Everything begins with a vision. A virtuoso imagination hovering auspiciously in the air, composed of multi-faceted fragments and ideas that gradually become more concrete, slowly taking shape and then finally forming out of the minds of their makers as a new project. Completely unexpected, it’s just a natural, flowing process. This is just what happened with these three outstanding, internationally successful musicians who have created a musical gem in the form of AURI. Johanna Kurkela, Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley take their eponymous debut on a fairytale journey through time and space, far from here and now reminding us of the fantastic adventures of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Let's start from the very beginning: “The original idea to call this project AURI came from the Patrick Rothfuss books”, explains NIGHTWISH mastermind Tuomas Holopainen – an exceptional composer, founder of the world’s most successful symphonic metal band of our time and innovative pioneer for an entire genre. “There is this female character called AURI, who is a very impressive character. The narrative of the books is one of my eternally favourite novels, but it is not just this character - AURI; the symbol of this word just goes perfectly with the kind of music we do. Something is inherent in the concept that lets you know immediately what we are all about. It symbolises the project very well. It’s the perfect match in every way.” And he is right. AURI is also a Finnish maiden name and derives from the Latin term Aurora, which means dawn. A word that could not have been more significant for this project, because as enigmatic and mysterious as the moment in which the sun rises, saying goodbye to the nocturnal sky and slowly awakening the world out there to life, also appears that particular formation. AURI made its way to life through the faith of three passionate artists who felt the need for music to exist which they could not describe, formed simply by a harmonious symbiosis. In 2011 the band came up with the idea of creating something in common for the first time. “We have known each other for a long time and we are really good friends in our free time as well. We see each other constantly and realised early on that we share a preference for similar musical landscapes. Troy had already written a song called ˈAphrodite Risingˈ. We made a demo of that song and we knew immediately that this would work and that we should definitely record a full length album.But when we decided to take this year off of NIGHTWISH in 2017, it was clear that the time was right to put it all together and see what we came up with. We wrote new songs, flew to Cornwall for the photo shoot and recorded the album over the summer at my place in Finland. Troy played his parts in England. We also had some selected guest musicians from the Netherlands and the UK on board,” explains Tuomas. If Tuomas describes ‘Auri’ in his own words, he cannot help but smile; “Just a few days ago, we had this conversation within the band and we thought about the best way to describe it. Two terms came to our minds; Rabbit Hole Music and Celestial Metal. Obviously you can hear influences from folk music, Celtic music, soundtracks - all that music that we love and adore, but categorising the style is really impossible. I’ll leave that to the listeners.” A tour is currently not planned but one thing is already certain: “This is definitely not just a one album thing!” So sit back, close your eyes and let yourself fall into the depths. A world of wonder and miracles awaits you behind the mirrors. Are you ready?
