#Virgin black requiem pianissimo digitsl full#
#Virgin black requiem pianissimo digitsl series#

Yet despite the difficult and protracted birth, Requiem - Pianissimo and the series it completes will be marked down in history as a unique and shining achievement.Another band I know far less about than I probably should is Woods Of Ypres. With an unerring artistic commitment, bordering on folly, composers Sesca Scaarba and Rowan London financially backed the project entirely themselves and notably - these many years later - still remain tens of thousands of dollars in debt to 'incredibly generous and understanding people' as London put it. Six individual audio engineers were engaged to realise production, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra enlisted to perform the scores, and the Adelaide Stamford Academy Choir for performance of choral arrangements. Many passages for the words were reproduced from traditional religious mass texts and lend a ceremonial component offset by the far more personal and emotional words penned specifically for the project which interject throughout.

#Virgin black requiem pianissimo digitsl full#

Musical elements such as a full string ensemble (with specifically requested low C-tuned basses), woodwinds, horns, brass, timpani, heavy A#-tuned guitars, drums, tenor/baritone and soprano solo voices, death solo voice, and full choir are at times dexterously interwoven and at other times deliberately thrust together for chaotic effect.

Typifying that betrayal is the semi-atonal vocal barrage referred to as the 'death choir' - a chorus of extreme voices employing a resonant undertone technique found most commonly in death metal. On display is both an adherence to and an outright betrayal of the long-established tradition of requiem masses in classical music. Total duration at 2 hours 33 minutes.īefitting 'a mass for the dead', the sounds, whether represented by orchestral or metal instrumentation, are ever-presently dirgeful and heartrending. It is a requiem mass composed as one unfolding piece, progressing from the all-orchestral first stage, through to a balanced, collaborative orchestra/band middle section, concluding with the band coming to the fore in the final and heaviest section. However, the project is outlandish and intriguing on such a level that an unadorned, and plainly factual description is paradoxically apt.

In describing Virgin Black's Requiem, there is a tendency to want to match its grand scale with equally grandiose language. That, and the series of chronologically dated images that followed, left fans divided on whether or not they were witnessing a return to life after ten years, or a final memorial.įans feverishly debated, but when the date jumped to 2018 with a new image of Sesca Scaarba (formerly Samantha Escarbe) and Rowan London, followed by a shock posting of the first 13 minutes of the fabled album, it was essentially unanimous that Requiem - Pianissimo was real, and imminent. In August 2018 the Virgin Black Facebook page suddenly had all of its content deleted, with a single ambiguous image left instead. The online world is littered with comments and editorials signifying a final sigh of dismay as people let go of the belief that Pianissimo would ever actually come to bear. Pioneers in a time when musical categories were far more rigidly adhered to.Īs the years ticked by, even the most ardent fans had their hopes for the missing album's release evaporate. A key figure in the marked era of legendary label The End Records, it was Virgin Black, alongside equally unique and self-assured acts such as Antimatter and Agalloch that were emblematic of the label's strong vanguard ethos.