Panoram – Wandering Frames

The enigmatic producer Panoram has shared another playfully experimental composition titled ‘Wandering Frames, out on the Running Back imprint. Boasting over a million streams across platforms, Panoram has endeared himself to the global IDM community over the last decade for his off-kilter compositions. He has caught the attention of tastemaker publications like Pitchfork, Mixmag, Electronic Groove, Rumore Magazine, The Ransom Note and The Vinyl Factory, received airplay from Irish National radio station RTÉ 2FM and has recorded multiple times for NTS and Boiler Room. He has appeared alongside the likes of Kraftwerk and Gold Panda at Sònar Festival in Barcelona. Notably, Thom Yorke included a track from Panoram’s album Pianosequenza Vol.1 in a playlist he curated for Sonos.

Hailing from and based in Rome, little else is known of Raffaele Martirani, the mysterious maverick behind Panoram. He has been part of the project Amen Dunes for the past decade, touring extensively across the U.S. and Europe with the band, performing at renowned venues and festivals like Primavera Sound, Pitchfork Festival, Roskilde, Koko in London, and the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.

Under the Panoram alias, he has released on labels like Firecracker, Running Back, and his own Wandering Eye that nimbly elude genre classification, dancing playfully in their own synth-soaked ecosystem. His discography is a quietly-growing collection of his eclectic experiments laden with a smorgasbord of stylistic etchings – you’ll find abstract pop, classical experiments, hazy lounge, detuned synths, cyborg funk and so much more. Whatever you hear, it resists categorisation, and will probably be a labyrinthine listen with a hint of impish self-awareness. ‘Wandering Frames’ displays this distinctly idiosyncratic spirit of Panoram’s, blending and chillwave, dreamwave, and other genres into a unique mix that will captivate fans of experimental savants such as Com Truise, Boards of Canada, and Oneohtrix Point Never.

‘Wandering Frames’ unfolds with slow, ambling drums and serene, airy pads that create a relaxed, drifting atmosphere. Occasionally, wonky saxophones slide in and pitch-modulate, adding a touch of surreal unpredictability. Vocal fragments mutter and a child’s voice, distant and plaintive, weaves in and out briefly before fading into the the song’s misty miasma. The track’s intricate yet spacious arrangement feels both calm and disorienting, with its peculiar elements blending into an ethereal, dreamlike haze.

Speaking on the track, Panoram divulged: „Wandering Frames was written to act as a frame within which to observe. I wanted to proceed through images. Each element has a shape and a role even if I like not to follow a precise hierarchy. Voice tones are used as a vanishing point to read what we see. The main melody was played on a computer keyboard to make it stammering and not in focus.I wanted all the different colours to be sort of drifting away from each other.”