Marina Viotti, Vincent Flückiger, Fred Chappuis – Melankhôlia: In Darkness Through The Light (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 58:15 minutes | 558 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naive
The intensely personal new album from mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti, new signing to the naïve label. It features eight spellbinding songs by Dowland, interwoven with a number of notorious pop songs by Björk, U2, Neil Young and others. Lute player Vincent Flückiger and multi-instrumentalist and producer Fred Chappuis support her throughout this highly lyrical, joyously melancholy journey.
In December 2017, in Fribourg, mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti met lutenist Vincent Flückiger and multi-instrumentalist, engineer and producer Fred Chappuis. Under the impetus of director Wouter Van Looy, they put together an intoxicating show that blends the melancholy songs of John Dowland (1563-1626) with the sounds of electronic music, with a view to performances at the Lucerne Theatre the following spring. All three originally came from rock/metal/punk backgrounds, and Wouter Van Looy was to rekindle in each of them a deep longing for elsewhere.
Following the success of the Lucerne evenings, the mezzo-soprano engaged her two colleagues, now friends, a few months later, in the pursuit of a common adventure, which was sealed in the idea of Melankhôlia: Dowland’s bewitching songs would now be joined by well-known pop songs rearranged in the same spirit, where the archlute or the modern electric guitar would willingly be surrounded by a Moog, percussion or a mellotron, embracing the voice. Two eras speak to each other, dialoguing until they merge.
Several themes structure this intensely lyrical journey, carried by Marina Viotti’s lascivious voice: love and its illusions, evoked as much in U2’s One as in Dowland’s Fairwell, Too Fair, hopes (Dowland’s Die Not Before Thy Day or Björk’s Jóga) as well as death (Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die preceded by Dowland’s In Darkness Let Me Dwell) or redemption (Dowland’s Flow My Tears).
Tracklist:
1-1. Marina Viotti – Prelude (01:45)
1-2. Marina Viotti – Mourn, Mourn, Day is with Darkness Fled (00:55)
1-3. Marina Viotti – Stay Time a While Thy Flying (Version for Voice, Archlute and Electric Guitar) (02:48)
1-4. Marina Viotti – Old Man (03:23)
1-5. Marina Viotti – Fairwell, Too Fair (Version for Voice, Archlute and Moog) (03:46)
1-6. Marina Viotti – One (04:33)
1-7. Marina Viotti – Dear, If You Change (Version for Voice, Archlute and Guitars) (03:45)
1-8. Marina Viotti – Nothing Else Matters (04:18)
1-9. Marina Viotti – Intermede (01:48)
1-10. Marina Viotti – In Darkness Let Me Dwell (Version for Voice, Electric Guitar and Electronics) (06:20)
1-11. Marina Viotti – Born To Die (04:15)
1-12. Marina Viotti – Die Not Before Thy Day (Version for Voice, Archlute and Electric Guitar) (02:25)
1-13. Marina Viotti – Hurt (03:57)
1-14. Marina Viotti – Go Crystal Tears (Version for Voice, Archlute and Mellotron) (03:38)
1-15. Marina Viotti – Jóga (05:14)
1-16. Marina Viotti – Flow My Tears (Version for Voice and Archlute) (05:17)
