While technically considered, in the lack of a better term, a rock opera, “Wötan” is heavily influenced by Renaissance and medieval music, as well as progressive and symphonic rock, and epic film scoring.
By his own admission, Wötan is closer to a “movie without image” than a true rock opera or a concept album.
“I call it a rock opera because I find no better way to call it. In terms of storytelling, recording & mixing techniques and overall sound, “Wötan” is approached closer to Film Sound Design than as a regular album. Besides the music, Wötan features considerable dialogue, character interaction, ambients, sound effects, battle scenes, footsteps, foley, and most sonic aspects you’ll find on a movie. It is a blend of Musical Production and Audio Post-Production for Films, in terms of technique. It is, truly, a movie without images. You can close your eyes, and it would be no different”
Its main plot revolves around the tribulations and struggles of its main character, Wötan, a Germanic tribal warchief whose Achillean quest for eternal glory and inmortality jeopardizes his tribe’s own survival, when the world as he knows it is on the verge of disappearing.
The story, first written in 2004, takes place mainly in continental Europe, more specifically in the northern city of Aachen and the southeasternmost region of Bavaria circa 783 AD during Charlemagne’s rule of the Frankish realms; and the tribal societies borrow certain characteristics from ancient societies like saxons, vikings, ostrogoths, gauls and other celtic and germanic groups.
The album will be an hour and 45 minutes long, spread across 2 CDs and it features an eclectic contrast between a symphonic orchestra and the edginess of modern instruments.
Celtic anthems, joyful fiddles, norse lyres, epic percussion ensembles, furious guitar lines, angelic choirs, 70s synthesizers, and the sheer power of progressive songwriting, everything together in an album of epic proportions.
The album features an ensemble cast of 60 top-class musicians from all over the world, including some of Melodic Revolution Records’ trademarks artists as members from Corvus Stone, Sunshine & Bullets, DDrive, Murky Red, Thoughts Factory, Oceans of Time, The Minstrel’s Ghost, Morpheus Rising, Andy John Bradford’s Oceans 5 and Scarlett Hollow among others. It also features special appearances from several countrymen of Andres from Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires.
The Overture, a four and a half minutes symphonic orchestral mini suite, is soon to be released; the orchestral parts were written and arranged by Andres Guazzelli. It was recorded and mixed by Andres himself at Estudios Dorian, Mar del Plata, Argentina.
The album will be accompanied by a novel, which further explores details absent in the CD and expands the Wötan universe.
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