AINUR band!

The Interview!

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By Darkzen

21/03/2021

 

Official Bio

 

The Ainur are currently one of the most important musical reality of Tolkien's world view: their records are indeed focused on the musical transposition of the books and the works of JRR Tolkien.

Their record production now boasts 4 albums, From Ancient Times (2006), a symbolic journey into “The Silmarillion”; Children of Húrin (2007), inspired by the book of the same name by JRR Tolkien; Lay of Leithian (2009), completely dedicated to the story dearest to the Master, that is the long poem focused on the great story of Beren and Luthien; The Lost Tales(2013), acoustic album that traces the exploits of Eriol in “The Lost Tales”. In addition, the band has 2 DVDs, one contained in the special edition of Children of Hurin and one completely live entitled  Progressive Rock Night, which Federico Alotto, a well-known director from Turin, took part in. All the works have been produced by Beppe Crovella and Electromantic  Music in the Italian prog catalog.

 

At the end of 2014, their first single “There and Back Again” was also released, to date the only work of the band to pay homage to a timeless work by JRRTolkien: The  Hobbit.

 

Ainur always uses an orchestral type of writing bringing classic instruments closer to modern electric instruments, addressing different genres and sounds from time to time to recreate the mythological and cosmogonic complex of JRRTolkien.

 

In addition to a stable formation of 13 elements, several guests have approached over time including the I Musici di San Grato Orchestra conducted by Edoardo Narbona, Alessandro  Cammilli of the Teatro Regio in Turin, Alan Brunetta, Ferdinando Catalano, and many others.

 

They love to define their work as a Concept Work, a set of concept albums that form a single large conceptual work dedicated to The Silmarillion.

 

The band participates annually in the great fantasy events of the Italian and European scene and constitutes a stable reality in the Italian progressive world and in the fantasy world in general.

 

Hello! Ainur band!! Thanks for the opportunity to have this interview!

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Ainur:

 

Thank you for this! It’s a great pleasure!

 

How are you band in this time with this situation?

 

Ainur:

 

Well, actually this time is very hard for all the world. Music and arts were really crushed by Covid situation, but we hope that when these times will pass we will see a new renaissance.

 

It is amazing to see an Orchestra with so many members! The question is why, why Tolkien? Does each member of the Orchestra have that hobby?

 

Ainur:

 

Actually, the idea of a Tolkien-inspired project came in 2004 when some of us used to take part in a Tolkienian Literary Club one day per week. Then we keep adding people to the project because we wanted to have all the possible musical shades to transpose Tolkien’s words into Music. Now we have established 12 elements (both classical and electric instruments plus 4 lead singers) and 1 poetess who writes the original lyrics. Not all 13 Ainur loves Tolkien as the other ones, but surely it’s a common passion

 

What does mean the name of the Orchestra?

 

Ainur:

 

“Ainur” is a word that Tolkien invented and it identifies a kind of “angels” in the Middle-Earth World. Tolkien told that his world had been created by Iluvatar, the One, together with Ainur and they made all the things imagining that in a Great Music. So calling us Ainur seemed like an obligatory choice!

 

The music that you guys make is great! How do you base your musical creations and compositions on the Tolkien story?

 

Ainur:

 

Thank you for the compliments! We never put any barriers to our Music: we read Tolkien stories and we let ourselves be inspired by that. Does this tale inspire us to a rock song? Then we’ll make a rock song; does it inspire us an orchestral one? Then it’ll be orchestral. We wanted to be an Orchestra not to have any obstacles in creating and composing music and it is our greatest success.

 

Is there a favorite character that you base your songs the most on?

 

Ainur:

 

Very hard question. Every one of us has his favorite character. We try not to be influenced by that, but we think it’s normal. One of Luca’s favorites (Luca is one of the 3 main composers) is Feanor. So the album that is going to be released is mainly inspired by him and the story of his jewels, the Silmarils. The album before this one has been inspired by Eriol, the one before by Beren & Luthien, the one before by Hurin and Turin. We have A LOT of favorite characters!

 

Besides the influence of Tolkien's story, what influences within Metal do you have in general?

 

Ainur:

 

We of course are inspired by all Tolkien’s metal episodes, like Blind Guardian most of all. But we wanted to create a different kind of Music: we wanted to use Progressive more than Metal (even if we love Metal!) because we think that Progressive gives us many more musical chances. So we can say that our main influence is Ayreon. Then Dream Theater, Avantasia, Nightwish, Transatlantic and many other outside Metal world like Queen, John Williams, Frank Zappa.

 

Darkzen:

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Excellent! Master Arjen!

 

Have you performed plays in your country? What bands have you alternated?

 

Ainur:

 

Yes, we have performed live since 2004. We played in our city and in theaters all over Italy; we also used to play in Tolkienian and fantasy events. We shared the stage with Folkstone, Euthymia, Vurtula, Ossi Duri and many others. We look forward to performing live again as soon as possible.

 

Tell us about your single ''Spirit of Fire''? The production I know is about the work of The Silmarillion, how did you adapt this concept of work?

 

Ainur:

 

“Spirit of Fire” is the first single we had in mind when we were composing our new album because of the topic of the song: it talks about Feanor and his spirit. Feanor is one of the main characters of “The Silmarillion” since he created the Silmarils themselves. We wanted to have a big guest for this so we asked Roberto Tiranti from Labyrinth and New Trolls to be part of that and when he said yes we knew that this song would have become great!

 

You are right, we base our work on “The Silmarillion”: we just choose a topic and we develop songs around that. Actually, this work has been made years ago, we have our path drafted all in front of us until the end of the days!

 

The new full album is War of the Jewels, tell us about the album?

 

Ainur:

 

Of course! "War of the Jewels" and tells of all the great battles in Tolkien's world that came directly from the creation of the Silmarils. We have great guests for the album: Ted Nasmith, who is one of the greatest Tolkien illustrators in the world; Roberto Tiranti, as we have said; Derek Sherinian, from Dream Theater and Sons of Apollo. Then we have a lot of illustrators that made illustrations for our booklet since we want to carry on this project as a meta-artistic project: not only music, but arts, illustrations, dancing, videos, etc. The cover art has been made by Felipe Machado, who worked for Blind Guardian and many others. The mastering of the album has been made by Brett Caldas-Lima in Tower Studio, the one who made Ayreon, Devin Townsend and many others mix/masterings.

 

We chose Rockshots Records for this because we immediately felt the same things and we knew that we were in the right place when we talked about the album with them.

 

During these months and of course, after this single, will you give a presentation on a social network?

 

Ainur:

 

Not for now: we are focusing on the online promotion since we wanted to have the crowd in front of us when we perform live. But we’ll not say no to a big online event because we don’t know how long this pandemic will stand. So we don’t know yet, we are just living day by day.

 

What progress have you for fans to tell them?

 

Ainur:

 

Our fans will feel a big change in our sound: that’s because of the topic of this album. We’re talking about WARS and wars need more powerful music. But we know that our old fans will like this and I hope also new fans can enjoy this!

 

Anything else you would like to share with our readers?

 

Ainur:

 

Only to keep following us and to read Tolkien’s books! So you would be immersed in his worlds and in our Music!

 

Thank you very much for this interview! For Darkzen Dragón Metal Angels!

 

Thank you! It was a pleasure! Keep rockin’!

 

Info

 

Ainur : ainur@ainur.it

Booking & Label

Rockshots Records: info@rockshots.eu

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https://www.youtube.com/c/AinurIT

https://twitter.com/ainurprog/