| Format: | LP |
| Label: | Deepmatter |
| Release date: | 27/11/26 |
| Availability: | PRE-ORDER |
‘Route 96’ is the debut album from Melbourne-born, London-based flautist, composer and producer Erica Tucceri, bringing together years spent immersed in Melbourne/Naarm’s vibrant jazz crossover scene into her first full-length solo statement.
A prolific collaborator, Tucceri has built a reputation for her distinctive playing across releases from the likes of Surprise Chef, ZFEX, Don Glori and Alexander Flood. With ‘Route 96’, she steps fully into her own world as a bandleader, composer and producer, delivering a transportive blend of percussive, flute-driven cosmic jazz, psychedelic textures and dancefloor-informed grooves.
The album took shape during an unlikely period in Tucceri’s life, moonlighting as a tram driver through Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns. Melodies and ideas formed behind the wheel, inspired by the sights, sounds and memories of the city, before being sung into her phone at the end of each shift. Those fragments would eventually become ‘Route 96’, tying the music closely to the city and everyday journeys that inspired it.
Bringing the record to life alongside longtime collaborators Lewis Moody, Ziggy Zeitgeist and Matthew Hayes, Tucceri also enlisted percussionists Ray Pereira and Javier Fredes, reuniting the pair for their first collaboration in twenty years. Drawing from Cuban and West African traditions, their interplay gives the album its rich rhythmic backbone.
From the spacious, sun-soaked roll of ‘Sun Daze’ and fiery post-lockdown energy of ‘Grazie Ragazzi’, through the dubbed-out textures of ‘Riviera’ and brooding sway of closer ‘Bumblebee’, ‘Route 96’ captures Tucceri’s Melbourne through rhythm, improvisation and her unmistakable flute.