ISHTAR

Ishtar were formed in 2023 in Salsomaggiore Terme (PR), a provincial town with few opportunities, by four lads who had just turned eighteen and were keen to make their mark and play music. In 2024, we began playing covers of Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana and Queens of the Stone Age at the local pub and other venues across the province, whilst also collaborating with various local bands and taking part in charity events in nearby Fidenza. In June 2025, we decided to devote ourselves entirely to writing our first EP, “At the Babylon” – an experimental concept album featuring stoner-style sounds, with hypnotic riffs and melancholic songs with a mystical and unsettling tone, in the vein of Deftones or Black Sabbath, before moving on to evoke the indie rock of the early Arctic Monkeys. Thematically, it is a disturbing tale of how a provincial community might experience the last day of the world in its local village pub. The EP, recorded and mixed at Madlife Studio in Correggio, marks the first chapter of our musical journey. However, the project extends beyond music alone; thanks to our friends – students at academies specialising in all kinds of art – we are also developing our very own aesthetic, with symbolism drawing on the mystical traditions of the tarot and Babylonian deities. We have bespoke outfits, painted and sewn by a student from the Academy of Sculpture in Florence, and photos and music videos filmed and edited by students from the Milan Film Academy, alongside photographs and hand-drawn illustrations by a DAMS student. We believe, in fact, that music should serve as the voice of all the other arts, and that a strong identity can create a successful project that goes beyond music production alone. We will be performing our EP live for the first time in Monza at the ‘Monza Sound Festival’, in the Spalto della Maddalena area, on 3 July 2026.