Beauty In Chaos has today premiered their new video for the track titled ‘Echoes And The Angels’ from their latest album ‘Dancing With Angels‘.
Beauty In Chaos featuring Leo Luganskiy is kind of a musical taijitu (yin-yang) for me. ‘Echoes And The Angels’ is definitely a stand out track within the album. Almost to a universal building construct. But there is also a duality within the music brought on by Leo as an addition to the music. Such an original style set forth within an already established group of musicians makes a clear departure, yet a return to the fold simultaneously. And, what I mean by that, is that, while the music takes a giant leap forward into a new uncharted originality, there is a familiarity that coincides with all of this that lets you know you are listening to BIC. And, in my opinion, that shows you, once again, that BIC is about reaching out and expanding it’s family, and taking the music to the next, and the next, and the next level. Leo, welcome to the family.
Check out our other features with Beauty In Chaos HERE.
Q&A
How did you and Leo hook up and decide to collaborate?
Like many of our BIC Family collaborations, Leo was introduced to me by Julian Shah-Tayler. They perform together in Strangelove. Julian said to me ‘you got to hear my singer’. Tish and I went to see them live, and I could tell immediately that Leo was a star in the making, and we loved his dynamic vocal range.
Leo has such a unique style. How was the process of integrating it into BIC?
As I mentioned above, I thought his range and vocal stylings were incredible. I felt that it would be a wonderful ‘counter’ to the big booming baritone voices of Wayne (Hussey), Aston (Nyte) and Willian (Faith). We sent him a rough mix of the music, and just let him be himself.
What was the story behind the inspiration for ‘Echoes And The Angels’?
The idea of ‘angels’ was something I felt strongly about as we started creating music that would be the beginnings of the album. In today’s fucked up world, I think we all can agree we can use angels, whatever that may be to you. I think the idea was as simple as me being alone in the studio, running my guitar through a couple of echo pedals as the phrase ‘echoes and the angels’ entered my conscious (or maybe sub-conscious?) .
I originally thought that this would be the title of the album until I saw a rough sketch of Maren Platzhoff’s painting …. which shifted me to calling the album ‘Dancing With Angels’. As this music was one of the first pieces we completed, I told Leo that I was going to call the album ‘Echoes And The Angels’. I am happy the phrase stuck with him and he found inspiration in it for his lyrics to this song.
With ‘Echoes And The Angels’, BIC seems to be heading back to guitar focused music. Is this a conscious evolution or where you feel it is musically at the moment?
I certainly started all of the 8 songs on album on guitar, which is evident on the main guitar riff of “Echoes And The Angels”. I tried to find new sonic inspirations with not only new cool guitar pedals, but also different guitar tunings …. which also led me to discover some new chords. “Echoes And The Angels”, while in standard tuning, I did use a capo. BIC will always be guitar focused… no matter how we use and how much we abuse!
Have you given thought as to including the halos into the music videos as a kind of remix or expanded version?
Well, a segment of “Halo-7” is used in the ‘angel-dance’ outro scene of this video. I really enjoyed creating the Halos, but I want to keep them special and part of the full uninterrupted CD listening experience.
In regards to the songwriting of ‘Echoes And The Angels’, were the lyrics completed when you and Leo hooked up? Or was the music and lyrics done separately or was the song written with both of you together and has was the songwriting and recording process in comparison to past BIC collabs?
We compose the same as we have done from BIC Day-1. Michael Rozon and I compose the music, and by either intuition, luck or divine intervention … we find the RIGHT vocalist to turn these pieces of music into a SONG. Every singer has written their own lyrics and melodies. We are truly blessed to have each of these extremely talented artists as part of our evolving BIC Family. I think the one thing we have learned and do a bit different, more and more each album, is to leave more ‘space’ in the music when we send it to the artists, hopefully allowing them more freedom to create.
This also allows Michael and I to add textures and parts around their vocal melodies. To me, each record feels more and more ‘collaborative’. “Echoes And The Angels” is no different. Leo had the freedom to create and utilize his amazing vocal range… and again, I am thrilled he used the original album title in the beautiful song.
Ok, so here’s the obligatory ‘what’s next for Beauty In Chaos’ question…
Ahhh ,,,, yes! As to what has become our ‘usual’, we are following up “Dancing With Angels” with its re-envision counterpart, which will be dubbed ‘Signs In The Heavens … Reality Upside Down’. This is something I still really enjoy… the turning over of the keys to the BIC sportscar to an amazing cast of artists, producers and dee-jays to create their unbridled interpretation of these eight songs! My hopes is to have this double-CD out in early January.
We are finally upgrading our studio computer set-up in SAINTinLA, and soon as we get that all running smooth, we will mix a few re-envisions that Michael and I are part of, as well as mastering the release. We are including a pair of cover songs that ‘fit’ my rationale behind the album’s title. Since this record is a sonic-extension of ‘Dancing With Angels’, we are thrilled to again have the talented Maren Platzhoff providing paintings. And we, of course, have some videos to accompany them!
About ‘Echoes And The Angels’
‘Echoes And The Angels’ is the new video/single from Beauty In Chaos’s 4th studio album; ‘Dancing With Angels’. This earworm track features the incredible vocal range of Leo Luganskiy, who is described by BIC’s curator Michael Ciravolo as a ‘rock n’ roll star in the making’. Ciravolo adds “Leo’s voice is a bit of an outlier on this record, which I love … as he shares the spotlight with the booming baritones of Ashton Nyte, Wayne Hussey and William Faith!”
Luganskiy sheds a bit of light on his lyrics, “You can have a love story that is fully complete and copacetic or you can have a beautifully chaotic romance that changes you forever. It unlocks something in you ….”. Ciravolo confesses “Echoes And The Angels” was originally going to be the name for this album until I saw Maren Platzhoff’s cover art concept. “I am happy that Leo gravitated to the phrase and created a very memorable chorus …. remember, echoes and the angels…”
This ‘lights, camera, action’ video was once again directed by Industrialism Films. “Echoes And The Angels” was the first of the four videos shot from this album, but somehow worked out as the last one we released!” muses the BIC curator. “We have filmed other videos at this studio, but never in this room and I had made a mental note that the lighting vibe would be perfect for the right song. As we were mixing this track, I knew this would be the right location. I didn’t really have a concept going into it other than the outro ‘angel dance’ sequence and letting Leo be Leo! I do feel we, again, created a video that was different from its predecessor… which is always our goal”.
‘Echos & The Angels’ Credits
Leo Luganskiy: voice
Michael Ciravolo : guitar
Tish Ciravolo: bass, angel
Dirk Doucette: drums
Filmed and Directed by Vicente Cordero (Industrialism Films)
Edited by Ryan Conlon
Filmed on location at FD Studio (Los Angeles)
About ‘Dancing With Angels’
‘Dancing With Angels’ features BIC alumni Ashton Nyte, Holy Wars’ Kat Leon, and of course Wayne and Cinthya Hussey. “The title was inspired by a painting from a talented German artist, Maren Platzhoff which also became the album’s cover. As Michael Rozon and I began writing the music for this release, I knew I wanted to blend artists from our first two releases with some amazing new members to our BIC Family”. Ciravolo adds “I love bringing in ‘less famous’ but certainly no less talented artists to the fold, and I think this album does just that”. Leo Luganskiy, Julian Shah-Tayler, former Silence In The Snow front woman Cynthia Isabella, The Bellweather Syndicate’s William and Sarah Faith, and Patrik Mata, main-man of the seminal darkwave band Kommunity FK bring immense and diverse talents to “Dancing With Angels”.
Ciravolo has described this album as sort of a ‘sonic regression and a sonic progression’. When pressed to explain he adds “I meant this as a positive thing, taking some of the post-rock elements of our debut album, the stark dark bits that run through ‘The Storm Before The Calm”, and the gothy dreamy-gaze of ‘Behind The Veil’. It was definitely going a bit backwards to take a few steps forward!”
Speaking of going forward, this album in its CD format includes something that the BIC curator has long wanted to do… joining the songs together with musical interludes, that Ciravolo dubbed ‘Halos’. “These are unique soundscape interludes that sonically tie each song together, along with the album’s coda. I do have this… probably unrealistic romantic idea that the listener will give this album at least one top-to-bottom uninterrupted listen” he added.
Featured image by Kim Moran.
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