Fans of Nightwish have no shortage of reasons to celebrate in 2018: the band recently embarked on a lengthy tour to celebrate their 20th anniversary and released a compilation called Decades: An Archive Of Song 1996-2015. In addition, their main composer Tuomas Holopainen also has an exciting new project called Auri, which just released their self-titled debut on March 23rd via Nuclear Blast. Tuomas is accompanied by guitarist, keyboardist and pipe player Troy Donockley (also of Nightwish) and vocalist and violinist Johanna Kurkela. After arguably reaching a creative peak with Nightwish‘s Endless Forms Most Beautiful, he decided he needed some breathing space before he could focus once again on a new album by his main band. Auri‘s end result, therefore, is a significant departure from the well-known heaviness and symphonic urgency of Nightwish, in favour of delicate textures and ethereal sounds. Holopainen described Auri‘s style as “rabbit hole music and celestial metal”, and the first single “Night 13” gives a good indication of what the other 10 tracks in this release are about. Recorded at Peter Gabriel‘s Real World Studios, the whole album is influenced by folk and Celtic music, new age and movie soundtracks. The only identifiable common thread between Nightwish and Auri is Troy Donockley‘s eventual use of Uillean pipes. The band’s name is based on a female character from Patrick Rothfuss‘ The Kingkiller Chronicle, and admittedly, some of the content and the song lyrics are inspired by Rothfuss‘ books.
