The vocal recording sessions for the newNIGHTWISH album, “Imaginarium”, have been postponed until April 4 in order to allow the band’s singer, Anette Olzon, a longer recovery period after she suffered broken ribs in a recent fall. She writes on her blog, “me, [NIGHTWISH manager Ewo Pohjola of King Foo Entertainment Ltd.] and [NIGHTWISH mainman/keyboardist]Tuomas[Holopainen] decided that it’s better if I rest the whole month and get in shape so I can do the vocals super good and have booked my vocal recordings from April 4 instead in another studio in Finland. This is really good, ’cause no one will be happy if the album won’t sound perfect. And we don’t have any hurry since the album has plenty of time to get mastered and ready still.”
Holed up in the studio for the better part of this spring, NIGHTWISH is not only putting finishing touches to its new album, “Imaginarium”, but also planning a movie of the same name. If all goes well, the CD will be released in early 2012, to be followed by the movie at some point further down the line. The first single off the album as well as the trailer for the film should arrive well before the end of 2011.
For the movie, NIGHTWISH has teamed up with director Stober Harju‘s production team and Solar Films.
Finnish TV channel YLE TV1 recently conducted an interview with NIGHTWISH mainman/keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen and Stobe Harju, the director’s of the band’s upcoming movie,“Imaginarium”. You can now watch the report below. (Note: The report is in Finnish, but it contains English subtitles.) Source: Blabbermouth.net
Holed up in the studio for the better part of this spring, Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH are not only putting finishing touches to their new album, “Imaginarium”, but also planning a movie of the same name. If all goes well, the CD will be released in early 2012, to be followed by the movie at some point further down the line. The first single off the album as well as the trailer for the film should arrive well before the end of 2011.
For the movie, NIGHTWISH has teamed up with director Stober Harju‘s production team and Solar Films.
The following update on the project has been posted on the band’s official web site:
“After about five hundred post-it notes, two hundred written pages, hundreds of reference pictures, five hundred storyboard pictures, millions of bloody tears, mixed feelings of joy, extensive courting, happy coincidences, and more than two and a half years of planning, it’s time to report about the progress of the ‘Imaginarium’ movie.
“The pre-production of ‘Imaginarium’ is already in full swing. Pretty much everything revolves around the script, which is currently being finalized. This is the phase when the dialogue is honed to perfection and dramaturges offer critical feedback of the plot.
“Pre-production is also the stage when various artists, led by the director, commence work on the sets, props, costumes, and make-up. Concept art is drawn, and both the director and the director of photography discuss the cinematography and the mode of story-telling with the help of the storyboard.
“Unfortunately, pre-production is also a time of rejection, when many original visions have to give way for harsh reality. This is not bad as it seems, however. The story usually crystallizes at this point, and many ideas that originally felt so great reveal themselves to be essentially superfluous. And that’s a good thing.
“Pre-production usually lasts several weeks, and coordinating the shooting schedule and especially building the sets, sewing the costumes and preparing the SFX can take months. So writing this a week from now would still be topical.
“Each time we’ve listened to the ‘Imaginarium’ demo, it has not failed to cause satisfied laughter, emotion-filled tears, or strong shivers in us. We hope that when the time comes, you’ll share those same feelings when watching ‘Imaginarium’ on the silver screen or from the comfort of your sofa.
“We bid you welcome to follow these waypoints on the road to ‘Imaginarium’. Enter 2012.”
NIGHTWISH have posted video footage from the recording sessions for the orchestral parts and choir sections for the band’s upcoming album,“Imaginarium”, at Angel Studios in London, England.
A new studio diary entry from NIGHTWISH mainman/keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen follows below.
“We arrived at Angel Studios in Islington, London in the evening of Valentine’s Day and had a most friendly welcome from studio engineers Steve Price and Mat Bartram. They’d already set up everything for next day’s recordings, which would include three three-hour sessions with a 53-piece orchestra, most of the players being familiar faces from the ‘Once’ and ‘Dark Passion Play’ sessions. Pip [Williams, the orchestral arranger] joined us at the hotel and we were all excited and ready for a week of long days and for witnessing some superb musicianship.
“A heartwarming feeling of reunion and nostalgia filled the air when we met the session musicians on Tuesday morning. We started off with ‘Goat’s Liver’ (working title… probably), followed by a couple of more epic pieces and all the rest that required a large orchestra.
“The musicianship of these people never ceases to amaze me. They’ve never heard the songs before, they haven’t had any rehearsals, and still they nail all the songs, even those in the hardest imaginable key, after just one or two run-throughs. Their prima vista — playing is something out of a science fiction story… Respect.
“Mr. Thomas Bowes did a fantastic job as our orchestra leader, Mr. James Shearman was a most superb conductor, and once again, Pip topped himself with the arrangements. We had put much more effort and thought into them than on the previous two albums, too.
“On Wednesday we continued with the orchestral recordings, last of the day’s sessions being with a 20-piece string / harp – section. Some new working titles were also born, such as ‘The Birdie Song’, ‘Teriyaki’ and ‘Haunted Mansion Ride’.
Thursday was the day for percussion and ethnic drums. This time we decided to record all the rhythmic instruments separately from the orchestra to make it easier for the mixing process. Because some of the sounds the percussionists came up with would literally blow your eardrums off.
“The highlight of the day was when we let loose Mr. Paul Clarvis and Mr. Stephen Henderson with their ethnic percussion arsenal. Paul’s 350-year-old taiko drum really did the trick for me, as did the five-foot hammer and a dustbin. We put all this into a one three-minute instrumental, and the result is breathtaking and madly passionate.
“Friday was booked for choirs. Again that sensation of nostalgia when The Metro Voices entered the building. We had 13 titles to sing and they did it in less than seven hours, prima vista. Utterly gorgeous stuff!
“A childrens’ choir is something we haven’t tried on a NIGHTWISH album before and its turn was on Saturday morning. The Young Musicians London, led by the wonderful Mary Poppins-like Lynda Richardson, were simply heartbreaking. These kids have immense talent, they are future superstar musicians and we are proud to have them on our album. Their sound was beautiful, innocent and in parts very, very scary. And that’s exactly what we were after.
“During the evening we had two more guest musicians, Mr. Dermot Crehan (of ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ fame) with his hardanger fiddle and Mr. Dirk Campbell with his zurna. Both performances were stunning and added a nice little ancient touch to two of the songs.
“Our most humble thanks to all the session musicians, the Angel Studios staff, Pip, James, Thomas, Lynda, Dick the music copyist and Jenny the choir mistress. It was a huge honor to work with you all and to have such talent and spirit captured on ‘Imaginarium’!”
NIGHTWISH mainman Tuomas Holopainen has revealed more details about the band’s upcoming “Imaginarium” album and movie project exclusively to Petri Silasof Finland’s Soundi magazine.
In an interview that was conducted on February 13, just prior to Tuomasflying over to London to oversee the recording of the album’s orchestral parts and choir sections, Holopainen said that he was responsible for penning all of the music on “Imaginarium”, with the exception of one track, which was written by vocalist/bassist Marco Hietala.
The new NIGHTWISH CD includes an epic 20-minute track which may or may not be split into two sections during the mastering. This is why Holopainen can’t say yet whether the album will consist of 12 or 13 songs. Orchestral arrangements by Pip Williams and assorted Celtic instrumentation by Troy Donockley will once again make an appearance on the new album (as they did on 2007’s “Dark Passion Play”). However, according to Holopainen, two of the tracks on “Imaginarium” will have no orchestral score whatsoever. There are also some very interesting new sounds in the mix.
“We are using a wide array of ethnic instruments like the Taiko drums and the zurna on ‘Imaginarium’ The choir parts are yet again delivered by The Metro Voices,”Tuomas said.
The movie “Imaginarium”, directed by Stobe Harju, will follow the album’s theme and story closely and will also include dialogue. All the preliminary screenplay work is finished and the storyboards are now done but no actors or actresses have yet been cast. In Holopainen’s estimation, mainly unknown actors would be the best choice for the film as “unfamiliar faces tend to leave more space to the viewers’ imagination.”
No shooting locations have been chosen so far.
Holopainen has a decidedly low-key attitude towards the entire movie project. He has personally adopted a humble “straight-to-DVD” mentality but adds that “of course, it would be great” to experience the movie in a proper theater setting one day. “Time will tell whether we are able to stage some special viewings in select movie theaters in Finland and maybe Sweden and Germany as well,” he said. “But I’m gonna be super-happy with even a DVD release.”
The underlying themes of “Imaginarium” are a positive outlook and a certain “carpe diem” attitude to life.
“Because ‘Dark Passion Play’ turned out to be the band’s darkest and heaviest album to date, this time I wanted to be inspired by love and the beauty of the world,” statedHolopainen.
With regards to the similarity of the name and the concept of “Imaginarium”to Terry Gilliam‘s 2009 feature film “The Imaginarium Of Dr. Panassus”, Holopainen maintains that he came upon his concept for the album — and the name “Imaginarium“ — approximately two years ago while vacationing and traveling in Australia. He has yet to see“The Imaginarium Of Dr. Panassus”but admits to having already purchased a DVD copy of the film.
Petri Silas‘ entire interview with Tuomas Holopainen will appear in the 3/2011 issue of Soundi magazine, due in Finland on February 23.
NIGHTWISH will hold a press conference related to this project at the end of February.
Regarding the musical direction of the forthcoming album, singer Anette Olzon recently wrote on her official blog, “I think it’s a great and varied CD. The feelings in it are great and there are a lot of elements in it, so I am sure it will have many different favorite songs for the listeners since the songs are so different in styles and sound. ‘Dark Passion Play’ is a great album and this one, too, so I don’t know yet which one I like more, but, of course, for me personally, this one feels better to do since the songs are more adjusted to my voice and my style.”
On January 14, NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen was interviewed by his official web site, The Escapist, at his hotel in London, England during the recording sessions for the band’s new album, “Imaginarium”. You can now watch the chat in two parts below. Source: Blabbermouth.net
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The vocal recording sessions for the new NIGHTWISH album, “Imaginarium”, have been postponed until April 4 in order to allow the band’s singer, Anette Olzon, a longer recovery period after she suffered broken ribs in a recent fall. She writes on her blog, “me, [NIGHTWISH manager Ewo Pohjola of King Foo Entertainment Ltd.] and [NIGHTWISH mainman/keyboardist] Tuomas [Holopainen] decided that it’s better if I rest the whole month and get in shape so I can do the vocals super good and have booked my vocal recordings from April 4 instead in another studio in Finland. This is really good, ’cause no one will be happy if the album won’t sound perfect. And we don’t have any hurry since the album has plenty of time to get mastered and ready still.”
Holed up in the studio for the better part of this spring, Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers 
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