Spiritual Front
Encyclopedia
Spiritual Front is a five-part neofolk
act from Rome
. Its members describe their music as "nihilist
suicide
pop
", although elements of neoclassical and rock music, melancholic folk, as well as tango are prevalent, along with a recurring experimental feel. The group's work has been described as crossing a wide variety of genres and musical styles or traditions, and the band itself is considered highly unique among the modern neofolk and post-industrial scenes in Europe. The ingenuity and constructiveness of Spiritual Front's songs have gained them somewhat of a cult following
since their formation in the late 1990s.
The band originated in 1999 as a project fronted by Simone "Hellvis" Salvatori, a guitarist and singer from Italy. They have since worked extensively —both solo and with several other neofolk
projects— on their musical output. The group has performed subsequent tours throughout Europe
.
Their song, The Gift of Life, appeared on the original score
of the American slasher film Saw II
.
drum beats characteristic of the neofolk genre
, art rock and new wave influences and heavily decadent musical styles. Slow, dissonant and often melancholic vocals are often contrasted with cabaret-like, somewhat comedic pieces reminiscent of swing revival
and neotango sound, bringing on a vast dichotomy in the musical output of the band. Emotional piano chords are also frequently featured, with occasional violin
playing and solos as well as the utilization of a number of different instruments including synthesizer
s, lute
s and pipe organ
s.
Over time the group's style has constantly and quickly changed: beginning with the dark ballads of the earliest years after their formation (as is present in such works as Song for the Will and Nihilist Cocktails for Calypso Inferno), through the more refined sentimental dark folk with the E.P. Satyriasis until their latest records such as Armageddon Gigolo and Rotten Roma Casino where classical folk and tango influences are evident. (Members of the Ennio Morricone
orchestra were involved.)
and some Italian
, as well as free-verse type poetic styles influenced by decadent references to various, often obscure subjects. Therefore there is a tangible difficulty in deciphering the analogies behind the individual songs, and whether or not many of Spiritual Front's albums should be placed as concept works
.
Patterns can be noted, however, in a great portion of the band's work as is devoted to the topics of love
, romance and sexuality
. A dichotomization between physical and material topics with open spirituality
pervades major tracks, reinforcing the metaphysical aspects of neofolk
music. (However a typical sense of heathenry
is not so apparent as in many other neofolk groups such as Of the Wand and the Moon or Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio
.)
Sex, sexual abasement, and frankly lewd topics of paraphilia
and sadomasochism are expressed in decadent styles of swing revival and acoustic folk ballads.
Spiritual Front's genre has been satirized as "Mafia
-Folk", due to the origin of the band in Italy
and their general association with folk
genres.
Several songs draw their inspiration from the controversial Italian cult film
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
(English
: Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom) by Pier Paolo Pasolini
. The film is a reinterpretation and pseudo-adaptation of the Marquis de Sade
's 120 Days of Sodom
utilizing elements of Dante's Inferno
; both the film and the Marquis's work incorporate sexuality coupled by extreme aggression or a "master-slave" archetype. The quotes include: "The limit of love is that, of needing always an accomplice," and "Nothing is more contagious than sin." (featured in the songs No Kisses On the Mouth and Jesus Died in Las Vegas, respectively.) The band made tribute with a number of other groups to Pasolini, contributing several songs to the 2009 compilation Songs For A Child: A Tribute to Pierre Paolo Pasolini.
The title of the song My Kingdom For A Horse (from the 2006 album Armageddon Gigolo) is taken directly from a famous line in Shakespeare's play Richard III
: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."
The final track of Armageddon Gigolo, entitled Redemption Or Myself features a background track playing part of The Shangri-Las
' Give Us Your Blessings.
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
act from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Its members describe their music as "nihilist
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
", although elements of neoclassical and rock music, melancholic folk, as well as tango are prevalent, along with a recurring experimental feel. The group's work has been described as crossing a wide variety of genres and musical styles or traditions, and the band itself is considered highly unique among the modern neofolk and post-industrial scenes in Europe. The ingenuity and constructiveness of Spiritual Front's songs have gained them somewhat of a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
since their formation in the late 1990s.
The band originated in 1999 as a project fronted by Simone "Hellvis" Salvatori, a guitarist and singer from Italy. They have since worked extensively —both solo and with several other neofolk
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
projects— on their musical output. The group has performed subsequent tours throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Their song, The Gift of Life, appeared on the original score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
of the American slasher film Saw II
Saw II
Saw II is a 2005 Canadian-American horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and co-written by Bousman and the first film's co-writer Leigh Whannell. It is a sequel to 2004's Saw and the second installment in the seven-part Saw film series...
.
Musical style
Spiritual Front's so-called "Mafia-Folk" has been in release since 1999, in which time Simone Salvatori, the lyricist and conceptualist behind the band, has been known to create a unique feel within their traditionally folk style. Their most noticeable recurring output is Simone's charismatic playing of the acoustic guitar, along with martialMarch (music)
A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
drum beats characteristic of the neofolk genre
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
, art rock and new wave influences and heavily decadent musical styles. Slow, dissonant and often melancholic vocals are often contrasted with cabaret-like, somewhat comedic pieces reminiscent of swing revival
Swing Revival
The Swing Revival was a late 1990s and early 2000s period of renewed popular interest in swing and jump blues music and dance from the 1930s and 1940s as exemplified by Louis Prima, often mixed with a more contemporary rock, rockabilly or ska sound, known also as neo-swing or retro...
and neotango sound, bringing on a vast dichotomy in the musical output of the band. Emotional piano chords are also frequently featured, with occasional violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
playing and solos as well as the utilization of a number of different instruments including synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
s and pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
s.
Over time the group's style has constantly and quickly changed: beginning with the dark ballads of the earliest years after their formation (as is present in such works as Song for the Will and Nihilist Cocktails for Calypso Inferno), through the more refined sentimental dark folk with the E.P. Satyriasis until their latest records such as Armageddon Gigolo and Rotten Roma Casino where classical folk and tango influences are evident. (Members of the Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
orchestra were involved.)
Themes
The themes of focus in Spiritual Front's music vary and are extensive, though most often seem to be either quite personal or introverted, perhaps to lead singer Salvatori's own life. However lyrics in the group's music tend to be characterized by a type of broken EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and some Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, as well as free-verse type poetic styles influenced by decadent references to various, often obscure subjects. Therefore there is a tangible difficulty in deciphering the analogies behind the individual songs, and whether or not many of Spiritual Front's albums should be placed as concept works
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
.
Patterns can be noted, however, in a great portion of the band's work as is devoted to the topics of love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
, romance and sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
. A dichotomization between physical and material topics with open spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
pervades major tracks, reinforcing the metaphysical aspects of neofolk
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
music. (However a typical sense of heathenry
Heathenry
Heathenry, Heathenism or Heathendom may refer to:* an English loan-translation of paganus, see Paganism* a term for Germanic Neopaganism...
is not so apparent as in many other neofolk groups such as Of the Wand and the Moon or Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio
Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio
Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio is a neofolk and martial industrial music group from Stockholm. The band is composed of its founding member and vocalist Tomas Pettersson, and Rose-Marie Larsen, who replaced Chelsea Krook on backup vocals...
.)
Sex, sexual abasement, and frankly lewd topics of paraphilia
Paraphilia
Paraphilia is a biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her...
and sadomasochism are expressed in decadent styles of swing revival and acoustic folk ballads.
Spiritual Front's genre has been satirized as "Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
-Folk", due to the origin of the band in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and their general association with folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
genres.
Inspirations and lyrical references
Simone Salvatori, who composes the lyrics and much of the music for the band, quotes in a number of songs phrases from literature and film.Several songs draw their inspiration from the controversial Italian cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom , commonly referred to as Salò, is a controversial 1975 Italian drama film written and directed by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini with uncredited writing contributions by Pupi Avati. It is based on the book The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade...
(English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom) by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
. The film is a reinterpretation and pseudo-adaptation of the Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
's 120 Days of Sodom
120 Days of Sodom
The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinism is a novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, written in 1785...
utilizing elements of Dante's Inferno
Dante's Inferno
Dante's Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's epic poem Divine Comedy.Dante's Inferno may also refer to:* Dante's Inferno , a silent film about a slum landlord sent to hell...
; both the film and the Marquis's work incorporate sexuality coupled by extreme aggression or a "master-slave" archetype. The quotes include: "The limit of love is that, of needing always an accomplice," and "Nothing is more contagious than sin." (featured in the songs No Kisses On the Mouth and Jesus Died in Las Vegas, respectively.) The band made tribute with a number of other groups to Pasolini, contributing several songs to the 2009 compilation Songs For A Child: A Tribute to Pierre Paolo Pasolini.
The title of the song My Kingdom For A Horse (from the 2006 album Armageddon Gigolo) is taken directly from a famous line in Shakespeare's play Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."
The final track of Armageddon Gigolo, entitled Redemption Or Myself features a background track playing part of The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1966 they charted with often heartbreaking teen melodramas, and remain best known for "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember ".- Early career :...
' Give Us Your Blessings.
Albums
- Songs For The Will - (1999)
- Nihilist Cocktails for Calypso Inferno - (2001)
- Armageddon Gigolo - (2006)
- Rotten Roma Casino - (2010)
Collaborative releases
- Satyriasis - (2005; with Ordo Rosarius EquilibrioOrdo Rosarius EquilibrioOrdo Rosarius Equilibrio is a neofolk and martial industrial music group from Stockholm. The band is composed of its founding member and vocalist Tomas Pettersson, and Rose-Marie Larsen, who replaced Chelsea Krook on backup vocals...
) - Bedtime/Badtime - (2005; with NaevusNaevus (band)Naevus is a British experimental rock group. Formed in London in 1998 by Lloyd James and Joanne Owen , Naevus were often categorised as part of the ‘neo-folk’ genre...
)
Compilation albums
- Angel of Ashes: a Tribute to Scott Walker - (2006)
- Songs For A Child: A Tribute To Pier Paolo Pasolini - (2009)
Official
- Official site
- Spiritual Front on MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- Spiritual Front on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
Other
- Spiritual Front at Discogs
- Spiritual Front at Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....