THE MON is the name of  the solo project by Urlo, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and synth player in the heavy psych italian band Ufomammut and one of the three minds behind the poster art trio Malleus Rock Art Lab.
Where Ufomammut creates mind-expanding, heavy psychedelic, almost other-dimensional sounds,  THE MON by comparison is far more intimate, looking inward, as Urlo explores and examines his inner most thoughts through music.
THE MON builds layers of brooding sounds which sometimes unfurl at a glacial pace and other times lurch with rhythmic propulsion, each piece distinct, densely packed, and all-consuming in their evocative atmospheres.
The aim of THE MON is to reach the boundaries of a spiritual soundscape in which the music becomes purification and atonement, a way to bring out the world that is inside human soul.
THE MON  is a journey through the mind and a personal discovery of the relation between evil and good.
That starts from the name THE MON (to be kept together) – like ‘Demon,’ but also like ‘the Monk” or, in Japanese language ” gate” (often used in referring to the many gates used by Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and traditional-style buildings and castles) — to reach landscapes of sound that enable the listener to enter into different levels of consciousness in a cathartic way.
The first album of The Mon “DOPPELLEBEN” has been released in 2018 via Supernatural Cat, the record label of the Malleus Rock Art Lab of which Urlo is one of the founders.
In the past years, The Mon published as a digital track and videoclip  different new songs and an EP (My Rotten Heart/Into Nothing) featuring  CHVE.
The new album “EYE” was released in May 2023, via Supernatural Cat again.
In comparison to its predecessor, EYE is more introspective and denser, the new record built around electronic soundscapes and acoustic atmospheres that take you on a sonic journey where the songs flow nonstop into one another.
While Urlo performs the entire musical foundation of the album, he is joined by a cast of special guests, with vocal/lyrical contributions from Steve Von Till (Neurosis), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (Amenra), and Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni, as well as violins from Sarah Pendleton (Subrosa, The Otolith), and guitars from David W (White Hills).
EYE was written, performed, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Urlo at The Howl, Italy, and the artwork completed by the Malleus Rock Art Lab collective.
While choosing a singular genre for THE MON’s Eye is surely a difficult challenge, one could classify the album as heavy dark folk electronic.

Photo by FDFM