SHINING

A cinematic progressive rock experience

RanestRane is a project that to be experienced properly should be witnessed in the flesh. If however, like me, you are unable to hop a jet to Rome anytime soon, you will have to settle for their new double disc set and some videos on YouTube. Ranest Rane are a "live soundtrack" band who first came to our attention with Warner Herzog's "Nosferatu" and now have taken on Kubrick's classic "The Shining." The band typically will give an elaborate live performance on stage with a large video screen displaying the film of choice. Their music is not the usual background soundtrack stuff though, it is original and dynamic progressive rock of top quality.

In describing their sound I would say they mix together elements of classy symphonic, Hogarth-era Marillion, and a touch of the legendary Italian band Goblin in spirit. Their sound is clean and highly expressive and their playing impeccable. Filled with melody and foggy atmospherics, the moods and pace vary greatly from high energy rock with loud lead guitar to soft, trance like passages. Spoken word dialogue from the film seeps through. Basically the band is taking you for a long ride designed specifically to coincide with the film you are watching. Having been able to watch some of "The Shining" performances in YouTube clips, I can attest again they have nailed it. The scenes of Nicholson breaking into the bathroom, then chasing the kid outside through the spooky night time snow are matched fantastically with tension-inducing, soaring prog rock. Without the visuals the music still works although in this case I much prefer the quality vocals to the spoken dialogue.

RanestRane have delivered again. If you want to hear some solid modern symphonic Italian rock with a true cinematic sheen, look no further. However, what this band really needs (and I know they won't want to hear this because it is expensive) is a high-quality, pro-shot DVD of their live concert. Now putting that baby on the home theater would bring Rome right to your living room.

After the promising 2006 debut, in 2011 RanestRane released another self-produced double album conceived as a cine-concerto. This time the starting point is The Shining, a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson in the role of Jack Torrance. The film is based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Stephen King and is set in an isolated hotel in the mountains of Colorado. It tells the story of a man who tries to murder his wife and his son but the line between the supernatural and the psychotic is blurred... "What, exactly, is impelling Jack Torrance toward murder in the winter- isolated rooms and hallways of the Overlook Hotel? Is it undead people, or undead memories? Mr. Kubrick and I came to different conclusions... but perhaps those different conclusions are, in fact, the same. For aren't memories the true ghosts of our lives? Do they not drive all of us to words and acts we regret from time to time?" (Stephen King from the introduction to the 2001 Pocket Books Edition of the novel).

"I'm an engine rediscovering the limits... I'm rediscovering the effort, and the bruises...". The lyrics depict a damned diary of insanity, a mind that gives in under the weight of the snow, drinking the waters of oblivion... The melodic sung parts alternate with evocative instrumental passages and some excerpts from the dialogues of the film with a very good result. The music is more aggressive than in the band's debut work and sometimes tension hangs over you like a cloud full of black rain, pregnant, ready to burst. But in other moments the music becomes soft and sweet and mellow, following you down into a deeper sleep where thought ceases and the faces that come in dreams go unremembered... "You'll savor the waters of oblivion! / Hedges and corridors, bright red all around...".

Well, I like very much both the novel and the film. In my opinion the musical and lyrical interpretation of RanestRane is quite good as well... The packaging is excellent too and the art cover reproduces a painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski that perfectly fits the mood of this work.