If one were to ask me which singer has most appealed to my imagination in recent years, I would have to answer the name of AimA without thinking about it for a long time.
One can hardly blame me in that regard because damn, what an impressive course the Italian has completed in a short time.
I got to know AimA thanks to Gerhard Hallstatt, in any case an expert on female talent, who had AimA show up to sing some songs by Allerseelen. A golden combination, Hallstatt also decided, who not much later assigned her a permanent place in his group.
The starting signal was given to delve further into the work of this evocative voice. We soon found out about Les Jumeaux Discordants, the group they form together with Roberto Del Vecchio (who in turn we know from Gothica). But AimA was also active under her own name, that is to say: with Aimaproject she started working with artist friends from various backgrounds (Allerseelen, Wutanes Heer, members of Camerata Mediolanense, Miel Noir,…) and was can also be heard as a guest on an album by iNsCissorS.
Add to that her work with Allerseelen and her professional activities in the graphic/advertising world and you know that this lady has a lot of creative eggs to hatch.
Caverna Delle Rose is the name of her brand new clutch, and in doing so she enters into an alliance with Evor Ameisie, an artist with whom she has collaborated for almost twenty years. Ameisie is the founder of Northgate who would later also be active at Camerata Mediolanense.
The duo found in the person of Diego Cinquegrana a third member to complete Caverna Delle Rose.
As far as the division of roles within the group is concerned, Ameisie is responsible as the writer of the music and he takes care of the male backing vocals with his baritone. Cinquegrana went for the image of the project and, in addition to synths, also plays creatively with field recordings. AimA can do what she excels at: the dominant female vocals. The theme, the Orphic Hymns, is also close to her heart and Elysian Chants (working title Music For Certain Rituals II) once again offer her a unique opportunity to further explore this beloved theme.
Again, because last year the first part of Music For Certain Rituals was released, then a collaboration between AimA and The Illusion Of Silence.
Despite the title, Caverna Delle Rose would like to point out that in addition to the Orphic hymns, the focus will be on ancient spiritual traditions, not necessarily just the Mediterranean ones.
A regular guest at Caverne Delle Rose is cellist Annamarie Bernadette Cristian, who has already appeared at Aimaproject, and who is using the electric cello for this occasion.
The rituals in this second part pay tribute to Dyonisius, the night, the furies, sleep, the west wind, fate and Corybas.
Just as soon as ‘To Dionysius (The Fumigation From Storax)’ opens the debates with its stirring drums and Aima’s haunting vocals, it is clear that great things are about to happen here again.
The influence of Aemisie and his Camerata Mediolanense can be seen throughout the album, just listen to (‘To The Furies (The Fumigation From Aromatics)’ and ‘To Sleep (The Fumigation From A Poppy’) which shows great similarities with the older work by the Italian group.It is certainly the case when Aemisie’s baritone joins AimA’s voice in battle (“Hyle. The Chant Of Creation”)—with AimA’s throat acrobatics taking on Diamanda Galas—.)
The temptation is great, force of habit, to put the majority of the feathers on AimA’s unique voice, but when Aemisie’s vocals are allowed to appear in the foreground during ‘To Corybas (The Fumigation From Frankincense)’ Caverna Delle Rose proves to be the bullseye. hit with more than one arrow in the quiver.
If ritual music usually focuses mainly on achieving a trance, and if one dares to work towards this in an extensive (read: at times long-winded) trance, the concise rituals of Caverna Delle Rose form a welcome change. The trance aspect is certainly present through the obligatory percussion, but fortunately the Italians do not forget to actually write songs around it, so that they know how to distinguish themselves from the umpteenth random act within the genre.
Despite its limited playing time of ‘only’ 42 albums, Elysian Chants has become a richly filled album. Again, we add. It’s not all gold that glitters, but if it comes out of the hands of AimA, the chances that this will actually be the case are sky-high.
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