Musician / Digital Artist
Musician / Digital Artist
18 Lug 2015 - - Music
Artist: Azure Agony
Album: India
Year: 2012
Published by: SG Records
Line up:
Gabriele Pala – 8 strings guitar, chapman stick
Federico Ahrens – vocals
Marco Sgubin – keyboards
Marco Firman – bass
Carlo Simeoni – drums
Lyrics:
Concentrate your private fears, now I feel like I feel
To delegate my dues is not for you, there’s nothing true in this
Analyze my life: a total strife, a total loss indeed
Analyze my life: a total strife, so where’s the enemy?
I look in the abyss of my soul
And close my eyes one more time
One more time
You have told me that you need devotion
All the lies I just can’t control
Can’t you see me? I’m in endless motion
I always end up missing my goal
Take your fears in your hands
(Another solution to live)
Act before it’s too late
(Another solution to die)
Fight yourself in the dark
(Another solution to live)
Watch the light in your eyes
(Keep the sand in your hands)
Look in the mirror, a face in front of you
Small eyes are growing inside
I try to destroy those voices within my brain
I became conscious of these brutal fears
Ten thousand worms are devouring my soul
And I fight alone for my sanity
You can see my shadow
Fly beyond that wall
That grow in your mind
Brick by brick
Bring your blood out
Rise is falling
Fly to spread your wings
One by one
Swallow my pain
Purify me
Sand in your hands
18 Lug 2015 - - Music
Artist: Goldenseed
Album: Creatures Of The Sea
Year: 1999
Line up:
Gabriele Pala – vocal, guitars, programming
Lyrics:
Blind I stay, unveiled by the night
Of demons I dreamt, a warrior I’ve been
In the darkness now shunned by the light
Deadly I laid, comatous appearance
Now the spark ignites
My mortal shell is going to revive
Blind I stay, unveiled by the night
Of demons I dreamt, a warrior I’ve been
In the darkness now shunned by the light
Thoughts of misbelievers
Phantoms of themselves
I’m their only leader
Forging new conceptions
When mind reawakens
I’m a prostitute of death myself
I’m Morpheus, the dream warper
Millions of stars now flash
Neurons they will slash
Imagination can they thrash
Those, capable of wringing my flesh
Mortal sleep suffocate the need of life
Into deadly shadows my breaths will be turned
For my personal glory mourned I am
Now a cold piece of harmful ice I’ll be to their eyes
Thoughts of misbelievers
Phantoms of themselves
I’m their only leader
Forging new conceptions
When mind reawakens
I’m a prostitute od death myself
Millions of stars now flash
Neurons they will slash
Those, capable of wringing my flesh
Mortal sleep suffocate the need of life
Into deadly shadows my breaths will be turned
Now a cold piece of harmful ice I’ll be to their eyes
22 Feb 2015 - - Theory & Philosophy
A lot of people, mostly from the places I live in, continuously ask me why I need to use guitars and instruments with more strings than what it should normally be (6 for guitars and 4 for bass). Somebody even complain about this, saying that “they are not needed”.
At a first glance, they are right: they are not actually needed in order to produce “good music”. With the term “good music” we can imagine a memorable melody, something to sing or move the body along, or even something like a simple riff or a chord sequence. Did Ritchie Blackmore need an 8 string guitar to write the iconic Smoke On The Water riff? No! So, yes, they are right… all these things can be produced with few notes, then few strings.
Well, my main response is basically that I don’t like the guitar! Surprised? Let me explain ;)
For me, the guitar, like any other instrument, it’s a tool, a dead piece of wood and other fancy metallic artifacts that I use to produce my music. The name itself is meaningful: “musical instrument”. It’s like a wrench or a screwdriver or a drill. It just serves a purpose. It’s not the purpose itself. That’s all for me.
As a tool, it should provide all the possibilities to produce the sounds I have in mind, it should provide enough “stuff” to play whatever I want on it. We can make a better example by comparing playing music with speaking with somebody (actually making music a form communication – and not only, but that will be discussed in another post)
At this point, it’s clearly evident that we cannot mess up the order of these things to make an effective communication, thus it’s again evident that the guitar is just a simple mean of sound emission, and it should allow me to pronounce my message, whatever it is.
In my musical vision, the message simply needs a lot of extension, spreading from very low notes to very high-pitched sound. I like to use wide-voiced chords. So I need musical “tools” that enables me to play those notes. I don’t mean that I constantly use the extreme sides of the spectrum, but, when I need them, they are there!
Having an 8 string guitar doesn’t mean that I always play Meshuggish chugs on the thickest strings: a lot of other things can be done, like expanding the sound of some chords or adding a bass line to a melody when a bass is not available or busy to play something else in the arrangement. A lot of time the lowest strings are not even used for entire periods.
Another example is piano. 88 notes, with more than 7 octaves of range. Did anybody ever complained about that? No, right? Why? At a simple glance, piano is actually the king of all extended range instruments, with more lows and more highs than anything else, but it’s commonly accepted.
There is another point, this time guitar specific. Most of the people have a very low level of musical education, the just know the mainstream names of the past and the present (there’s no need to name them), and they think that guitar is just that, because all these great guys use a 6-strings guitar. They don’t know that guitar was initially derived from the lute and started its life with 10 strings like the lute, and this form of guitar actually lasted for many decades. Only from late 1800 our beloved guitar shrinked down to a 6 strings instruments and remained like that till our days, assuming the role of “instruments for the masses” (less strings is considered easier to play – even if it’s not – cheaper and more accepted). Nowadays we are returning to the origins of the instrument. It seems that the 8 strings guitar is becoming a sort of standard, thanks to people like Meshuggah or Animals As Leaders, who founded en entire movement of extended range guitarists.
Guitar brands are also following this trend, producing a lot of extra strings models. Every season they are adding more, 8…9… are we returning to the real 10 strings guitar? ;)
Remember: all strings are there to give further possibility, but expression should remain to you: don’t be a slave of the instruments, whatever it is and whatever the number of its strings is: you are master!
15 Feb 2015 - - Theory & Philosophy
The reduction to C Major principle is an improvising system I created to gain the possibility to play upon every kind of chord by just “using” the C Major scale: CDEFGAB.
I do not pretend that this could be a sort of Columbus’ egg, or something that has not been invented before. It’s just another method, a different approach. I do not want to replace the traditional solutions and rules, but perhaps try to give a different vision of things. It can also be used for harmonization or riffing, beside pure improvisation purposes.
The main idea came from my lazyness. I’m a very lazy person. When I started to study music it was like climbing a mountain high till the Moon. For a single scale, there is one mode for each degree of the scale, for each mode at least five possible fingerings per octave to learn. To master a single scale it may take a whole life. Too much for me!!! I needed to take things back to the roots and completely change my way!
I’ve always noticed (and I hope you did too) that there are only seven note names, while commonly accepted sounds are twelve per octave. Even if we go beyond the tempered system, there are no further note names than C D E F G A B. There are all sorts of sharps and flats, but we do not have any R or S or Q. Why? They must be somehow special and magic. The new system has to be built ground up from there!
So, everything begins here: C Major scale on a C Major triad. Quite simple, huh?
Some points to observe:
The main input came from point #2. So, if we want to focus on the C Major scale, we need to know where those notes are on our instrument, without chaining them in sequences, shapes or patterns. The only technical requirement needed to play with my method is that: you just need to be able to hit any of the seven notes (in any octave) at any moment! No more scales, modes or fingerings!! Just ONE THING!! Here is a fretboard scheme that I’ve recycled from an old Allan Holdworth’s video, adapting it to the modern 7 and 8 strings instruments too:
The main part comes now, obviously… what are we supposed to do when the backing chord is not a C Major triad anymore? Here comes the revolution (or involution, to be precise).
Normally, the classic music theory wants to give things a name. So, when G-B-D are played simultaneoulsy, they must be named G Major. Or, another example, if E-G-Bb-Db are played at once, they must be called E diminished. But… why? The only purpose that I found (by consuming my brain) is that such “short names” should be easy to use when communicating with other musicians playing with you. But people don’t hear the names, they just hear the result of note stacking, the actual chord itself!
So, to improvise the “short name” information (=the normal name of the chord) involves a decoding process: unless things are very simple, it’s very quick to remember for example that C = stacking of C-E-G. But, we could come to the case that our mates says: “ehi, the next chord is a C#maj11 with a Gmaj9/b5 in the lower octave”… and now????
The solution is the simplest. Instead of “decoding” what the name of the chord means, we will use the exact notes it’s made of. Obviously, the chord (of any type, with any fancy ultracomplex notation) will be made of two or more sounds picked from C D E F G A B and some of them will be eventually sharpened or flattened. There is no other possibility, as we discovered!!!
Hence, to play on our “misterious chord” we just need to “deform” the standard C Major scale with the sharps and flats present in it, and again “dance” on the fretboard schemes. That’s all. Let’s make some examples:
E first inversion:
Something more drastic… can you figure out a name for that chord on the bass staff?
The sonic solutions that comes out by blindly applying this method are sometimes well known (even if we don’t give them a name), sometimes are completely new and suprising, and the poorly trained ears could even find them… out of tune!! Oh, that’s amazing for we, the arstists!!
Another great possibility has been given to us by the mighty J.S. Bach (…yes, Him!!) some centuries ago. He invented the Equal Temperament, so after Him notes with different names had actually the same sound (ex. C# = Db, Ab = G# and so on). This opens up new mathematical combinations. The two previous examples may be played also this way:
The most important thing is that these “scales” are not intented to be practiced or learned anyway: you must be able to “deform” the C Major scale on the fly, based on the analysis of the backing chord.
More investigations and eventually some video is coming… stay tuned!
06 Apr 2014 - - Autoproduzioni,Discografia
Questo è il terzo e al momento ultimo album degli Azure Agony, pubblicato solamente in formato digitale prima della sospensione delle attività della band nel 2014.
Questo album vede una sezione ritmica rinnovata rispetto ai primi due lavori. Volevamo fosse una sorta di testamento da lasciare a chi aveva apprezzato la nostra musica (il titolo ne è sicuramente indicativo). Prendemmo così i brani più significativi fatti finora e li risuonammo in formato acustico, sostituendo le chitarre con il Chapman Stick e le tastiere con la fisarmonica. Il risultato è stato un esperimento particolare, i brani hanno preso un sapore vicino alla musica tradizionale francese. Purtroppo non siamo riusciti a proporlo dal vivo, sarebbe stato interessante.
Federico Ahrens – voce
Gabriele Pala – chapman stick
Marco Sgubin – sintetizzatori / fisarmonica
Nickolas Gios – basso
Alessandro Dri – batteria e percussioni
Registrato da: Marco Sgubin / Gabriele Pala
Mixato e masterizzato da Marco Sgubin
Artwork di Marco Sgubin
06 Gen 2014 - - Autoproduzioni,Collaborazioni,Discografia
I Celestial Serenity sono un progetto internazionale formato da musicisti provenienti da ogni angolo del pianeta.
Fui invitato in questa band da Joshua Leon, inizialmente per suonare alcuni assoli di chitarra. Il bassista originale tuttavia decise di abbandonare il gruppo, così, imbracciato il Chapman Stick, scrissi e suonari le parti di basso di tutti e sei i brani di questo lavoro.
La musica è progressiva e sognante, talvolta tendente al metal. Se vi piacciono band come i Cynic, questa musica potrebbe piacervi.
Joshua Leon – chitarre / voce (SINGAPORE / UK)
Gabriele Pala – chapman stick
Manfred Dikkers – batteria (HOLLAND)
Mike Browning – voce (USA) – batterista originario dei Morbid Angel, fondatore e membro dei Nocturnus
Richard Kaczynski – tastiere / piano / sintetizzatori (USA)
Johan Lindfors – tastiere / sintetizzatori (SWEDEN)
Julien Assali – sassofono (FRANCE/GUATEMALA)
Dave Swales – tastiere / sintetizzatori (NEW ZEALAND)
Celestial Serenity Official Facebook Page
06 Mag 2012 - - Album ufficiali,Discografia
Questo è il secondo album degli Azure Agony e il primo di questa band con la voce.
Forse è l’album a oggi più melodico e lineare a cui abbia mai partecipato.
Come il precedente lavoro di questo gruppo, l’ossatura generale è assimilabile al prog metal in qualche modo derivativo dei Dream Theater, tuttavia abbiamo cercato di essere in ogni caso il più personali possibile.
India è un concept album: i testi dei brani sono legati tra di loro da un’unica storia che parla di un uomo in cerca di se stesso in un posto immaginario che lui ritiene presente dentro la sua mente.
Questo lavoro è stato pubblicato nel 2012 dalla label italiana SG Records.
Marco Sgubin – Tastiere / Fisarmonica
Carlo Simeoni – Batteria
Gabriele Pala – Chitarre 8 corde / Chapman Stick
Federico Ahrens – Voce
Marco Firman – Basso
Anna Marcossi – Violoncello (su alcuni brani)
Musiche e testi di: Azure Agony
Batteria e voce registrate da: Luigi Stefanini @ New Sin Studio
Chitarre registrate da: Gabriele Pala
Basso e tastiere registrate da: Marco Sgubin
Reamping, mixing and mastering: Luigi Stefanini @ New Sin Studio
Artwork: Marco Sgubin
Foto: Gianluca Tonzar, Cesare Bellafronte, Arianna Durazzano
Prog Archives (6 / 10)
Symphony Of Silence
Donato Zoppo
True Metal (73 / 100)
Optimusic (video review)
Sea Of Tranquillity (3 / 5)
Papi Prog
Hair Metal And Heavy Metal Blog
All Around Metal (3.5 / 5)
Metallized (70 / 100)
Heavy Metal Spotlight (7 / 10)
Rock Garage (7.5 / 10)
Metal Italia (6.5 / 10)
Metal Head (7 / 10)
Italia di Metallo (8 / 10)
The Pit (7.5 / 10)
Stormbringer (5 / 5)
Baby Blaue Prog (10 / 15)
The Rocktologist (14 / 20)
Zware Metalen (70 / 100)
Metal.de (6 / 10)
Eternal Terror (5 / 6)
Rock Impressions
Metal Temple (8 / 10)
Metal Archives (6 / 10)
Amazon
Total Metal Shop
Underground Empire
Progressor
Non solo Prog Rock
ProgWereld
DPRP (5.5/10)
Made In Metal
06 Gen 2012 - - Album ufficiali,Discografia
Ho iniziato a comporre le musiche per questo album nel 2011 con l’intenzione di realizzare un album solista basato principalmente sulla chitarra, dopo aver partecipato al contest internazionale Guitar Idol, terza edizione, con il brano Kosmos 233.
Kosmos e un altro brano avrebbero dovuto poi far parte di una compilation shred che sarebbe dovuta uscire per la label americana Shredguy Records.
Tuttavia, nessuno di questi due progetti si concretizzò e decisi di trasformare i vari brani che avevo scritto nel frattempo in una release a nome Goldenseed (il mio progetto musicale principale), aggiungendo qualche elemento di sperimentazione sonora e di arrangiamento, come avevo già fatto per i due precedenti lavori dello stesso filone.
Grazie a Luigi Coppo, sull’ultima traccia del disco, è presente come ospite alla voce Stian Culto (ex Mayhem, Thy Abhorrent, Con Anima, Shadow Dancers e altri). “Dead On The Road” è una cover del brano “On The Road” di Chris Holder, scomparso chitarrista del combo italiano Black Deal.
Il prodotto finito è stato poi pubblicato da SG Records nel 2012 e distribuito a livello mondiale dalla Andromeda Records.
Le recensioni si sono divise pesantemente nel valutare questa musica: per alcuni è stato un notevole esperimento di creazione di nuove sonorità, altri l’hanno bollata come fredda, inespressiva e impossibile da seguire (quest’ultima cosa è poi in realtà un complimento per me.)
A causa della mancanza di una band con cui eseguire i pezzi, non ci sono mai state esibizioni live per questo progetto. L’unica volta che lo ho suonate davanti a un pubblico è stato su basi pre-registrate a una clinic con il grandissimo Felix Martin.
Musica: Gabriele Pala
Musica sulla traccia 11: Chris Holder, Gabriele Pala, Stian Culto
Voce sulla traccia 11: Stian Culto
Testi: Stian Culto
Registrazione, mixaggio, mastering: Gabriele Pala
Registrazione parti vocali di Stian Culto: Lars Andresen @ Attic Studios, Norvegia
Artwork: Gabriele Pala
Layout: SG Records graphic studio
Foto: Giovanni Assirelli @ Assirelli Photo Studio
05 Gen 2012 - - Collaborazioni,Discografia
Su questo album ho suonato degli assoli di chitarra sui brani “Immolation To Survive” e “Since You Are Gone”.
I Gone In April sono una band canadese che annovera tra le sue file il grandissimo Steve DiGiorgio (prodigioso bassista che credo non abbia bisogno di grosse presentazioni). All’epoca del primo album a cui ho partecipato erano invece un progetto internazionale con musicisti canadesi, italiani e tedeschi.
La loro musica è molto originale e affascinante: mescola il classico riffing del death metal con elementi lirici, folk, musica da camera con interventi di archi e voce femminile.
Ero stato coinvolto da Chicco Parisi, all’epoca bassista dei Gone In Aprile e bassista originario dei Sadist (ha suonato su quel capolavoro intitolato Tribe).
Questo album è stato masterizzato ai leggendari Morrisound Recordings, dove hanno preso vita la maggior parte dei capolavori del death metal classico dei primi anni 90.
Purtroppo al momento la band ha rimosso dal mondo digitale l’album, quindi al momento non riesco a farvi sentir niente su questa pagina. Vi consiglio in caso di visitare il loro sito, dove risulta ancora disponibile in cd, e ordinarne una copia.
06 Gen 2010 - - Album ufficiali,Discografia
Questo album del 2010 è l’ultima mia apparizione nei Karnak, con cui suonavo dal 1993, probabilmente il titolo è in qualche modo significativo.
Lasciai la band poco dopo la pubblicazione di questo album su Copro Records UK, a causa delle solite divergente personali e musicali che normalmente affliggono tutte le band.
Dismemberment è strutturato in modo simile a Testimony Of The Ancients dei Pestilence: c’è un’alternanza tra dei piccoli brani musicali (composti da Marco Colella, già tastierista e compositore della band per i 3 lavori precedenti) e brani reali.
I testi parlano di torture medievali e la musica, abbandonato completamente il filone prog delle precedenti uscite, riprende le sonorità brutal lasciate in sospeso dal debutto della band (Perverted, 1997).
L’artwork è un quadro di Bruegel, usato con autorizzazione del museo che ne espone la versione originale.
Al momento questo è il solo album dei Karnak che è possibile reperire in digitale nelle principali piattaforme di streaming.
Stefano Rumich – batteria
Gabriele Pala – voce, chitarra solista
Francesco Ponga – voce principale, chitarra ritmica
Emanuele Cucit – basso
Musica (brani reali): Karnak
Musica (intermezzi): Marco Colella
Testi: Stefano Rumich
Registrato da: Niccolò Gasparini at Music City Studios (Montebelluna,TV – Italy)
Editing: Gabriele Pala
Mixaggio e mastering: Simone Mularoni at Fear Studios (Alfonsine, RA – Italy)
Logo: Gabriele Pala
Layout: Emanuele Cucit
Foto: Giovanni Assirelli @ Assirelli Photo Studio