Dardust UNVEILS A NEW DOUBLE ALBUM “DUALITY”

“DUALITY”, the latest album from alternative classical music pioneer Dardust, is set for international release by Sony Music Masterworks and Artist First on October 28, 2022 and, he shares the new single ‘Komorebi’.

A double album comprising a total of 20 tracks, “DUALITY” will be available digitally as well as on CD and vinyl. Pre-order HERE. It follows the release of three taster EPs: #001 Coordinate, #002 Hymns, and #003 Horizons (featuring Horizon In Your Eyes, previewed at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest).  The album announcement comes alongside the news that Dardust with headline the O2 Academy, Islington in London on 3^rd April 2023. 

While on previous albums Dardust has added electronic soundscapes to his minimalist piano compositions, creating a genre that straddles neo-classical and pop, he has here chosen to split his two realms into two parallel but converging experiences.

“I’m fascinated by human psychology and my passion for this field of study has helped me understand the dualism that has always been part of the way I express myself musically,” explains the artist. “On my previous albums, the emotional world of the piano and the more cognitive world of electronic music have fused together to create new sonic perspectives and a crossover between neo-classical and pop, with magical elements drawn from film soundtracks, a certain kind of club scene, fantasy movies and Romanticism. For my latest project I decided to focus on the two different aspects as if they were being influenced by the different hemispheres of my brain. Black and White, Electronic Music and Piano. The two extremes of my musical and artistic imagination as Dardust.”

The two albums that make up “DUALITY” therefore represent the two hemispheres of the human brain. The solo piano tracks on RIGHT HEMISPHERE express the pure emotion and innocence of contemporary pianistic virtuosity through music inspired by the natural world and a more emotionally spontaneous sense of improvisation, like that of a poet. Its reference points come from Far Eastern culture: Kabuki theatre and Zen Buddhism. The concepts that run through these tracks are linked to a Japanese philosophy exemplified by sakura, the cherry blossom, representing fragility, beauty, mortality and renewal. Together, these 10 tracks portray the cyclical nature of life through the seasons and the way in which everything leads not to an epilogue but a prologue, a continuous sense of rebirth.

The electronic tracks on LEFT HEMISPHERE, by contrast, symbolise the rational part of our brain, the “engineer” within the artist. They’ve been shaped with a new sound geometry linked to patterns, beats, synthesisers and musical worlds belonging to different styles, blended together to produce a fresh type of artistic narrative. Each of them has a theme and a riff that gives it its own unique identity, within which we can hear references to the 90s sound, John Carpenter film soundtracks, prog rock band Goblin, Italo-Disco, UK garage and Nu jazz. In this world of stylistic cross-contaminations, the analogue approach is combined with the digital and the organic, thanks to the intros and outros created in collaboration with the Studio Murena collective.

Dardust describes the new single, “Komorebi is the light that filters through the leaves of the trees: it’s the expression of a brief but intense moment with a specific mood, sort of an elusive sensation. A magical feeling but melancholic at the same time: it reminds us of the provisional nature and constant mutability of all things. When a ray of sunlight filters through a frond in a forest, the soul gets filled with peace and rebirth; it gives a positive change to those who experience it”.

“DUALITY” tracklist:
LEFT HEMISPHERE

1.     Parallel 43

1. Space Samurai
2. Fluid Love
3. We’re Ready to Shine Again
4. Horizon in Your Eyes
5. Forget to be
6. Addó Staje feat. Tropico [Where you are]

1. The Whistle
2. Petals (Exterior Night)
3. Hymn (Epilogue)

RIGHT HEMISPHERE

1.     Lucciole [Dalla Finestra] Fireflies [From the Window]

1. Petali (Interno Giorno) [Petals (Interior Day)]
2. Nuvole In Fiore [Clouds in Bloom]

1. Dono Per Un Addio [Keepsake]
2. Hanafubuki (Attraverso La Tempesta Dei Fiori Di Ciliegio) [(Through the Cherry Blossom Snowstorm)]
3. Komorebi (Luce Che Filtra Tra Le Foglie Degli Alberi) [(Light Filtering Through the Leaves of the Trees)]
4. Dune [Dunes]
5. Stormi Di Origami [Flocks of Origami Birds]
6. Nintai (Spada Nel Cuore) [(Sword in the Heart)]
7. Inno (Prologo) [Hymn (Prologue)]

Dardust will be on the road again next year for the 2023 DUALITY TOUR, which will see him showcase the two halves of his musical soul – solo piano and electronic music – in a unique multidimensional live experience with spectacular visual effects.Organised by BPM CONCERTI (www.bpmconcerti.com),  the tour dates are:

04 March 2023 | Ascoli Piceno @ Teatro Ventidio Basso
07 March 2023 | Turin @ Teatro Colosseo
08 March 2023 | Bologna @ Teatro Celebrazioni
09 March 2023 | Milan @ Conservatorio di Milano
10 March 2023 | Prato @ Teatro Politeama Pratese
11 March 2023 | Rome @ Auditorium Parco della Musica
26 March 2023 | Berlin (DE) @ Frannz Club
29 March 2023 | Brussels (BE) @ Ancienne Belgique – AB Club
30 March 2023 | Amsterdam (NL) @ Melkweg
03 April 2023 | London (UK) @ O2 Academy Islington

Dardust, aka Dario Faini, has one of the biggest followings in the world among Italian pianists of his generation. His music has been heard at such global events as the Superbowl, the NBA All Star Game, an Apple Product Launch Keynote Address and the Flag Handover at the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, to name but a few. As an exceptional songwriter and producer, he has scored a string of hits in Italy, with more than 70 platinum discs and 500 million streams to his name so far. As a composer, he broke new ground with the first Italian instrumental music project to combine a minimalist piano world with the contemporary electronic sounds of the Berlin–Reykjavík geographical–musical axis: a trilogy of releases that culminated in “S.A.D. Storm and Drugs”, released worldwide by Sony Masterworks and Artist First in January 2020. In the last two years he has collaborated with an array of international artists, including Benny Benassi and Sophie and the Giants, who joined him on stage at Turin’s Pala Olimpico to perform at the 66th Eurovision Song Contest. Dardust’s new album will be released in autumn 2022, and he has also announced a series of 2023 “DUALITY” tour dates at venues in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.

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