Synth Sage Panoram SHARES ‘The Question’ Single

The eccentric and eclectic Panoram has shared an immersive track titled ‘The Question’, out on his Wandering Eye 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, Electronic Groove, Rumore Magazine, The Ransom Note and The Vinyl Factory 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. ‘The Question’ is a complex work, integrating elements of chillwave, dreamwave and beyond – a concoction that will ensnare fans of Com Truise, Boards of Canada and the experimental cornucopia of Oneohtrix Point Never’s work. The captivating cover art is the work of US surrealist photographer Ben Zank. 

‘The Question’ begins as a vast and spacious track, with airy synths buoying a robotic vocoder-laden hook, dejectedly uttering “that is the question” as it modulates and meanders. The song breaks into an atmospheric dreamscape, with floating pads, reverb-drenched downtempo drums and a psychedelic synthesizer that imbues the soundscape with a kaleidoscope of colors, all while the vocal sample hazily weaves in and out of the fray. The track shifts harmonically, descending into a slow-burn ending, leaving listeners in a dreamy delirium.

Panoram shared: “I wanted to create a song for a video I was making. The video consisted of a collage of interviews. The idea was to focus on the moment right after the question is asked and you see different  people being interviewed having a reaction to the question. Is the physical reaction before the actual verbal answer. It’s some sort of beautifully suspended moment where everything is still possible.”

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