Alessandro Fantini - ANTALGICA
Between mind and body the pain is the invisible organ pumping blood into soul.
Due to very gloomy circumstances occurred in my recent life, after
the release of my latest concept album “Son of chasm” I started to work
on several ideas linked to the theme of pain and suffering. Not just the
notion of physical pain, but the metaphysical experience of sorrow and
how humans deal with it over their lifetime: the pain of birth, of
growing up, of loss, of separation, of public judgement, of death.
Hence, I decided to follow a more abstract creative route, without
hinting at a narrative structure but trying to establish a pure emotive
soundscape. My early plan was to develop through different styles the
moods evoked by the first two instrumental tracks composed during
winter, “Wealthy doom” and “Antalgica”.
Yet, as soon as I've completed the first instrumental draft of the
song "Blazing frost" in December, I've started hearing a disembodied
female voice flying over the icy vastness evoked by the piano notes.
Suddenly I was overwhelmed by my childhood memories of the Finnish
tundra depicted in some folk tales books I used to contemplate for hours
in my bedroom, specially those illustrated by Rien Poortvliet, Brian
Froud and Alan Lee. At the same time I recalled the ethereal unplugged
songs performed by Anna Vihonen, a young talented Finnish singer I've
discovered on the web a couple of years ago when she started following
me on my Fandalism page. When she enthusiastically replied to my invite
to contribute her vocals to this track by saying she was looking forward
to experiment with electronic music since a long time, I realized that
actually this song came out from the depths of a poetic ecosystem
inhabited by both of us, so distant in space but so close in spirit.
So I came up with some lyrics describing the growth of a little
girl from her kindergarten years to womanhood and I proposed her to sing
in a series of songs where she had to play the character of this girl
as a spirit of uncontaminated nature in her embryonic state, before
facing the fear and distress of dealing with her peers and adult people,
then with the pain of physical metamorphosis of adolescence and,
eventually, the loss of her identity in the cauldron of social networks.
Despite the main concept may sound sombre and even pessimistic, the
album is meant to be experienced as a spiritual healing therapy, a
cathartic fresco made of sounds, pictures and words, because if music
and art won’t ever cure any disease or treat human agony, it can be for
sure a better medicine for the soul with no side effects or harmful
ones. An Antalgic device helping to cope with the gap we have to cross
between the two defining mysteries of our life.
ANTALGICA
1.
Wealthy Doom (overture) 04:56
2.
Antalgica 06:16
3.
Blazing frost 05:39
4.
Gartenmares 04:57
5.
Mitosis 04:48
6.
The Great Burden 05:20
7.
Aponia, first movement 05:05
8.
Aponia, second movement 08:14
9.
Leaving Aphinar 04:36
Composed, performed, recorded and produced by Alessandro Fantini.
Lyrics, vocals and effects by Alessandro Fantini.
Vocals on "Blazing Frost", "Gartenmares", "Mitosis" and "Aponia (movement II)" by ARIANA aka Anna Vihonen.
©AFANSOUND
©ARIANA
