After a long period of silent work, in 2018 Daal expressed their creativity by releasing contemporaneously on Agla Records two excellent albums: Decalogue Of Darkness and Navels Falling Into A Living Origami. The first one features dark atmospheres and vintage sounds that could recall some seventies soundtracks of horror films. Here the line up features along with Alfio Costa (Mellotron, Moog, piano, synthesizers) and Davide Guidoni (drums, percussion) the guests Ettore Salati (guitars) and Bobo Aiolfi (bass). According to the liner notes, this work is dedicated to the memory of some dear persons that the musicians lost and miss but who are still present in their hearts. The art cover, taken from a 1508 woodcut portraying the devil taking the soul of a dying man, and the pictures in the booklet try to describe the musical content, conceived as an inner mirror reflecting the dark side of a man with his nightmares and fears…
Despite the gloomy subject matter and the Gothic art cover, the music has nothing to do with depressing black metal or dissonant passages evoking infernal sceneries. On the contrary, all along the untitled ten chapters in which is divided this long album, the music is always characterised by a sumptuous, symphonic beauty... Delicate, dreamy passages evolve into nervous parts with the rhythm section giving a strong sense of tension while light, soaring melodies alternate with sudden surges of dark, mysterious energy. At times bands such as Goblin or L’Albero del Veleno might come to mind, but this work has it’s own originality and deserves a very attentive listening from the very first notes to the last...
By chance, recently, while re-listening to this album I was reading a novel by Gaston Leroux and I stumbled in a passage that in my opinion seems to capture its spirit: “He called out, with all the strength of the sorrow that filled his breast... He called in the way in which you call not upon a living, but upon a dear dead woman, in the hope that she may appear to you. For there are moments when human sorrow does not dread ghosts and when it conjures up shades to press them to its heart, without trembling on the threshold of the great mystery; moments when love would have the dead come forth from the dark and when it is astonished - so loud has been its call - that the spirits do not come and kiss its lips!” (quote from Balaoo, by Gaston Leroux). Well, I think that this music is a kind of powerful call to the ghosts, a lay requiem mass able to stir emotions and even to express a sense of positivity by exorcising the evil spirits of melancholy and sadness. One of my favourite 2018 albums!
You can listen to the complete album HERE
Navels Falling Into A Living Origami if compared to the symphonic sounds of its 2018 “different twin” is more experimental and dissonant. Here the line up features along with Alfio Costa (keyboards, piano, Mellotron) and Davide Guidoni (drums, percussion, loops, soundscapes) the guests Simone Montrucchio (bass), Lorenzo Fasanelli (guitars), Salvatore Lazzara (oud, guitars), Marcella Arganese (guitars), Guglielmo Mariotti (vocals) and Mir Khista (violin). The album features just one long track, a disquieting suite that blends different influences such as psychedelic folk and electronic music with ethereal, eerie atmospheres and cosmic couriers.
The albums begins by the sound of the wind blowing through the trees in what seems to be a forest, then an acoustic guitar arpeggio and a soaring melody conjure up a mystical atmosphere before a change of direction and a plunge into mystery. Every now and again you can hear Pink Floyd echoes or passages evoking exotic, nocturnal landscapes and incense smells. It’s like the soundtrack of a film where you have to add you own images...
The plot of this imaginary film is revealed in the short lyrics at the end of the suite. It tells about an introspective journey back in time and of the meeting with a very strange little creature. You’re walking in a forest coloured in autumnal, purple colours when you hear a strange noise. There’s little, furry creature sitting on a trunk. You pick it up and try to shave off its greasy hair and then you look at it, at its frightened expression... Then you see it implode and feel that something is atrophying your soul!
All in all, this is an intriguing, complex album that needs many spins and the right mood to be fully appreciated for all its inspiring, melancholic beauty.
You can listen to the complete album HERE
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