Nightwish

Nightwish have released the score to their eagerly anticipated movie “Imaginaerum” The Album features 13 grandiose, unreleased re-interpretations of “Imaginaerum” tracks by Petri Alanko.
It is largely orchestral, dark, emotive and surprisingly effective – I am not generally a fan of scores without the imagery that they are designed to support or improve but here the music has its own power and story.

The movie was directed by Stobe Harju and produced by Solar Films, and features appearances by all Nightwish members while the screenplay is based on a wild vision that Tuomas Holopainen, the mastermind of the band, devised after the album Dark Passion Play came out in 2007.

Holopainen says “I though of how we could take our expression that had already became pretty ambitious and grandiose to the next level, and that’s when I knew I wanted to tell a story, and to tell it with love and piety.”
The piety is apparent almost as a penitent edge to the music and the whole thing is certainly grandiose.
“I want to already thank everyone from the bottom of my heart. Together we’ve managed to create something innovative, strange, and timeless”, Holopainen states.
“It all started during the spring of 2007 when we were finishing the mixings for `Dark Passion Play´, says Tuomas. “I remember vividly listening through the songs and thinking what would be the next chapter in NIGHTWISH’S chronicles? When I look back at our catalogue, I see the evolution of the band, how the stories and musical landscapes evolve from one album to the next one, to the next one, to this present moment. During that time I strongly felt we need the next chapter to be something no-one`s ever done before in music. Something so big, crossover, detailed, innovative and nuts that it would leave the band, and hopefully the people experiencing it, completely awestruck. Love it or hate it, but awestruck nonetheless”, does he point out uncompromising. “I realized we needed to add another dimension into the music, and release the album as a visual experience also.”

The movie is based on the album and its 13 tracks, “honoring the original ideas but having evolved radically from them. Still, it was important from the very beginning that the album would work as its own individual piece of art, as well. It is a thematic album about life itself, about imagination, love, goodness and beauty, with a touch of darkness and melancholy, which are strongly included in all of those things mentioned. `Imaginaerum´ is an audiovisual testament of what NIGHTWISH has always been about.”

“The hybrid of the album and the movie will be something never created before. An adventure into a wondrous place we all know but have long since forgotten. We hope you`ll enjoy the ride!”

The music is definitely worth investigating on its own but in combination with the visual this should be a remarkable piece.