Planet Coronet Is Marlon Bianco Working Without a Net in a One-Day Session
A Multi-Instrumentalist, Four Late Chords and One Day to Record an Instrumental
Planet Coronet came out on 17 March 2023 on Some Other Planet Records, an art rock instrumental about an astronaut lost in space and drifting towards a black hole. Marlon Bianco found its four chords days before the session, then recorded the whole of Planet Coronet in a single day.
Marlon Bianco’s Planet Coronet sits in the playlist below, next to other chillwave and downtempo picks, and the Marlon Bianco artist profile gathers the rest of his coverage. The single reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Give it a listen, then keep reading for the one-day session behind it.
Marlon Bianco Came to Planet Coronet After Ten Years in Dead Coast and Two Early Singles
That speed is the story of the record. It also explains where the single sits in his catalogue, between a careful start and a run of releases that has kept moving since.
Bianco did not arrive as a beginner. He started playing guitar at 14, after just two lessons, and later spent ten years in Dead Coast, a London band. The solo project began at home just before the first lockdown in 2020, when he started writing on a toy keyboard.
The working method was set early, too. In the studio, he arranges and plays every instrument except the saxophone. Monte, an electronic production duo, help him record and give input when he asks for it. On stage, he fronts a band he calls The Clones.
The first releases came in 2021. Summer Creatures arrived on 20 June as a laid-back cut of synth-based jazz, and Soundglasses followed on 13 August. Both set the template for a project that folds jazz grooves, lounge and psych into art pop records.
Planet Coronet Turned Four Late Chords Into an Instrumental About an Astronaut Near a Black Hole
Planet Coronet was never the plan. Bianco had another song lined up for the session. Four days before it, he was strumming his guitar when a four-chord sequence came to him, so he changed course.
He finished most of the song in those four days and kept a rough version on his phone. The rest was improvised in the studio. As he told RGM, he had just one day to record it. He laid down a guide guitar first, then built every other part on top. The one part he had fixed in his head was a saxophone line, and he called his friend Jonny Chung to play it.
Writing for Music Is To Blame in March 2023, Ana Joy King described what came out of that day. The track opens on a hollow, wind-like sound, followed by a worn synth and a single piano note repeated over and over. Then the tempo shifts and a groovy bassline takes over. Smooth synth and picked guitar keep it close to lounge music. Meanwhile, muffled voices in the background reminded her of the later psychedelic work of The Beatles.
Other listeners noticed it early as well. InspotMusic listed Planet Coronet first in its Daily Discovery 9, a round-up of ten newly released tracks.
Three Records Marlon Bianco Calls His Favourites Help Explain Planet Coronet
In the same RGM interview, Bianco named his three favourite albums. Each one helps explain Planet Coronet.
Joe Meek made I Hear a New World in 1960, a concept record that imagined life on the moon with echo, tape tricks and homemade effects. Planet Coronet tells its own space story without words. Its wind-like opening comes from the same instinct to build a place out of sound.
The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds in 1966, a record Brian Wilson built part by part in the studio. Bianco’s method of starting with a guide guitar and stacking everything else on top works the same way, on a far tighter schedule.
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band made Trout Mask Replica in 1969, a record full of abrupt changes of direction. The sudden tempo change in Planet Coronet belongs to that tradition, even though the groove that follows is much smoother.
After Planet Coronet, Marlon Bianco Kept Moving With New Labels, Space-Bound Titles and a Live Band
The single marked the start of a busier stretch. In October 2023, Soundvsystem reported that Marlon Bianco and The Clones were heading out on a run of shows across Italy and Switzerland. By then, the home studio project had become a working live band.
The releases kept coming, and the credits kept changing. Planet Coronet carries a Some Other Planet Records credit. Telecosmo followed on 1 December 2023 under Dead Sounds. Next, Mad Man came out on 28 November 2024 on Annibale Records. Then, in June 2026, Lonely Star and Bon Voyage arrived two weeks apart, both on Palace Records.
That is four imprints in just over three years. It fits an artist who told RGM that he dislikes being labelled and writes according to how he feels at the time. He records fast, and he moves on when a song is done.
The titles tell the same story. Telecosmo, Lonely Star and Bon Voyage keep returning to distance and space travel, the ground Planet Coronet first covered. Clearly, the astronaut from that 2023 instrumental has not quite come home.
IndieMusic.News’s curator team: “Planet Coronet is one player’s record with one guest, and the economy shows. The repeated piano note does the job a lyric would, which suits a track about being alone in space.”
For listeners who like their art rock instrumental, patient and a little strange, Planet Coronet is the right place to start with Marlon Bianco. Play it before the later singles, and the whole run makes more sense.
Stream Planet Coronet on Spotify, then follow Marlon Bianco on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X.
