Crows are everywhere in Brussels. They occupy the parks, fly over the rooftops, and move through the neighborhoods with a sense of territorial presence. For Sam Sala, an Italian musician and producer who has been living in the city permanently for a few years now, they have become a daily presence—an image that today encapsulates many of the changes that have accompanied his move from Lake Como to Belgium. “It seems as though they reign over the city,” he says with a smile. From this symbolic image emerges *Birds Reworks*, a four-track EP released in a limited edition of 20 vinyl records that reworks “Birds”—a track previously featured on his LP *Diathomee*—transforming it into a new realm of exploration.
A reinterpretation of existing material, *Birds Reworks* also marks a shift. The new versions took shape some time after the release of *Diathomee* and reflect personal, geographical, and creative changes. While that album still retained something of the landscape where Sala grew up—made up of mountains, forests, and open spaces—Birds Reworks unfolds within a denser, more layered environment. Brussels enters the project through its contradictory energy, in the more abrasive sounds, in the tensions that run through the tracks, and in the urban imagery evoked by the crows that have become its unwitting symbol: a darker, more aggressive symbolism.
Listening to the four tracks evokes a sense of suspension—an ambient, atmospheric veil that alternates between darker passages and sudden bursts of light. The very fog that Sala associates with Brussels seems to settle over the compositions, lending them a dense quality. The sound elements continually emerge and recede, generating ever-shifting landscapes that retain something urban, mysterious, and evocative. The method itself also plays a central role in the project. Sam Sala works with sound as if it were an unstable material, whose samples are stretched, distorted, slowed down, and compressed until they lose their original identity. “I didn’t follow any tempo other than that of my own ear,” he says. Each track bears the mark of continuous manipulation that proceeds through intuition, detours, and unexpected discoveries. The composition takes the form of an open-ended exploration, where the material suggests directions and possibilities that emerge during the process itself.
It is here that Aldo Tambellini’s presence takes on greater depth. My first encounter with his work dates back more than ten years, during a visit to the Tate in London, but over time it has evolved into something more than a mere influence. Tambellini spanned cinema, poetry, performance, and the visual arts, following a radically free practice guided by the urgency to create and the exploration of materials. His work constructs a lexicon in which experimentation, gesture, and transformation become tools of knowledge, immersed in dark veils—symbols of both end and beginning. And thus, ultimately, of infinite possibilities.
Birds Reworks fits into this trajectory. The titles of the four tracks are drawn from *Listen – Selected Poems 1946–2016*, a collection of Tambellini’s poetry that has accompanied Sala’s artistic journey for years, but the dialogue unfolds primarily on the level of method. Sound is treated as a surface to be engraved, altered, and rewritten; each intervention produces a new formal possibility. Every error opens a new path. The tracks evolve through a succession of mutations that retain something of their origin while pushing themselves in new directions. The collaboration with the Aldo Tambellini Art Foundation stems precisely from this affinity. A request for permission to use the texts evolved into a broader exchange, culminating in official support for the project and a direct dialogue with Anna Tambellini. This recognition strengthens a relationship already present in Sala’s work and finds one of its most accomplished expressions in *Birds Reworks*.
The same logic of encounters and affinities underlies the relationship with Saint-Martin Bookshop, the independent bookstore that released the vinyl and contributed equally to its production. Located in the former Martin Margiela store, Saint-Martin has become, over the years, one of the leading centers for experimental publishing in Brussels. The designer’s legacy continues to permeate its spaces and define its spirit, as acknowledged by founder Stéphane Aisinber himself, who frequented the store long before transforming it into a bookstore. Today, its selection spans art, photography, design, and independent publications, attracting an international community of artists, designers, and researchers. Before becoming involved in a musical collaboration, Sala was a regular visitor there. A collector of artist’s books, graphic designer, and art director—as well as a musician—he began frequenting the space several years ago, gradually developing an increasingly close relationship with founder Stéphane Aisinber.
The bookstore holds a special place in the city’s cultural landscape. Aisinber built it around his personal collection and a deeply subjective approach to research. Art books, out-of-print publications, independent publications, and hard-to-find items coexist on the shelves, arranged according to associations born of experience, curiosity, and everyday conversations. The same principle guides the programming of exhibitions, presentations, and, more recently, listening sessions, which over the years have transformed Saint-Martin into a meeting place for artists, designers, musicians, and researchers from all over Europe. “Sam was first and foremost a customer,” says Aisinber. “Since he often chose unusual and very specific items, a bond naturally formed.” The collaboration stems from this—from years of exchanges, shared references, and frequent interactions. When Aisinber discovered Sala’s music project, the idea of doing something together emerged spontaneously. The result became Saint-Martin Bookshop’s first official music production—a natural extension of a curatorial practice that has long spanned different disciplines.
The choice of vinyl reflects the very nature of the project. The edition is limited to twenty hand-finished copies, each featuring unique artwork created with spray paint and mixed media, inspired by the crows that inhabit the work’s imagery. Alongside the record, a photographic zine dedicated to these animals is also taking shape, conceived as a further expansion of the project. These objects fall somewhere between an art publication, a document, and a sound medium, perfectly consistent with the context from which they emerged. Brussels, too, as indicated in the opening lines, plays a decisive role in this story. Aisinber describes it as a “punk, creative, unconventional, and absurd” city. Sala describes its contrasts, the coexistence of elegance and roughness, and its capacity to embrace independent practices that struggle to find a place elsewhere. Birds Reworks was born within this ecosystem—a blend of publishing, visual research, sound experimentation, and chance encounters—all woven into Sam’s personal story. It’s a context where a bookstore can release its first album and a musician can arrive there as a reader even before becoming an artist.
Following the presentation at Saint-Martin Bookshop in Brussels on May 30, the project continues its journey in Italy with two events: on June 25 at Paint It Black in Turin and on June 26 at Section80 in Milan. These are two opportunities to take a closer look at a body of work that expands across various forms, languages, and media with different textures, while maintaining at its core the same spirit of exploration and genuine passion that has guided it from the very beginning.
[📷 Courtesy of Sam Sala]
