Nautilus – A Castle Full Of Secrets

Description

Twilight In Wonderland 7:25
Visions Of Stilla 4:15
Smoke Above The Castle 5:27
Soulmate Spirits 6:11
Vampire Cathedral 4:46
Sleeping Beauty 4:27
Time For A Change 4:01
When The Pictures Learned To Move 8:24
The Count And The Lady 4:55
Misty Morning Lights 8:55
In The Last Days Of Empathy 9:56

wo years after their last album, which was highly praised by the music press and fans, NAUTILUS are back with their new work, ‘A Castle Full Of Secrets’. This time, the journey takes the Nauticians to Eastern Europe, more precisely to the Carpathian Mountains. There, on a storm-tossed plateau, stand the ruins of an ancient castle. But what dark secret do the walls hold? Fans of the writer Jules Verne (1828-1905) will already have guessed: the tenth NAUTILUS album is once again based on a novel by the French author. This time, the German band led by Martin Ludwig has taken on the 1892 novel ‘The Carpathian Castle’ and set it to music. The result is eleven new songs that deal primarily with Verne’s novel, but as usual also leave room for individual thoughts. Ludwig’s dreamy sounds, sometimes elegiacally flowing, sometimes energetically pulsating, repeatedly meet the compositions of his fellow musicians Jürgen Dürrbeck (synthesizer & sequencer) and Werner Strätz (electric guitar). Voices, such as those of singer Meiko Weigel (bass, vocals, samples) or Elmar Darimont in the intro, are used sparingly; instrumental passages are clearly in the foreground on this album. Anyone who has accompanied the band on their journey through electroacoustic soundscapes so far can close their eyes and let themselves go with ‘A Castle Full Of Secrets’ with a clear conscience: NAUTILUS are as retro as it gets, without ever seeming old-fashioned or degenerating into mere copies of their musical idols (whose influences are unmistakable). Welcome aboard!