Tulegon walks through the remains of a life on the intimate 'Rovine'

Every city leaves something behind. A particular quality of light, a street corner attached to an old conversation, or a version of ourselves that can only be recovered by returning in memory. And on his new LP 'Rovine', Milan-based songwriter and producer Tulegon follows those traces across more than two decades, assembling an album from the places, relationships and private reckonings that have shaped his life.

The title translates as “ruins”, but this is not a record concerned solely with destruction. Ruins also preserve. They mark where something once stood, offering incomplete evidence of lives that cannot be rebuilt exactly as they were. Tulegon approaches his own history in much the same manner, gathering emotional fragments from childhood, adolescence and adulthood without attempting to smooth them into a perfect chronology.

Recorded entirely independently in Milan, the album follows an internal route through Italy. It begins in the whitewashed surroundings of Ostuni, where Tulegon grew up, continues through the layered history and restless motion of Rome, and eventually arrives in Milan, the city he has called home since 2010.

These landscapes become containers for memory, carrying the people once known there and the choices that could only have been made by the person Tulegon was at the time. The album repeatedly considers how identity shifts as we move through new environments, even while earlier selves remain quietly active beneath the surface.

Although nostalgia colours the record, it doesn't dominate it unquestioningly. Tulegon’s occasional humour introduces distance, recognising the absurdity contained within experiences that once felt unbearably serious. This prevents the album from becoming overly reverential towards its own memories.

At the heart of the album lies a concern with impermanence. Relationships appear solid until they fracture. Places believed to define us become temporary. Destiny may feel clear in retrospect, yet life rarely offers that clarity while events are unfolding.

On this album, Tulegon is the child shaped by Puglia, the young man passing through Rome, the adult creating in Milan and the observer now looking back at them all. Yet, none of these versions are complete on their own. They are simply the remains from which present identity is constructed, containing evidence of affection, error, departure and survival.

'Rovine' is a warm, thoughtful and quietly ambitious record from an artist willing to let memory retain its complications. Throughout, Tulegon studies what remains, listens for the echoes and discovers that even broken structures can still offer shelter.