Rockshots Records and prog rock orchestra AINUR have joined forces again to release today, on Tolkien‘s birthday, the brand new single and video “Forging of the Rings“.
Ainur started thinking about this song after Amazon’s “The Rings of Power” announcement. They were excited that the series would take us back to Middle-Earth again, but at the same time they realized that they had never produced a song about “The Lord of the Rings“.
For that reason Luca Catalano, one of the founders and main composers of the band, started to write about the music, and in only two hours the entire song was made.
“This is a big evolution in Ainur history” comments Catalano, “since it’s the first time in almost 17 years that we talk about “The Lord of the Rings” topics. In fact we always dealt with The Silmarillion subjects and only one time with The Hobbit ones”.
Ainur keep carrying on their music inspired by Tolkien’s works with this new single released by Rockshots Records,and they are already working on a new album that will be closely following the way that they started with “War of the Jewels (Wars of Beleriand – Part 1)”.
The single was mixed by Massimiliano Flak at Evolution Studios and mastered by Brett-Caldas Lima at Tower Studios.
Ainur is: Luca Catalano – Composer, Guitars, Vocals Marco Catalano – Composer, Drums, Vocals Alex Armuschio – Composer, Keys, Lead Vocals Max Clara – Lead Vocals Roberta Malerba – Lead Vocals Elena Richetta – Lead Vocals Giuseppe Ferrante – Bass, Contrabass Luca Marangoni – Violin Carlo Perillo – Viola Daniela Lorusso – Cello Cristiano Blasi – Flutes Chiara Marangoni – Horns Wilma Collo – Lyrics
Inspired by Tolkienian mythology, prog rock orchestra AINUR has been composing J.R.R. Tolkien masterpieces into galloping escapades across the audio landscape for nearly two decades.
Their new album “War of The Jewels” sees the band take an interesting evolution in sound from previous releases. Ainur will completely immerse fans in J.R.R.Tolkien’s war atmospheres. They have imagined every story and every battle and recreate them through unique and deep music.
The collective has shared their music video for the next single “Apocalypse” in support of the upcoming full length.
About the new single the band comments: “This song concludes the album and we wanted to end an epic album like this with an epic song. Apocalypse is the Music representation of the sinking of Beleriand when ‘the valleys were upheaved and the hills trod down; and Sirion was no more’. The rhythm of the beginning of the song leaves space to a moment of darkness and immobility broken by the string section movement and it grows up until the ending explosion. It is also a song of hope: the war against the Dark Lord has finally ended and the Middle-Earth can now focus on a new beginning “hoping from now on the sun will shine”.
“‘War of the Jewels’ is the eleventh volume of “The History of Middle-Earth”. In Tolkien’s mythology is the tale of the big wars that came out after the creation of the Silmarils by Fëanor. The main theme is the big battles of Beleriand, except for Nirnaeth Arnoediad that will have big space in our next album. The main implied character is Fëanor, the mightiest of the Elves. Musically, it’s a thematic album as all our previous and future ones and you will recognize musical themes that we already used in “From Ancient Times”, “Children of Hùrin” and “Lay of Leithian”; however, the atmospheres are more aggressive and mighty than in the past because the topics we have put in Music this time needed a more powerful musical support.“
Track Listing: 1. Fate Disclosed ft. Ted Nasmith (2:08) 2. Wars Of Beleriand (6:58) 3. Hell of Iron (5:46) 4. Wars Begin (7:01) 5. Kinslaying (The First) ft. Ted Nasmith (7:43) 6. Grinding Ice (8:27) 7. Battle Under The Stars ft. Derek Sherinian (4:39) 8. Spirit Of Fire ft. Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth) & Ted Nasmith (7:17) 9. The Broidress (3:43) 10. The Great Battle (Or The War Of Wrath) ft. Ted Nasmith (11:58) 11. Apocalypse (4:24) 12. Apocalypse (Acoustic Bonus Track) (3:46) [Digital only] Album Length: 1:13:55
Artwork by Felipe Machado (Blind Guardian, Axel Rudi Pell, etc)
Ainur is: Luca Catalano – Composer, Guitars, Vocals Marco Catalano – Composer, Drums, Vocals Alex Armuschio – Composer, Keys, Lead Vocals Max Clara – Lead Vocals Roberta Malerba – Lead Vocals Elena Richetta – Lead Vocals Giuseppe Ferrante – Bass, Contrabass Luca Marangoni – Violin Carlo Perillo – Viola Daniela Lorusso – Cello Cristiano Blasi – Flutes Chiara Marangoni – Horns Wilma Collo – Lyrics
Inspired by Tolkienian mythology, prog-rock orchestra AINUR has been composing J.R.R. Tolkien masterpieces into galloping escapades across the audio landscape for nearly two decades.
Their next anticipated record “War of The Jewels” is due out March 19th, 2021 (CD+Digital) (Vinyl – June 12th) via Rockshots Records, which sees the band take an interesting evolution in sound from previous releases. Ainur will completely immerse fans in J.R.R.Tolkien’s war atmospheres. They have imagined every story and every battle and recreate them through unique and deep music.
The band comments: “‘War of the Jewels’ is the eleventh volume of “The History of Middle-Earth”. In Tolkien’s mythology is the tale of the big wars that came out after the creation of the Silmarils by Fëanor. The main theme is the big battles of Beleriand, except for Nirnaeth Arnoediad that will have big space in our next album. The main implied character is Fëanor, the mightiest of the Elves. Musically, it’s a thematic album as all our previous and future ones and you will recognize musical themes that we already used in “From Ancient Times”, “Children of Hùrin” and “Lay of Leithian”; however, the atmospheres are more aggressive and mighty than in the past because the topics we have put in Music this time needed a more powerful musical support.“
The compositional process of “War of The Jewels” has been very long. It started in 2009 (or maybe before) and it ended more or less last year. Ainur sees it as their “rebirth” album. They have been working hard composing and arranging their music to create the best tribute to Tolkien’s histories that they can.
Today, the collective shares their music video for the next single “Kinslaying (The First)” [ft. Ted Nasmith] in support of the upcoming full length.
The band adds: “This song came almost by chance. Everything began with the initial chord, then we put the classical instruments on it and everything else came in the blink of an eye. We wanted to describe one of the darkest moments in Tolkien’s mythology: the Alqualondë fratricide, also called ‘First Kinslaying’, when Elves killed other Elves for the first time. When we asked Wilma (our poetess that writes almost all our original lyrics) to write something about this dark moment, she came back with one of the best lyrics ever written for us and a verse of this song became the ‘main topic’ of the album: ‘No longer Brothers, while vessels burn, beyond the riot of waves that churn’. From minute 5 you will be amazed by the powerful sadness of these words.”
Track Listing: 1. Fate Disclosed ft. Ted Nasmith (2:08) 2. Wars Of Beleriand (6:58) 3. Hell of Iron (5:46) 4. Wars Begin (7:01) 5. Kinslaying (The First) ft. Ted Nasmith (7:43) 6. Grinding Ice (8:27) 7. Battle Under The Stars ft. Derek Sherinian (4:39) 8. Spirit Of Fire ft. Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth) & Ted Nasmith (7:17) 9. The Broidress (3:43) 10. The Great Battle (Or The War Of Wrath) ft. Ted Nasmith (11:58) 11. Apocalypse (4:24) 12. Apocalypse (Acoustic Bonus Track) (3:46) [Digital only] Album Length: 1:13:55
Artwork by Felipe Machado (Blind Guardian, Axel Rudi Pell, etc)
It’s been 17 years since AINUR thought to transform Tolkien’s masterpiece “The Silmarillion” into music. Each member of the band was lost in his own musical themes inspired by Tolkienian mythology. As if hypnotized, they outrageously composed themes for the main characters and started to imagine this huge concept work to which they still work on today.
Ainur has signed with Rockshots Records to release the highly anticipated “War of The Jewels”, which sees the band take an interesting evolution in sound from previous releases. Ainur will completely immerse fans in J.R.R.Tolkien’s war atmospheres. They have imagined every story and every battle and recreate them through unique and deep music. The band explains in further detail:
“We always follow the path that Tolkien himself has outlined in his tales, so we tried to create a concept that embraces the Wars of Beleriand throughout the album. Since the topic is a little bit complex this time, we thought to divide the concept into two albums: then, side by side with “Children of Hurin” and “Lay of Leithian”, they will flow into a big opera that will unite the third chapter of Wars of Beleriand and Lays of Beleriand.”
The band further comments on releasing with Rockshots Records: “This is the first album without our historical label Electromantic. We owe a lot to Beppe and his staff, but we felt that we needed something new for our project. There were some labels interested in having us on their roster but when we talked with Roberto and Valerio from Rockshots Records we realized that that was the right way. And now that we are releasing the album we can say that we made the right choice.”
The compositional process of “War of The Jewels” has been very long. It started in 2009 (or maybe before) and it ended more or less last year. Ainur sees it as their “rebirth” album. They have been working hard composing and arranging their music to create the best tribute to Tolkien’s histories that they can.
Fans of Tolkien’s work along with fans of Ayreon, Queen, and John Williams will be surprised by the majesty and the energy of this work.
The 2021 release date for “War of the Jewels” through Rockshots Records will be announced at a later date.
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