Tarja Turunen - Colours in the Dark. 2013.

Label: Ear Music Format: CD, Album, LP, Box Set Country: Europe Released: 2013 Genre: Rock Style: Progressive Metal, Symphonic Rock Colours in the Dark is the fourth studio album released by Finnish vocalist Tarja Turunen. The name of the album, as the cover image, came as a metaphor from the idea that life has a large range of colors and the dark absorbs all of them, containing every color. The album’s name came out of the song “Until Silence“. This is the third time the album’s name came out of one of the songs. The artwork and some promotional pictures for this album were taken mainly in India during the What Lies Beneath World Tour in 2011 During the process of composition, Tarja alleged that she “had to learn a lot as a soloist, for good and or evil, and often in the past years [she] thought that [she] would never reach a day coming to the point where [she is] today“, also adding that she had a lot of “positive and negative“ experiences that would finish on this record, that is “very rich in colors, shadows, deep aspects and that it does not capture at the first listen“. The first single and the first song of the album, “Victim of Ritual“ was described by Tarja as a rock song. Regarding the concept, she said for Sonic Shocks that “it is a powerful story, about how rituals ... we ourselves are subject to some rituals sometimes and we don’t even realize it, I wanted to take this subject and put it in a song.“ “Lucid Dreamer“ is about her love with soundtrack, and she sees that song as a psychedelic one. In the “Mystique Voyage“, Turunen uses three languages: english, spanish and finnish. Tarja talked for the El Litoral that the track is like a trip and there are many journeys on it. “Deliverance“ is the first love song Turunen wrote, she revealed that, for this music, she worked closely with Jim Dooley. The last track of the album, “Medusa“ has a beautiful and mythological story. About the process of composition, the artist said that “Medusa is a very strong, mystical, very inspiring female character. The story came too late for me, I was already in the recording process, testing the vocal harmonies, and then ’oh!’ I heard the snakes singing their harmonies in vocal backing, the choirs, then I thought ’the snakes are singing’ is crazy (laughs) so I soon thought of her.“ “Colours In The Dark” was a worldwide chart success, few days after the release, the album collected five Top 10 entries. In Czech Republic the record received the gold disc certification. SONGS 1. “Victim of Ritual“ 00:00:00 2. “500 Letters“ 00:05:51 3. “Lucid Dreamer“ 00:10:09 4. “Never Enough“ 00:17:34 5. “Mystique Voyage“ 00:22:55 6. “Darkness“ 00:30:01 7. “Deliverance“ 00:35:39 8. “Neverlight“ 00:43:04 9. “Until Silence“ 00:47:31 10. “Medusa“ (featuring Justin Furstenfeld) 00:52:26 11. “Into the Sun“ 01:00:38 CREDITS Tarja Turunen - Lead vocals and piano Alex Scholpp, Julian Barrett - Guitar Kevin Chown, Doug Wimbish - Bass Christian Kretschmar - Keyboards Mike Terrana - Drums Max Lilja - Cello Additional musicians Thomas Bloch - Glass harmonica, Cristal Basche Saro Danielian - Duduk, Oboe Doug Wimbish - Cinemasonics Mamu - Seagull Justin Furstenfeld - Vocals (“Medusa“) Caroline Lavelle - Cello Naomi Cabuli Turunen (Tarja’s daughter) (“Lucid Dreamer“) Production James Dooley - Orchestral & Choir Arrangements, tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 Bart Hendrickson - Orchestral & Choir Arrangements, track 10 Max Lilja - Orchestral Arrangement for multiple cello Mel Wesson - Ambient music design, track 3, 4, 7 Tim Palmer - Programming, track 3, 4, 5 Mel Wesson - Programming, track 7 Bart Hendrickson - Programming, track 10 Mic - Shells recorded with iPhone in Antigua, track 5 Jetro Vainio, Mario Altamirano, Torsten Stenzel, Daniel Willy - Recording engineers Martin Muscatello, José Maradei - Assistant engineers Tim Palmer - Additional production & mixes Alex Scholpp, Julian Barrett, Jim Dooley - Executive producers For the Full Tarja Turunen Discography, click here: