Vittorio Vandelli – A Day Of Warm Rain In Heaven
Label: Equilibrium Music – EQM006
Format: CD, Album, Digipak
Country: Portugal
Released: 2004
Style: Ethereal, Neofolk

Inspired by Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, this solo work by ATARAXIA’s guitarist, displays both trademark elements of his main band and a rich myriad of influences and sounds new to his composition. Featuring Francesca Nicoli on vocals.

‘Alone, alone on a wide wide sea! and never a saint took pity on my soul in agony.
I looked to heaven and tried to pray but or even a prayer had gusht,
a wicked whisper came and made my heart as dry as dust.
Since then, at an uncertain hour, that agony returns and till my ghastly tale is told,
this heart within me burns. I pass, like night, from land to land,
I have strange power of speech,
that moment that his face I see to him my tale I teach.’
(S.T. Coleridge)

VITTORIO VANDELLI, founding member of the well-known band ATARAXIA, is a talented guitarist and composer. His first soloist album, «A Day of Warm Rain in Heaven», transposes into music the poetical imaginary of ‘The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’, the romantic opus of S.T. Coleridge. The music presents a contemporary style but the words belong to the first half of the XIXth century. The rhyme describes the perillous voyage of a sailorman becoming an odissey through sin, death and re-birth until the achievement of wisdom, a status closely related to pain and sadness as we become aware of our tragic human condition. The trip of the protagonist reflects VITTORIO’s existential experience, a deep spiritual experience that each of us could be called to live. The ability to sublimate all of this into music seems to be the only way to fight the tempest and survive the storming sea, and it is a precious gift that destiny has awarded only to artists.

In this album, the music is ravishing and varied, yet a sense of unity prevails: ambient tunes (where classic guitar arpeggios meet environmental sounds) alternate with timeless ballads; short industrial moments precede ethereal compositions; soft-electronic episodes follow hypnotic lullabies and atmospheric instrumental airs introduce moving sonatas in his unique style. VITTORIO plays classic, acoustic, electric and synth guitars together with keyboard pads and rhytmical patterns. He felt the urge to follow the creative processus from the beginning to the end starting from the musical idea, passing through execution and finally reaching recording and mixing.

«A Day of Warm Rain in Heaven» features Francesca Nicoli on vocals, who, thanks to her peculiar talent and artistic personality, has been able to confer even more pathos and strenght to the textures of notes. Her vocal work is the result of a sudden enlightenment after the very first listening of the tracks.