Maren” (the dialect name for Valmareno, between the provinces of Treviso and Belluno, Zanus’ hometown). There are lived and dreamt memories, as in the diptych “I picked up a flower to say hello” and “but hell..It became a farewell,” as well as cinematic moments recalling the more melancholic atmospheres of Morricone and Ry Cooder in “canto pagano”

“Each of us tries to describe things, to find answers and meanings in events. We are all a bit like Palomar: driven by the desire to understand the world, we struggle with the stubborn pursuit of absolute truth, of universal wisdom… and perhaps it is precisely here that all our limitations emerge.” Giacomo Zanus

With “Wandering Away…”, Zanus offers his vision of contemporary jazz skillfully infused with folk, post-rock and a soundtrack aesthetic, where the sound of his guitar becomes a voice that guides, narrates and enchants through the wide melodic breath of the compositions.

Supporting him in this interplay between composition and improvisation are Giorgio Pacorig (Fender Rhodes, piano), Mattia Magatelli (double bass and electric bass) and Marco D’Orlando (drums and percussion), among the most brilliant musicians on the Italian jazz scene.

tracklist:

1 dear Palomar
2 return to Maren
3 I picked up a flower to say hello
4 but hell.. it became a farewell
5 canto pagano
6 half awake
7 half asleep in the water
8 ymnus / vesper

Credits:

Giacomo Zanus : guitars, lap steel, synth, zither, samples, electronics
Giorgio Pacorig : piano, Fender Rhodes, Korg MS20, Farfisa 
Mattia Magatelli : double bass, electric bass
Marco D’Orlando : drums, percussions, glockenspiel, clap hands

Choir on “Canto Pagano”: Giulia Deval, Natalia Rogantini, Alberto Visentin

All music is written, arranged and produced by Giacomo Zanus

Recorded and mixed by Matt Bordin at Outsideinside Studio between November 2023 and May 2025. Additional recordings by Giacomo Zanus during 2024 and 2025.
Mastered by Manuel Volpe at Okum Studio

Artwork by Francesco Franz Longhi 
Cover Photo by Daniele Ostet
© & Ⓟ 2026 Okum Produzioni

Biography:

Named among the top five emerging talents by Musica Jazz magazine, Giacomo Zanus (1994) is an Italian guitarist and composer based in Bologna, active in the fields of improvisation and electroacoustic music.

He performs in Italy and abroad with various projects, ranging from his solo set for guitar and live electronics to the duo VENEER and his quartet KORA. He has played and collaborated with notable artists such as Alexander Hawkins, Ellen Arkbro, Julien Desprez and Stefano Battaglia.