Nosound Scintilla marks a major departure and includes guest appearances from Anathema’s Vincent Cavanagh and acclaimed Italian singer Andrea Chimenti.
After a decade of crafting a very particular type of widescreen melancholia and wistful imagery, Nosound’s fifth studio album Scintilla introduces a wholly new musical and visual approach for Giancarlo Erra’s ever-evolving band.
Inspired by personal upheaval and a desire for change, Scintilla is an emotionally complex and musically direct work presenting a stripped-down set of compositions that mark a major departure from Nosound’s trademark symphonic lushness and production precision.
Taking in influences from Post Rock, Shoegaze and Alt-Singer-Songwriters, the album imaginatively utilises a mostly organic and acoustic sound palette.
Musically looser and more sonically intimate than the band’s previous releases, Scintilla’s emphasis is placed firmly on feeling rather than technique.
Anathema’s Vincent Cavanagh lends his distinctive vocals to two of the album’s tracks, and cellist Marianne De Chastelaine returns once more to the Nosound fold (this time in a more free-flowing and improvisational capacity). Acclaimed Italian singer Andrea Chimenti co-writes and sings on the serene Sogno E Incendio.
Shifting from the uncharacteristic sarcasm of Love Is Forever and potent anger of The Perfect Wife to the dreamy sensitivity of Emily and the unusually uplifting Celebration Of Life, Scintilla represents the boldest statement of Nosound’s career so far.
A cathartic album of emotional extremes, Scintilla marks the brave beginning of the second phase of Nosound’s fascinating career.
LYRICS
Short Story
You arrive, I wait
You say, I stay here
This love, falling
The start, failing
Our lives, sleeping
Awake, drowning
You leave, smiling
I’ll wait here, hiding
Last Lunch
As soon as I leave
this prison you made
I can feel again
the shape of things
The singing of birds
the blue in the sky
Now I can see
how small you are
Not knowing why or for who
I pushed myself so far
The last time I saw your face I was going away
taking with me what you betrayed
You stopped me and gave me back the lunch for that day
as if that was some kind of comic play
The first thing you thought about was all in that sack
the last and only thing you gave me back
Laughing in tears I drove around and then back home
knowing that for you it was already all gone
I tried and I tried
Believe me I died
so many times..
You want me to obey
but you never defy
your inner voice denied
Now I know what you always knew
your feelings were an illusion
all the way through
The last time I saw your face I was going away
taking with me what you betrayed
You stopped me and gave me back the lunch for that day
as if that was some kind of comic play
The first thing you thought about was all in that sack
the last and only thing you gave me back
Laughing in tears I drove around and then back home
knowing that for you it was already all gone
Little Man
She laid down naked on the lawn
He knew they were safely out of sight
They made love at night
They used to hide in a barn over the hill
running hand in hand across the fields
screaming their lungs out for the thrill
The little man was sitting alone, in the corner across the room
She thought he was a mountain, she hoped this time it was all true
She waited there for him to come back, smiling in the dark
Hands never tired of sensual caresses
The hay hiding their wispered voices
Ticking time until dawn
He spent hours playing silly jokes
Building up their imaginary worlds
She gazed in awe
The little man is sitting alone, in a corner across the room
He thought he was a mountain, he thought that was all true
She waited there for him to come back, hiding in the dark
That little voice flowing in, but he knows this time is all an act
In Celebration Of Life
You just don’t see the abundance of love
I have inside
In celebration of life
Sogno E Incendio
Ho steso la mia pelle sulla strada
e ho lasciato camminarci la sera
con le ombre delle case
trafitte dalla pioggia
e i deserti di luce alle finestre
Sul mio ventre
nel mio canto
sul mio pianto
nel mio legno
più secco è dentro
più sogno e incendio
Il fuoco dormiva nella pietra
e scarafaggi sui miei sogni di vetro
Garcia intrecciava ricami di parole
come dita veloci sulla cetra.
Le smorfie delle case
trafitte dalla pioggia
coi denti di luce
alle finestre
Sul mio ventre
nel mio canto
sul mio pianto
nel mio legno
più secco è dentro
più sogno e incendio
Emily
Emily I’m in trouble
can’t get these thoughts out of my head
Emily I’m in trouble
time stole my strength and lightly fled
Em you know I struggle
holding myself together through the storms
Em I’m seeing double
don’t leave me here alone
Step out tonight and look up at the stars
We could share the same sky once more even if we’re apart
I know it was ages ago
I’m afraid you won’t find me here anymore
for I’m so ashamed of what I’ve become
The Perfect Wife
You quickly got married and had a kid
Even before I realised I had nothing but this sting
What hurts the most is the memory of that beautiful night
back home late from the airport after a long flight
I wonder if you wake up at night
If guilt is even for a moment a feeling you have to fight
Are you proud of your destructive appetite?
You now live your perfect life
Redeeming yourself as the perfect wife
I wonder if you ever wake up at night
If guilt was even for a moment a feeling you had to fight
Are you proud in your destructive appetite?
You now live your perfect life
A break for your mind as you play the perfect wife
It was cold and we fell asleep face to face
that’s the last time I remember your warm embrace
In anger and hate you always perpetuate
I now lay back in salt, aware of each and every fault
This morning I walked down the riverside
Where we used to walk to escape
I waited for you with a bittersweet smile
you destroyed what we called home and everything inside
You know your outer beauty will not last
blinding others from your hidden past
I choose to trust your eyes when you cried for the pain you gave
more than your eyes’ indifference when proud of your own gain
You plied me with promises so many times
Carefully wiping away all my tears
They were too much even for you to bear
So you lied till the day you disappeared
when you saw this time I left for real
I came to you without my selfish side of things
Believing in you, unaware of being unaware
I didn’t dare to imagine what you dared
what have you done with your sordid affair
I wonder if you wake up at night
If guilt is even for a moment a feeling you have to fight
Are you proud of your destructive appetite?
You now live your perfect life
Redeeming yourself as the perfect wife
I wonder if you ever wake up at night
If guilt was even for a moment a feeling you had to fight
Are you proud in your destructive appetite?
You now live your perfect life
A break for your mind as you play the perfect wife
Love Is Forever
From a void of presence
From a void of time
From a void of love
From a void of feelings
From a void of tears
From a void of hope
From a void left by absence
From a void left by time
From a void left by love
From a void full of feelings
From a void drowned in tears
From a void of muting hope
This song is for all you liars
and that fucking smile on your face
that sparkle in your eyes
blinding us from your demons inside
the ones that you deny
while I convince myself you lie
This song is for all you lovers
and that fucking smile on your face
that sparkle in your eyes
blinding us from your demons inside
the ones I see you want to hide
To survive, I convinced myself you lie
Evil Smile
You were unable to cope with your own life
You destroyed yourself while pretending to fight
Always needing to prove you were right
To cover the guilt that held you so tight
I don’t care about your ideal life
I don’t care about your mean mind
I won’t wait for your sudden attacks
I won’t surrender and I’ll fight back
I’ll let the fire burn my hopes
I’ll feed my ego until I choke
I’ll leave the hate exploding outside
I’ll laugh in the end at your evil smile
I let you back in, so many times
What I always feared was more than a doubt
You always knew where to find the sore
while sitting behind that slammed door
I don’t care about your ideal life
I don’t care about your mean mind
I won’t wait for your sudden attacks
I won’t surrender and I’ll fight back
I’ll let the fire burn my hopes
I’ll feed my ego until I choke
I’ll leave the hate exploding outside
I’ll laugh in the end at your evil smile
I always knew the moment would come
when I’d let you go and I’d stare at these walls
falling asleep unable to stand
the fullness of silence
the touch of your hands
But I’ll let the fire burn my hopes
I’ll feed my ego until I choke
I’ll let the my anger explode with bile
I’ll turn away one last time your evil smile
It takes a lot of pain
to close my eyes
It takes a lot of pain
to walk away
It takes a lot of pain
to leave you there
It takes a lot of pain
to fight despair
I wont be begging anymore
I wont annoy you anymore
I wont be asking anymore
I wont be around you anymore
I wont defend you anymore
I wont hold hands anymore
I wont…
Scintilla
A scintilla sparked in my soul
I don’t know how it started on its own
It didn’t set my heart on fire
Maybe it will, now I know you’re a liar
Our love was beautiful and cold
like that brisk white winter dawn
when the innocence melted like snow
even before we came back home
Sunshine is something I should never miss
You made it feel like a stolen bliss
Reaching down to pull me out of your abyss
I know I knew you were never in this
A scintilla sparks in my soul
I don’t know how it starts on its own
I’ll make sure there’s wood for the fire
To go through the night and wake up to desire
Put Me To Sleep
Please keep inviting me in the shelter of your arms
Catch me defenceless in the middle of your storms
Until you’ll smother me in silence and dismay
A last act of love put me to sleep before you walk away
Don’t give me your misery
Don’t give me your blame
You fucked up everything
You’ll burn yourself in your shame
You packed your things lost in your spleen
I already saw the end of that, the actors and the scene
But what you said then is what torn me inside
You always softened me like that before your sharp knife
Don’t give me your misery
Don’t give me your blame
You fucked up everything
You can’t escape all your shame
Comeback
Is a comeback you know you can’t allow
You said you feared I forgot your name
Now that you know you are back and so?
It doesn’t seem you stopped the blame
And the years disappeared
The old fears are so near
All the feelings unclear
Is the passage of time that I can’t defy
Is the warmth of a word I’m missing inside
Is the fear of greyness of an average life
Breathing more while I drown
When I woke up sweaty in panic at dawn
I was dreaming you were not here with me anymore
We’re now are here unable to forget writing and reading about our regrets
You did it your way as you always said and you call me because too afraid
Shadow Of An Artist
30 years have passed and what have I become?
The shadow of an artist is that all I have got?
A prison of emotions,
of feelings split apart
Sounds, moods and lyrics,
just mirrors on the past
It’s then when I remember
I maybe need just a normal life
with kids, a dog, a daytime job
and all things I was taught
I wonder if it was possible to end up now this life
Just holding my breath to stop this weakness I despise
I wonder if it was possible to die and get another life
Would I really hold it long enough
to play my chances for a bigger prize?
