THE ASYMBOLIC NIGHT BY RODOLFO MONTUORO
The italian artist starts the project “Nacht” with a mini album centred on the legendary figure of Orpheus

In his album, “A_Vision” (2006), he portrayed an unforgettable outline of Ulysses. In “Hannibal. Mythologies I” (2008), he offered a new interpretation of Hannibal Lecter, with his seductive masks and his power to coax his victims into metamorphosis.

Now the sequel to Rodolfo Montuoro’s rock tales, revolving around a fascinating character, Orpheus, is being released as a digital only mini album.

“Orfeo” Orpheus (i.e. the EP featuring the tracks, “Orfeo” Orpheus, “La svolta” The Decisive Moment and “Giorni messicani” Mexican Days) is the first chapter of a project entitled “Nacht”, comprising eleven tracks centred on the
night mythologies and serialized in instalments of three or four tracks to be released online every four months. The digital distribution will be made by the leading French label Believe. All online tracks, along with four more, unpublished, tracks, will finally make up a CD that will be physically distributed by Egea in all music stores.

Orpheus, in Greek mythology, represents the power of the sung word as embodied in poetry and music. Thanks to his skill in these arts, he charms every living thing. Right up until his talents and powers are no use to him any longer. Eurydice, his bride to be, dies the day before the wedding.Orpheus does not accept his fate and descends to the Underworld, where his music softens the hearts of the deities who agree to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on the condition that he walks ahead of her and does not look back until they both have reached the upper world. But he does not resist. Afraid of losing her once again and feeling the irresistible impulse to kiss her, he turns towards her and she vanishes forever. From now on, he is forever miserable. He cuts himself off from other people, obsessed as he is by the memory of Eurydice. He falls prey to the Dionysus’ followers, crazed by his obsession for her and his indifference to them. They tear him to pieces, and his dismembered body parts roll randomly across the river Hebrus. His cut off head, however, afloat amid the waves, sings on his poignant grief-stricken song.

Orpheus loses everything he used to have. He lives through an everlasting night with no escape nor symbols. Partly because he is prey to bereavement and memory. And partly because he is not up to inventing a new life for himself. Another reason may be he has subverted the natural order of things. He might as well be incapable of dying for love. Or rather for all of these reasons put together.

With the three tracks of this mini album, Rodolfo Montuoro, never a poet to be taken for granted, fits together three different pieces of a labyrinthine plot, managing to intercept them the moment they interact with his imagination. Here Rodolfo summons the descent to the Underworld, forever bordering as he is on gothic-tinged shadow-haunted landscapes, forever swaying on the brink of the gorge.

A sublime album featuring a riot of colours, soundscapes and unusual instruments like the theremin, punctiliously yet emotively played by Vincenzo Vasi. This instrument perfectly conveys the vertiginous sense of foreboding which pervades all tracks. It immediately conjures up a continuous shift from one sound layer to the next. The urgent percussion, the evocative melodies of the strings and the sax, and the blatant rock guitars are wonderfully matched by the theremin, which magnifies, absorbs and lends intensity to the sounds by combining naturally with a poignant unordinary voice. The unmistakably elegant wide palette of the Scarpato Brothers’ phrases certainly lives up to all our expectations. Not to mention the ever powerful and visionary artwork by Francesco Marangon and the magnificent musicians making up the rest of the team, Naomi Berrill (on cello), Ilaria Lanzoni (on violin), Alessandro Gandola (on sax), Francesco Gabbanini (on bass) and Emiliano Garofoli (on mix).

Orfeo by Rodolfo Montuoro will be available in all digital stores.