“Embrace the Abandon” is the new project by The Mon, the solo vision of Urlo, vocalist/bassist of the long-running Italian heavy-psychedelic trio Ufomammut, as well as the co-founder of the internationally renowned poster art collective Malleus Rock Art Lab and of the independent label Supernatural Cat.
Where Ufomammut projects massive, otherworldly soundscapes, The Mon offers a more vulnerable and introspective experience. The music moves through shadowy electronic landscapes, ambient textures, and hypnotic dark folk, always guided by an emotional core that searches for meaning, balance, and transformation.
The name The Mon evokes several layers of meaning: a contraction of “demon”, “monk”, and the Japanese word 門 (mon, meaning “gate”), a symbolic passage toward altered states of consciousness and inner truth. This duality of light and dark, sacred and profane, runs through the entire project.
“Embrace the Abandon” is structured in two complementary chapters – “Songs of Abandon” and “Songs of Embrace” – the project depicting a journey of duality: loss and surrender on one side, acceptance and rebirth on the other.
The first chapter of this journey, “Songs of Abandon” is perhaps the most intimate and vulnerable work Urlo has ever created. Born in a moment of solitude and personal darkness, the album originated from a radical exercise: writing one song a day, for nine consecutive days, using only acoustic guitar and voice. Later, these sketches were shaped into fully realized tracks, with lyrics and subtle layers of sound – not to overwhelm, but to underline the fragile, raw atmosphere that pervades them. The result is a stripped-down, emotionally charged collection that embodies an inner search: the power of music as a tool to face abandonment, to dig into oneself, and ultimately to glimpse the possibility of an embrace.
“Songs of Abandon” was written, performed, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Urlo at The Howl, Italy, between 2023 and 2025, and as with all Supernatural Cat releases, completed with artwork by the Malleus Rock Art Collective.
The first preview of this project arrives through a video for “Your Eyes”. Urlo states with its unveiling: “‘Your Eyes’ closes ‘Songs of Abandon’ and was among the very first pieces I wrote for the project. It was 2021 and I set myself the task of writing one song a day for nine days, armed only with my acoustic guitar. Those sketches became the nine acoustic tracks that form ‘Songs of Abandon’. Shaping them into their final form was far from easy. When the mix was finally complete, ‘Your Eyes’ revealed itself as the perfect ending, the closing of a circle. It marked a time when abandonment became a confrontation with myself, a way to re-embrace those eyes through my own gaze. From that darkness, the second part of the album would eventually rise”.
Watch the official video for “Your Eyes” below.
With “Embrace the Abandon”, The Mon reaffirms itself as one of the most personal and uncompromising projects. It is a body of work that fuses vulnerability and strength, speaking directly to the listener with sincerity, leading them through shadow towards light. An intimate yet powerful sound experience, intertwining the minimalism of acoustic folk with the dark, visionary tension that has always defined Urlo’s artistic path.
The second chapter, “Songs of Embrace”, is an instrumental counterpart – darker, ambient, and ritualistic – and it will be unveiled in the Spring of 2026.
The new studio album, “Songs of Abandon”, will be released digitally, on CD, and on vinyl – with both a standard LP pressing and a limited pressing of 100 copies – on November 7th, 2025. Those who preorder the limited edition of “Songs of Abandon” will have early access to an advance preorder of “Songs of Embrace” as well.
Find preorders at the Supernatural Cat webshop here and in the USA at “A Thousand Arms” here.
Tracklist:
1. Smiling Dog
2. Two Stones
3. The Hidden Ghost
4. Hourglass
5. The Moon & The Devil
6. Mayhem
7. Little Bird
8. The Fluorescent Sand
9. Beautiful Star
10. Your Eyes
