OF LOVE, SUN AND STARS

 And The Stars Above is the third album by Armonite, a project based in Pavia led by composer and keyboardist Paolo Fosso and violinist Jacopo Bigi with the aim of mixing rock and classical chamber music. It was released in 2018 on the independent label Cleopatra Records and recorded with the help of many prestigious guest musicians such as Alberto Fiorani (bass), Colin Edwin (bass), Giacomo Lampugnani (bass), Gianmarco Straniero (bass), Corrado Bertonazzi (drums), Emiliano Cava (drums), Jasper Barendregt (drums), Maria Chiara Montagnari (vocals) and Diletta Fosso (vocals). The album is almost completely instrumental and confirms all the good qualities of their previous works. The art cover by Lele Picà tries to capture the musical content and probably describes the album better than my words: the man who waits at a train platform with a balloon in his hand gives an idea of human activities and of their potential, of the horizontal dimension of life but also of its upward motion... In fact, according to the band, the album was conceived as an imaginary soundtrack for a spiritual journey in twelve legs, from the Earth to the stars...

The opener “The March Of The Stars” starts by violin, piano and soaring vocals singing the last verses from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, then the rhythm section comes in and a disquieting marching beat leads you to the sidereal horizons where Love moves the Sun and the other stars...

The dynamic “Next Ride” takes you further in the infinite space while the following “District Red” blends classical music and rock with a touch of exoticism. Then it’s the turn of “Plaza de España” that begins by a delicate, dreamy piano pattern and slowly develops into a surreal bolero...

 

“Clouds Collide” is a nice, romantic song interpreted by Maria Chiara Montagnari and dealing with childhood memories and the loss of innocence where different feelings, dreams and notes roll in the sky like clouds clashing into each other and marking Time with a fragrance of Love...

The nervous “Blue Curaçao” follows and leads to “By Heart” that combines acoustic atmospheres and a touch of electronica. “Freaks” starts by a soft piano pattern before turning into more experimental territories while “By The Waters Of Babylon” is a melancholic, acoustic piece with a mysterious atmosphere...

 

Armonite 2018

“The Usual Drink” is a short, delicate piece for piano and violin with a particular Mid-European flavour that contrasts with the frenzied mood of the following “What's The Rush?”. The evocative “Ghosts” closes the journey while the last two pieces, “A Playful Day (for Strings Quartet)” and “The Fire Dancer (for Piano Solo)” are considered bonus tracks.

On the whole, I enjoyed the album and I think that it’s a really good work.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.armonite.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/armonitemusic 

 

NEO-CLASSICAL ARMONIA

Armonite began life in Pavia in 1996 and in 1999 released an interesting debut album entitled Inuit on the independent label Mellow Records. After a long hiatus, in 2014 the band came back to life on the initiative of Paolo Fosso (keyboards) and Jacopo Bigi (electric violin), two classical trained musicians in love with rock and modern audio-visual arts. For the recording sessions of their new album, The Sun Is New Each Day, thanks to the new technologies who allow working via internet, the line up was temporarily completed with the contribute of British bassist Colin Edwin (from Porcupine Tree) and Dutch drummer Jasper Barendregt while the guest Marcello Rosa played cello on two tracks. The album was produced, engineered and mixed by Paul Reeve in Cornwall, mastered by Geoff Pesche at the Abbey Road Studios in London and finally digitally self-released in 2015 on bandcamp with a nice art work by Cyril Rolando a.k.a. AquaSixio.

The album features nine relatively short instrumental tracks where violin and keyboards perfectly interact with each other weaving charming melodic lines backed by the tight rhythm section. The classical influences are strong but always mixed with gusto and extravaganza, there are no long suites and although the pieces are not overtly complex they are never banal and the music flows away without weak moments. According to the band, some of the pieces were conceived as short soundtracks and some videos were shot to complete in some way the music. It's the case of the nice opener "Suitcase War", suspended between classical tradition and modernity, where you can see in the video the band performing in a virtual, empty opera theatre with the help of a remote drummer...

The following "Connect Four" blends touches of electronica, a bit of folk and brushes of classical taste and leads to the frenzied "G as in Gears" that features a short narrative vocal part evoking a commuter's routine, then comes "Sandstorm" that conjures up Oriental sceneries and ethnic flavours... The overall sound is well refined and the songwriting brilliant and full of nuances, although every now and again light reminiscences of albums such as Jet Leg by Premiata Forneria Marconi or Florian by Le Orme could come to mind the band sound modern and not stuck in the past at all. 

The disquieting "Slippery Slope", the dreamy "Satellites", the hectic "Die Grauen Herren", the delicate, romantic "Le temps qui fait ta rose" and the conclusive, video-game inspired "Insert Coin" complete a coherent and cohesive set that in my opinion is really worth listening to.

The aim of the band is to play their music live as much as possible, that's why you can legally download the complete album for free: the musicians just hope that you will enjoy the music and spread the word out to help them to find gigs around the world, so... Well, have a try and judge by yourselves!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

http://www.armonite.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/Armonite-375012772574516