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The Night Siren magical images - March 2017

Maurizio and Angéla Vicedomini (Iconphoto) have come up with extraordinary art photos for my new album 'The Night Siren'.

We love the imagery in all these pictures.

The cover image taken in Iceland shows desolation and hope, the freezing and inhospitable ground contrasting with the beautiful illuminating Northern Lights. The two rocks give a sense of several things... The choice between two ways, the point of no return and the dangers through which we pass in life. The image as a whole is both awe inspiring and thought provoking.

The picture for Behind the Smoke struck me as incredibly powerful, symbolising the plight of the refugees today with the wrecked boat and skeleton image.

Likewise, I love the symbolism of peace in the West to East picture, with birds flying free above an erected boundary.

All the pictures are intriguing, ranging from a sense of the mystical power of nature to personal dream-like images. Below each of the pictures are explanations in the words of Angéla and Maurizio...

 

Cover

While Steve and Jo were in Iceland in 2015 for a gig with the Todmobile band they were very impressed and inspired by the amazing landscapes and the extreme climate. While discussing about the pictures for the new album, Steve and Jo came up with the idea to send us to Iceland in order to capture with our cameras the atmosphere of this breath-taking place.

We travelled to Iceland in March 2016.

The first day we drove along the west coast, the weather was grey and dark and it was snowing from time to time. We were happy to get some dramatic photos of the landscape and the tempestuous sea.

When we arrived at the hotel in the evening, we were almost sure that there would be no possibility that night to see the Aurora Borealis, but, at 11pm, we were informed that near the coast, the clouds had gone and some Northern Lights might be visible. We jumped in the car and by midnight we arrived near two big monoliths. In a few minutes our cameras were on the tripods, with two different lenses, one 15mm and one 24mm, trying out various times of exposure between 8 and 20 seconds.

We had just the time to get 3 other points of view before the spectacle in the firmament ended.

The photo of the Aurora and the two monoliths fascinated Steve and Jo and it was chosen to be the cover of "The Night Siren".

Behind the Smoke

We discovered the remainder of a ship in the tideland while strolling along the beach, not far away from our home, a year ago, and were very excited by the idea of taking pictures of it.

When we received the lyrics of "Behind the Smoke", we knew immediately that the wreck would be a symbolic image for this song.

We had to wait some days before having the ideal conditions to shoot: good weather, sundown and low tide. Thanks to the low tide, we were able to approach the relic and take pictures from different points of view.

In one of the photos we spotted wooden beams that had the appearance of a human skeleton, invisible in pictures taken from other angles.

Here it was: the image for "Behind the Smoke"!

Martian Sea

This was a real challenge... how on earth could we depict the planet Mars and a Martian sea?

The answer was a photo taken in Iceland, of a place called Blue Lagoon. The picture was taken with a wide-angle lens providing a curved shape to the landscape.

We had to alter the wonderful blue colors to a Martian red, and we inserted the Martian moon Phobos (a photo of our good old earth moon), in order to complete the picture.

In this case we had to modify a photo in to a fantasy image with a prog feeling.

Fifty Miles from the North Pole

This is another picture taken in Iceland.

During the third day of our sojourn we had chosen different sceneries, not far away from each other, where we was hoping to capture the beauty of the Northern Lights once more.

We were very fortunate that evening, the Aurora lasted for quite some time and was extremely intense, giving us the opportunity to take a number of amazing and emotional shots, from which Steve and Jo have selected the one you can see here.

El Niño

Again a photo taken in Iceland, a day of stormy weather with rain and snow.

Suddenly while driving on a small road we noticed the cliff in a distance.

We walked to get nearer and discovered a breath taking scenery of huge waves shattering against the black cliff, illuminated by a dramatic light.

The music and the picture describe the power and wildness of nature, a phenomenon called El Niño.

Other Side of the Wall

This shot was taken in woodlands near Hamburg.

There was hoarfrost on the trees surrounded by fog. A mystical mood that inspired us to place the locket with the picture of a woman in the foreground, illuminated by a portable studio light, while the forest was lightened by some sunbeams breaking through the mist.

Anything but Love

The inspiration for this picture was the flamenco feeling in the air of this song.

The photo of the two dancers was taken in the evening. The camera was placed on the tripod and set for a long exposure time. While our models were dancing we illuminated them at irregular intervals with the studio lights to emphasize particular movements.

Inca Terra

This was one of the most challenging pictures we've created for this album. The search for a location that might have a South American primeval forest touch was a venture.

Finally, a waterfall high up in the mountains in Switzerland met our expectations.

The shot of a snake was easily done.

Composing the photos of the waterfall and of the serpent to obtain a harmonious scene was done in Photoshop.

In Another Life

By reading the lyrics of this song, the images of movie "Braveheart" were immediately present.

The scenario of the picture was quickly prepared in our mind, and the search for the location started. We found the right house and landscape right here on the island (Sylt). Setting a house on fire would have made it an expensive shot, so we had to give up the idea of a lifelike picture and we enkindled the house in Photoshop.

In the Skeleton Gallery

We set up the ambience of a nightmare in studio. Maurizio slipped in to the role of the puppeteer, and a friend mimed the lad perturbed by the puppet master.

The studio lights were set in order to illuminate the scene and to create a spooky mood.

West to East

This song evokes a very special atmosphere, somewhere between melancholy and joy.

Once attained more information about the song from Steve and Jo, we were captivated by the thought of a daybreak, that special moment when the sky turns from dark blue to all shades of red.

One morning in November last year the weather was very promising, the sky was almost cloudless and photogenic.

The photo was taken on the East coast.

In our opinion a perfect symbiosis of the music and the image.

The Gift

When Steve and Jo told us about this instrumental, they were thrilled by the idea of pictures of some of Sylt's landscapes to choose from. (Sylt is a German island, situated in the north sea, near the Danish border.)

Steve and Jo know Sylt from a 3 days sojourn in 2014 when they were the guest of honor at the vernissage of the exhibition of our photos realized for the Genesis Revisited II album.

We wandered across the island in various weather conditions, taking a number of shots of different landscapes which we proposed to Steve and Jo.

We believe they made an excellent choice, there is a perfect unity between the music and the picture.

Click here for more on The Night Siren