NIGHTWISH REVEALS THE CONCEPT FOR NEXT ALBUM:

NIGHTWISH - IMAGINARIUM



In the midst of recording a new album, Nightwish has been preparing a movie.

"Imaginarium" is a music fantasy - film based on the forthcoming Nightwish album of the same title and its 13 songs.

The protagonist of the film is a songwriter with an otherworldly imagination. He is an old man who still thinks he`s a young boy. While asleep he travels into his distant past where his dreams of old come back to him mixed to the young boy`s world of fantasy and music.

In his dreams the old man fights to find the memories most important to him.

This never-done-before project originates to more than two years in the past when Tuomas first introduced his ambitious idea of the Imaginarium - concept to the fellow band members and to Mr. Stobe Harju, the director behind "The Islander" - music video. He will be the director of this full-length feature. The film will be produced by Solar Films Inc. together with Nightwish.

The shootings for "Imaginarium" will begin this spring, it will have its premiere in 2012 and the album it`s based on will be released in an undefined point in time.

Nightwish will hold a press conference related to this project at the end of February.

Finnvox Studios / Helsinki, May-June 2011

After three years of brainstorming and songwriting, over a year of rehearsing, arranging and studio work, this triumph of musical passion and piety is finally ready to be mastered. Yesterday, after a six-week mixing session in Studio C at Finnvox, I listened the whole thing from start to finish alone for the first time, and couldn't make heads nor tails of it. It's the same old story - the same feeling of bottomless emptiness that has marked the completion of all previous albums. We could have honed the songs till Armageddon, but at some point you just have to let go and start admiring the scenery. This time, the landscape consists of 13 songs totalling 75 minutes. I think I'll probably be able to savour the end result only after a couple of months of mixing detox, but the encouraging comments by those near to me assure that it is a decent album. One person who heard Imaginarium called it "the greatest adventure he ever heard with his two ears".

There's clearly more grin to the new album than on the last one, more funfair, Moomins, smoky taverns, and twisted landscapes. It equals the Milky Way in width and breath, even according to our standards.

As Markus Selin put it: "Now you've really gone and emptied the bag of tricks!"

We're now going to get some distance to the album before mastering it later in the autumn. Meanwhile, we're going to be busy designing the cover, completing the instrumental and orchestral versions of the album, planning the upcoming tour, shooting the movie, and digesting the audio bloat. An excellent cure for the latter should be peaceful country atmosphere, fishing, and following the games of the current pesäpallo season. (By the way, during the home games of Kiteen Pallo, the entry music will be a remix consisting of the main riff and chorus of song number 11 off Imaginarium.)

Big thanks and bear hugs to the whole band for their patience; to Mikko Karmila and Tee Cee Kinnunen for their forbearance, craftsmanship and enormous amount of work; and in advance to Mika Jussila for the finishing touch! It's been a magnificent journey so far. Big thanks to you, too, for living with us through this process and having faith in what's to come. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Tuomas

Kitee 5th of June