WINTERTHROUGH

"Winterthrough" is the third part of Höstonaten's cycle of the seasons and was released in 2008 on the independent label AMS/BTF with a line up featuring along with composer and producer Fabio Zuffanti (bass, bass pedals, acoustic and electric guitar, moog, percussion) also Alessandro Corvaglia (Mellotron, Mini-Moog, synthesizers, keyboards), Maurizio Di Tollo (drums, cymbals, tambourine, gong, percussion), Matteo Nahum (electric guitar), Edmondo Romano (sax, clarinet) and Robbo Vigo (piano, Hammond and Church organ, strings ensemble, glockenspiel, horns). The soft musical colours of Winter are painted here with delicate and balanced classical passages and an overall symphonic sound. Davide Guidoni's art work invites you to take an immaculate white path leading in a wood, there's snow all around and magic in the air...

The epic opener "Entering The Halls Of Winter" begins softly, just some delicate notes of piano, then the rhythm section comes in and the atmosphere becomes hypnotic. You're not walking alone, a whole army of ghosts is marching with you as if they were icy soldiers in a snowstorm... When the rhythm calms down you are alone again and you can admire the beauty of the nature around you. It calls you, go on, look ahead, beyond the horizon, far away, up to the limit of the world... It's not dark yet, but the end is here, in front of you... The voice-over that you can hear on "Red Sky" is taken from Werner Herzog's film, Heart of Glass (as the last words in Autumnsymphony) and evokes apocalyptic images: Time begins to crumble and after Time it's the turn of the Earth, it's the beginning of the end, everything falls down... "I'm falling down, I go down and down, it's the dizziness...". "White Earth" is a short, dreamy acoustic passage but in the following "Snowstorm" powerful winds begin to blow. An electric guitar solo leads to the jazzy "Over The Plain" where a trumpet draws dark shadows on the white landscape. On the second part of the beautiful, ethereal "The Crystal Light" the over-voice comes back conjuring new visions... "Once again I see a feather floating in the brook / And the wind pushing the fire on / I've seen the trees burning like matchsticks / I see some men running up the hill / Breathless, they stop at the top and paralyzed they turn into stone, one beside the other / The forest is made of stone / Everything becomes silent... Am I really the last one?". On "Outside" the rhythm rises and the mood becomes lighter. Next comes the quiet, dreamy "Ruins" that fades into the short acoustic "Through Winter's Air". The last track is the long, complex "Rainsuite" which is divided in four parts (Prelude, New year's theme, Winter's end, Celebration / To the Open Fields...). It starts softly, the mood is melancholic but melancholy eventually gives way to optimism and a drum roll seems to announce the celebration of the vernal equinox and the upcoming rites of spring. A magnificent grand finale for a wonderful album!