Lacrimosa is a Swiss
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
duo led by German
Tilo Wolff
Tilo Wolff (born 10 July 1972) is a German musician and artist. He was born in Frankfurt am Main and currently lives in Switzerland.
His longest-running project is the band Lacrimosa, which since its debut in 1990 has produced 11 albums. The b ...
, the main composer, and Finn
Anne Nurmi
Anne Marjanna Nurmi (born 22 August 1968) is a Finnish singer, composer and keyboard player who is a member of the band Lacrimosa. She lives in Switzerland.
Nurmi was born in Tampere. In her youth she sang in church choirs and began playing ke ...
. They are currently based in Switzerland, but originally from Germany. Originally counted among the bands of the
Neue Deutsche Todeskunst
Neue Deutsche Todeskunst (NDT, "New German Death Art") is a musical genre that developed in Germany in the late 1980s. It is credited with establishing the German language in the dark wave movement, although there were already such German bands ...
genre, Lacrimosa are most associated with the
gothic metal
Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy met ...
and
symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...
genres.
Their musical style mixes
gothic rock
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...
and
heavy metal, along with
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
,
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
, and more
classical instruments, although their musical development throughout the years has also led to changes in instrumentation. Lacrimosa's lyrics are written almost exclusively in German, although since the 1995 album ''Inferno'' every album has featured one or two songs in English, generally written by Anne Nurmi. Finnish has also appeared in the spoken intro to two songs ("Schakal" on ''Inferno'' and "The Turning Point" on ''Elodia'') and on a bonus track in a limited edition release of ''
Fassade
Fassade (English: '' Facade'') is the seventh album by German duo Lacrimosa released on 1 October 2001 by Hall of Sermon and Nuclear Blast.
Themes
Whereas the previous album, '' Elodia'', centered on love, ''Fassade''s theme is that of a lonely i ...
'' called ''Vankina''. Their lyrics are mainly about loneliness, sadness, darkness, despair, and love.
The band has sold more than 20,000 copies of each album in Germany, but has also gained a large fanbase in Russia, Mexico and China.
[
]
Brief timeline
* 1990: Tilo Wolff releases a tape called ''Clamor'' using the band name of Lacrimosa.
* 1991: Tilo Wolff founds a new record company called Hall of Sermon, as an independent label to publish Lacrimosa's records.
* 1993: Anne Nurmi joins the solo project to play keyboard, becoming a permanent member soon after.
Musical and thematic development
Lacrimosa's first album, ''Angst'', is a very gloomy piece of slow, rather minimal music, dominated by keyboards and a depressed, sometimes frantic and insane, voice. In this early period, the themes explored through lyrics and music are of a very bleak nature, such as fear; helplessness; loneliness; the non-existence, unattainability or illusionary nature of love; and death. The same thematic preoccupations can be found on the next three albums, ''Einsamkeit'', ''Satura'' and ''Inferno'', but now and then a more positive note begins to sound in the dismal tapestry. Musically, this period is characterised by the introduction of electric guitars and basses, with more and more rock elements being added to the slow, keyboard-based music of the earliest album.
With ''Stille'', Lacrimosa releases an album that might easily be classified as 'metal', a style which they'll keep using for their own purposes from then on. Heavy guitars supplemented by more bombastic arrangements for classical instruments have come to dominate the music, showing a close affinity to symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...
. Thematically, the emphasis on the darker side of human emotions is lowered if not abandoned, with ''Stille'' featuring several uplifting songs. "Stolzes Herz" ("Proud heart") and "Die Strasse der Zeit" ("The Lane of Time") especially sing the praise of individual and cultural strength respectively. "Die Strasse der Zeit" describes a journey backwards through a history ravaged by war, greed and stupidity, until the protagonist finds solace in the youthful hope and strength of ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
culture - an image which reminds one more of Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
than of the depressed songs on ''Angst''.
The next album, '' Elodia'', reduces the role of metal-style guitars and increases that of symphonic, classical arrangements, this time recorded in part by the London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
. Presented as a play in three parts, ''Elodia'' revolves around the theme of love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
. The gothic element is still present, though, and the themes of loss and death feature prominently in the latter half of the 'play', which nevertheless ends with an affirmation of hope.
The musical style of ''Elodia'' is still evident on the 2001 album ''Fassade
Fassade (English: '' Facade'') is the seventh album by German duo Lacrimosa released on 1 October 2001 by Hall of Sermon and Nuclear Blast.
Themes
Whereas the previous album, '' Elodia'', centered on love, ''Fassade''s theme is that of a lonely i ...
'', which features a wide variety of musical visions, from the harsh metal sound of "Liebesspiel" ("Love Game") to gently flowing keyboards of "Senses", to the symphonic interplay between guitars and orchestra on the title song "Fassade". This latter composition, a piece in three movements which are arranged on the album as tracks 1, 5 and 8, also constitutes a new thematic excursion of Lacrimosa as they move from the personal emotions they normally explore to a critique of modern society. It ends, however, with the affirmation of individuality and the protagonist's retreat from society.
''Echos
Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system ( oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and r ...
'' bears witness to a further musical development, as guitars and other rock elements take centre stage less and less often, whereas classical instruments feature more prominently. The orchestral arrangements move away from the standard symphonic arrangements which are often found in contemporary metal music, as is clearly shown by the album's first track, the long orchestral "Kyrie - Overture". The music on ''Echos'' also shows an influence from electronic and industrial music
Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...
, as is especially obvious in the song "Ein Hauch von Menschlichkeit" ("A Touch of Humanity"). Overall, this album is more personal, more 'classical' and more quiet than those that came before it. Thematically, there is less change as Lacrimosa continues to explore love and its associated emotions with gothic twists.
Lacrimosa's ninth album, ''Lichtgestalt
''Lichtgestalt'' is a 2005 album by German gothic rock duo Lacrimosa. The album was released on 2 May 2005 by Hall of Sermon.
Music
Recorded in 2005, it consists of 9 tracks, including the two different versions of "The Party Is Over". The al ...
'', largely retains the classical orientation of Echos, but rock elements begin to resurface. In particular the first track, ''Sapphire'', begins as a slow, mostly classical song but around halfway through moves into a far more metal-sounding section; the pace of the song increases, a heavy guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
backing takes over and Wolff switches from singing into a rasping, high-pitched death grunt
A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...
for a few minutes. The segment is a significant change of direction for Lacrimosa; this vocal style had not been seen in Lacrimosa songs since ''Copycat'' on the 1995 album Inferno, recorded ten years before. The remaining songs display a similar mix of styles to previous albums, with some upbeat songs, a song written and sung in English mainly by Anne Nurmi (though Wolff duets with her on this track) and some slower-paced, more depressing pieces.
In 2005, a new EP, "Lichtgestalten" is released, that brings a new electronic version of the song "Lichtgestalt", produced by Tilo in the scope of his solo project, Snakeskin.
In 2006, a DVD ''Musikkurzfilme'' is released, which contains all the video clips that Lacrimosa shot throughout its career including the video for the "Lichtgestalt" song.
''Sehnsucht'', the latest album is released in 2009. Singer and producer Tilo Wolff
Tilo Wolff (born 10 July 1972) is a German musician and artist. He was born in Frankfurt am Main and currently lives in Switzerland.
His longest-running project is the band Lacrimosa, which since its debut in 1990 has produced 11 albums. The b ...
wanted to create an album that was less conceptual and more spontaneous than the previous releases by Lacrimosa and so ''Sehnsucht'' features a great variability of musical expressions like a sarcastic track "Feuer" and a smooth song "Call Me With The Voice Of Love".
The main musical development of Lacrimosa might be summarised as follows: starting from the minimal, slow, keyboard driven style of ''Angst'', guitars and other metal influences came to play a more and more prominent role, until they reached a peak on ''Stille''. From then on, the emphasis has shifted from guitars and metal to symphonic and classical writing, which is clearly shown in ''Fassade''. Finally, ''Echos'' takes a turn towards the personal and away from the symphonic and heavy aspects of the previous albums, achieving a quite unique mixture of musical elements which is hard to classify. The pace of Lacrimosa's development is slow enough that each album is recognisably linked to its predecessor and successor, yet fast enough that for instance ''Angst'', ''Stille'' and ''Echoes'' might well have been written by completely different bands.
In 2008 the Lacrimosa-run Hall of Sermon label reclaimed the rights on all the band's Nuclear Blast releases. Unavailable for quite some time, two albums and two singles will be re-released. In March 2008 Lacrimosa started working on their next studio album entitled "Sehnsucht", which was released on 8 May 2009.
An eleventh studio album was released in September 2012, and it was called ''Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
''. The first song of this release was written in 2009 while touring in China. Upon returning to his studio, Tilo Wolff began recording, exemplifying his process of recording music in the moment in which it is written.
In 2015 '' Hoffnung'' was released, followed 2017 by ''Testimonium'' which is meant as a commemorative album for such recently passed away musicians like David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
and Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
. The band's latest album is scheduled for 24 December 2021 with the title ''Leidenschaft'' (i.e. "Passion").
Discography
All albums and DVDs were published by Tilo Wolff's own label, Hall of Sermon.
Albums
Live albums
Compilation albums
Singles
Demos and extended plays
Videography
VHS
DVD
References
External links
*
Snakeskin
a side project of Tilo Wolff
Interview with Tilo Wolff "Emotional Concept" June 4, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacrimosa
German dark wave musical groups
German gothic metal musical groups
German symphonic metal musical groups
German musical duos
Musical groups established in 1990
Neue Deutsche Todeskunst groups
Nuclear Blast artists