sicily | A GIANT LEAP

IT : darkwave, post-punk, world music

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“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world.” Hermann Hesse, Demian

Critical times can and must be crucial for transformation, shaping new identities out of facing crisis and the unexpected. This is the soil that nurtured Ostara’s Bless birth. Paolo Messere, known for his mammoth work as Blessed Child Opera, with more than 10 years and 10 albums under this name, found himself stuck during the self-isolation months in his stunning Art Seahorse House, a white villa surrounded by a huge garden full of cactus, bougainvilleas and palm trees, with a recording studio at its core, and the sicilian sea a few steps away.
In the void of human contacts, the harsh, extreme, vivid mediterranean nature became the source of inspiration for a songwriting still dark and tortured, but also newly and firmly centered in a place at the crosspoint between Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The sunsets of the Stagnone near Marsala, the fascination of the salt pans and the absurd games of colors at the horizon brought in the consciousness and the spell of being in the most African place in Europe.
Masculine/Feminine is the first of two double albums, all due out in 2022, that collect and organise the sheer volume of new compositions that Paolo Messere started to fix in March 2020, following first some sketches from his previous life in Syracuse, but soon flowing with an endless thread of new ideas and sounds. There was plenty of time and a world in standstill and uncertainty outside, and the need to fight demons through recordings.

Masculine the A side, is called so simply because the more masculine side of his personality forged the songs, composed back in Syracuse but lyrically completed in Marsala. As Paolo says: “My way of writing music has changed in the light of my new sound researches, already started with BCO’s last album Love Songs / Complications, and which have reached an higher degree of maturity in light of the new cosmic events, leading me to a new reflection on existence, and on the meaning of being an artist in this fragmented and almost disintegrated contemporaneity. Masculine can be said to be an existentialist and very pagan album, irreverent but poetic, rational but also emotionally intense and painful.”

Feminine, the B side of the album, however, was all written in Marsala. It’s a hymn to the sensuality of female nature, and to the Middle Eastern essence of the surroundings. “The interpretations Rita Saviano gave to my compositions impressively married the overall vision I had of the pieces, giving a unique evocative power to the instrumental mantras. Rita also chose to play with different semantic aspects of the languages, writing and singing the lyrics in Latin, French, English. Feminine also features instrumental compositions that allowed me to experiment with sampling traditional voices of Indian culture, which indeed have become the backbone of the songs themselves.”

When the world started to slowly open up again in Spring 2021, Paolo Messere found himself with 4 albums ready, but many doubts about how and when to release them. Nothing will be the same, it was said, and also his music went through a process of transformation. The egg had to be broken. And it happened when, in October 2021, longtime friend and musician Matteo Anelli came to visit. Matteo had been in several past line ups for Blessed Child Opera, touring and writing songs with Paolo. After one full week of reharsing and writing, it was clear to both that the bond was perfect, and that something new and different was born out of the ashes of Blessed Child Opera.
From the common love for tarots, they choose the name of Ostara’s Bless. Ostara is the ancient deity of the rites of Spring, associated with new creative beginnings, and later with pagan Easter, with the egg as symbol of a new life cracking up from the shell.
Matteo also shaped the visual side of the project, designing the logo and the artworks for all forthcoming releases.
Masculine/Feminine was released on Seahorse Recordings on January 14th, 2022, first digital, and with cds and double vinyls to follow later in the year.
The song Fear of Neglect was chosen for the first video clip, capturing its nervous, almost menacing sound. The song’s lyrics about wanting to grasp something – a love – when one knows it’s lost already, the arabian sounding chorus and the sudden light in the finale perfectly summon the process and themes behind Ostara’s Bless existence.

***Masculine/Feminine***
Double album out Jan 14th, 2022 on Seahorse Recordings

MEDIA LINKS
Rumore Mag (IT)

Terra Relicta (SLO)
Revista the 13th (ARG)
Riserva Indie (IT)
Kalporz (IT)
Rockit (IT)
Radiocoop (IT)
Arearock (IT)
Ondarock (IT)
Tinnitlist (CAN)

FEAR OF THE NEGLECT MEDIA LINKS
Backseat Mafia (UK) – video première
Switch On (IT) – news
Area Rock (IT) – news
Terra Relicta (SLO) – news
Violanoir (RUS)
The Blackout Radio Show with Mike Pougounas (UK/USA/CAN/GR/CYP)
El Santo del Rock (MEX)
Selection Sorties (FR)
The Alternative Frequencies Rock Show – Radio Leyland (UK)
End of the Week Show – Sheppey FM (UK)
Wrinkly Rockers Club (UK)

Ragusa (IT) : chamber pop, darkwave

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Blood red, baroque, luxurious, a charming spell, so it’s the sound of The Shameless, born in October 2016 in Ragusa, deep South of Sicily.
In spite of their Mediterranean origin, their sound is akin to the elegance of Jack, Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk, not forgetting Nick Cave’s ballads, with lush orchestration and a neat songwriting, kidnapping the audience into a world of burning candles, black velvet, piano’s dissonant chords.
The five members musical background ranges from No Wave to Shoegaze, and all of them had previous experiences with other bands, like Charme and Crackers. This graces The Shameless with a distinctive balance between the chamber pop élan and darkwave composure.
“Blossoms”, The Shameless first album, was released in May 2018, receiving positive feedback from Italian press and radio.
The singles Shower Your Love and Wonderful Times, released in Spring 2021, received airplay from independent radio stations worldwide and international coverage.

Love Condemnation, released September 21st, 2021, is the second full-lenght for The Shameless, following their debut Blossoms (2018).
The band from Ragusa chose to move forward from the darkwave of their beginnings, searching for the perfect chemistry between style and emotions, in the footsteps of songwriters as Leonard Cohen, Piano Magic, The Walker Brothers, Cousteau. The lights are still dim, but there are rays of hopes filtering between blue piano chords, severe rhythmics and fluid guitar arrangements.
Love Condemnation was born between October ’19 and March ’21, out of free and spontaneous inspiration. The lyrics deal with the difficult questions related to the meaning and the consequences of powerful human engines as love, hate, faith, compassion, sex.

Rosso sangue, barocco, lussuorioso, questo è il sound di The Shameless, nati nell’Ottobre 2016 a Ragusa, estremo Sud della Sicilia.
A dispetto della loro origine mediterranea, il loro sound si avvicina all’eleganza di band come Jack, Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk, senza ovviamente scordare le ballate a firma Nick Cave, con ricche orchestrazioni e un songwriting curato, che conduce l’ascoltatore in un mondo di candele accese, velluto nero, accordi dissonanti di piano.
Il backgrund musicale dei cinque componenti spazia dalla No Wave allo Shoegaze, e hanno tutti alle spalle esperienze con altri gruppi, come Charme e Crackers. Questo porta a The Shameless un perfetto equilibrio fra lo slancio chamber pop e la compostezza darkwave.
Blossoms, il primo album di The Shameless, è stato pubblicato a Maggio 2018, con riscontri positivi a parte di stampa e radio italiane.
I singoli Shower Your Love e Wonderful Times, pubblicati nella primavera 2021, hanno ricevuto passaggi da radio indipendenti e web features anche a livello internazionale, fra cui un’anteprima video per It’s Psychedelic Baby Mag.

Love Condemnation, in uscita il 21 Settembre 2021, è il loro secondo album; il sound si distacca nettamente dalla dark-wave dell’esordio, raggiungendo una chimica bilanciata di emozioni e stile, nella tradizione di un songwriting caro a Leonard Cohen, Piano Magic, The Walker Brothers, Cousteau. Atmosfere cupe appena illuminate da un barlume di speranza. Accordi azzurri di piano che si muovono all’interno di solide strutture ritmiche e si sciolgono dentro gli arrangiamenti liquidi delle chitarre.
Love Condemnation nasce nel periodo che va da Ottobre 2019 a Marzo 2021, in modo libero e spontaneo, esprimendo anche una matrice intimista che va a interrogarsi sul significato e sulle conseguenze di concetti puri e potenti come amore, fede, odio, compassione, sessualita’.

Wonderful Times, released on June 23rd 2021, is a stylish ballad filled with passion, feeling, torment and redemption.
The black and white video was conceived by The Shameless and Silvia Criscione, directed and edited by Silvia Criscione, and sees the debut as “actress” of the lovely daughter of one band’s member.

WONDERFUL TIMES MEDIA LINKS
It’s Psychedelic Baby Mag (video première)
El Santo del Rock (MEX)
Sounds Good Webzine (IT)
Sélection Sorties (FR)
Tinnitist (CAN)
Radiocoop (IT)
Riserva Indie (IT) – playlist