Opheliac
| Opheliac | ||||
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| Studio album by Emilie Autumn | ||||
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Publication |
September 1, 2006 |
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| Label (s) |
Trisol Music Group The End Records (reissue from 2009) |
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Format (s) |
Double CD |
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Title (number) |
20th |
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running time |
59 min 53 s (CD 1) |
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| occupation | Vocals , violin , harpsichord , electric violin , keyboard , synthesizer : Emilie Autumn | |||
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Emilie Autumn |
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Studio (s) |
Mad Villain Studios, Chicago |
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Opheliac is the third studio album by the American musician Emilie Autumn . The double album was released in Europe on September 1, 2006 on Trisol . The worldwide release followed three weeks later on September 22nd, 2006. All tracks on the album were written, recorded and produced by Emilie Autumn herself.
Emergence
Autumn released her first two albums ( On a Day ... and Enchant ) on her own label, Traitor Records, whose distribution and marketing opportunities were very limited. Opheliac was released as the first album Autumns on the German record label Trisol and was therefore distributed worldwide.
The album was recorded at Mad Villain Studios in Chicago , USA . Autumn played all the instruments personally and was also responsible for the entire production of the album.
As a pre-release for the actual album, the Opheliac EP of the same name was released in spring 2006 . This contains the first six tracks of the later album as well as the songs "Marry Me" and "Thank God I'm Pretty".
Four tracks from Autumn's earlier albums have also been added to the second CD of the album. The title "Bach: Largo for Violin" was recorded from their classic debut album . The other three tracks are poems written and performed by Autumn with music. These were taken from the audio CD enclosed with her volume of poetry Your Sugar Sits Untouched .
The second CD also contains extensive bonus material. This includes a picture gallery as a PDF file, the video of a live appearance on American television and a 4-part video cycle entitled “Inside the Asylum: Lessons In Being a Wayward Victorian Girl”.
background
title
The name of the album (and the title track) is a play on words Autumns, which is composed of Ophelia , a character from William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet , and names of the sick such as "maniac" (English madman ) or "insomniac" (English of sleep disorders Sufferer ). It is supposed to mark a person who has gone mad or is morbidly possessed by someone, similar to the lovesick Ophelia, who longs for the love of Hamlet.
“My word Opheliac, is derived from Shakespeare's character, so the closeness in every aspect of the album is clear enough, but Opheliac is more of a rant against one's self - in that particular song, I was not writing to get away from anybody's grasp but my own. "
"My word Opheliac is derived from Shakespeare's character, the closeness to it is clear enough in every respect on the album, but Opheliac is more of a tirade against himself - in that particular song I didn't write about breaking away from anyone's grip, but from your own. "
Texts
Following the basic concept of the album, the lyrics often refer to works and themes from English-language literary history, especially the Victorian Age . The title track Opheliac is based on Shakespeare's Ophelia, who goes mad and drowns in a stream because her lover Hamlet has gone mad. This theme of tragic drowning is continued in the following track Swallow .
The song Shalott is a modern interpretation of Alfred Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott , which is about a woman who has to live isolated in a high tower and who is only allowed to look at her surroundings through a mirror, but resists one to have a direct look at Sir Lancelot, her lover. The curse that weighs on her finally drives her to drowning. Autumn emphasizes in her song more the unconditional desire for freedom of the Lady of Shalott, also in the face of the expected certain death.
This theme of the tragic death of women and its romantic transfiguration was a popular motif in literature and painting of the Victorian era, especially in the course of the Pre-Raphaelite movement . The song The Art of Suicide picks up on this theme and combines apparently happy music with dark lyrics, which, however, sarcastically question this kind of transfigured representation.
music
Characteristic of the music is a combination of elements of classical music with modern electronic music (especially from the areas of electronica and electro-pop ). This is particularly evident in the choice of instruments. In addition to electric violins and synthesizers , classical acoustic violins , a harpsichord and a piano are also used, the latter both being mainly simulated electronically.
Characteristic of the music is the strongly distorted sound of the electric violin, which comes close to metal music, as Autumn uses the shredding technique that is otherwise only used with electric guitars , which is also shown to advantage on the following album Laced / Unlaced . The artist herself therefore often refers to her music as violindustrial or Victoriandustrial , although there is only limited proximity to industrial .
reception
According to many critics, with Opheliac a significant change in style began in Autumn's discography. It would be in clear contrast to their first album On a Day ... , a pure classical album, and their second album Enchant , whose style Autumn himself describes as “Fairy Pop” or “Fantasy Rock”. Opheliac, on the other hand, is more influenced by electronic music.
In particular, Autumn's extremely variable vocal style, which ranges from whispering to growling to aggressive screaming, and the emotional and dark lyrics were very well received by critics. What is also remarkable is the innovative handling of the electric violin for a classically trained violinist like Autumn.
Versions and remixes
Opheliac was originally released in Europe on September 1, 2006 as a limited digipak edition. The worldwide release took place a little later on September 22, 2006, Autumn's birthday. After this edition was sold out, a jewelcase version of the album was released on February 5, 2007 . On October 7, 2008, another version was released in the USA, which also contained an acoustic version of "The Art of Suicide", several outtakes of the original album and the recording of an interview with Emilie Autumn. The last version came out in the form of a re-release by The End Records in 2009. In addition to new artwork, the new version contains extensive bonus material and five new acoustic versions.
The EP Liar / Dead Is the New Alive , released in January 2007, contains several new songs as well as the original versions of the two tracks "Liar" and "Dead Is the New Alive", as well as numerous remixes of the same. The EP 4 o'Clock , which was released in January 2008, also includes remixes of the tracks "Swallow" and "Gothic Lolita".
Track list
All songs were written, recorded and produced by Emilie Autumn.
| CD 1 | CD 2 |
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Individual evidence
- ↑ discogs.com: Emilie Autumn - Opheliac . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ urbandictionary.com: Opheliac in the Urban Dictionary . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ a b youtube.com: Interview with Emilie Autumn . Retrieved January 10, 2010.
- ↑ gothic-family.net: Interview with Emilie Autumn . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ a b nicolathinks.wordpress.com: Review of Opheliac . Retrieved January 10, 2010.
- ↑ a b c ultimate-guitar.com: Review of Opheliac . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ darknation.eu: CD review . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ medienkonverter.de: CD criticism . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ emilieautumn.com: Official biography ( memento of the original from November 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ heathenharvest.com: Review of Opheliac . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ midnightcalling.com: Review of Opheliac . Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ musicbrainz.org: Emilie Autumn - Opheliac . Retrieved January 8, 2010.
Web links
- Official website of Emilie Autumn
- Opheliac at Allmusic (English)
- Opheliac at LyricWiki