I often wonder why side projects don’t have the same relevance in the collective imagination as their original bands. They represent the expansion of a vision of the author or musician who finds the boundaries of their original group too restrictive. This is precisely the case with Tuomas Holopainen, a Finnish composer and musician known for founding Nightwish, one of the most famous symphonic metal bands, as its absolute leader and sole composer of the songs. This is Auri‘s III – Candles & Beginnings.
Behind Auri III – Candles & Beginnings
After a career spanning almost thirty years, marked by successes but also by
internal conflicts within the band, Tuomas released an album in 2018 with completely different tones that perhaps reveal his true nature. The album has a bucolic atmosphere, rich in folk elements created with acoustic and traditional instruments.
We are talking about Auri III (Candles & Beginnings), the third album by the band of the same name, featuring Johanna Kurkela on vocals, Troy Donockley on guitar, vocals, and various traditional instruments, and Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards.
Delving into the new album
The magic that radiates from this album continues with 2021’s II Those We Don’t Speak Of, right up to their latest work, III Candles & Beginnings, which is what we are going to talk about. An enchanted voice opens The Invisible Gossamer Bridge, Johanna Kurkela enchants us and takes us across an invisible bridge.
A mysterious fog approaches…
We are immersed in a dream, the bagpipes open onto a carpet of keyboards and a reverberation of distant voices. Once we cross the bridge, we find ourselves in a mysterious fog. The Apparition Speak is a disturbing and enigmatic song. What does this apparition from another world want to tell us? The singing and music increase the tension. Have we perhaps summoned this creature that whispers secrets to us?
Through the sinuous notes and lyrical minimalism
Will Have Language softens the tone a little, but there is still a sense of unease that winds its way through the sinuous notes. It is no longer the middle of the night, but already the beginning of dawn, where the first timid rays of sunlight can be glimpsed. Oh Lovely Oddities plays with lyrical minimalism. Even the lyrics contribute to the overall fairy-tale tone, where the universe becomes the kitchen of a house in whose garden a cosmic event is being celebrated.
All the magic of Auri’s III – Candles & Beginnings is here
A delicate folkloric theme takes us into a Tolkienian imaginary world in Libraries of Love, where the book becomes a metaphor for universal lives and secrets. That unknown and mystical world that Enya introduced us to in her best musical pages materializes before us, and we leaf through this ancient book together, revealing our destiny. In Blakey Ridge, we recognize Holopainen‘s writing style, closer to the latest Nightwish, and we almost seem to hear the semi-acoustic version of Children of ‘Ata. All the magic of the Auri project is revealed in Helios, an airy song with a vaguely mythological flavor.
An ancient world full of fantastic sounds and images
We are transported to an ancient world full of fantastic sounds and images. We all become children again with Museum of Childhood, we become Peter Pan from Disney’s imagination, we truly rediscover those childhood feelings where the whole world around us was discovery and adventure. Johanna’s sweet voice envelops us in Shieldmaiden, while Troy and Tuomas‘ musical expertise appears to us as a precious gift, almost as if they were “Magi” who came from afar to enrich us with their sounds.
The keys to the fairy world
But it is the final chapter that is the most surprising of all. An almost ambient sound reminiscent of the Penguin Café Orchestra with evocative words whispered. Tuomas, Johanna, and Troy give us the keys to the fairy world, to the universe of fairy tales.
It is up to us to decide whether to open those doors that we closed at the end of our childhood.
Track list
- The Invisible Gossamer Bridge
- The Apparition Speaks
- I Will Have Language
- Oh Lovely Oddities
- Libraries of Love
- Blakey Ridge
- Helios
- Museum of Childhood
- Shieldmaiden
- Boy Travelling With His Mother
Line Up
- Johanna Kurkela – Lead Vocals
- Tuomas Holopainen – Keyboards
- Troy Donockley – Guitars, Uilleann pipes, Low whistle, Voice.
Puoi leggere questa recensione anche in italiano su VeroRock.it