We’re glad to announce that Galway, Ireland-based grunge/alternative rock band Bursting Wonderland have released a single entitled “In Memory Of.”
International rock band Bursting Wonderland is Mimmo Ripa (song writing, arrangements, bass, guitars, backing vocals, artistic production), and Ania Chmielewska (vocals and lyrics). The band’s sound is heavily influenced by the grunge scene and hard rock of the 1990s, blended beautifully with their love for soft rock and the haunting guitar solos reminiscent of 1970s rock.
Ania is Polish and Mimmo is Italian, but they met in Ireland. Bursting Wonderland arose from Ania’s unfulfilled, long-time dream of recording an album, where she could finally materialize her creativity and imagination. Mimmo was already an experienced musician; born and raised in Italy, and living in Ireland for a decade at that time, he had recorded many albums with various formations and bands in the past in both countries, and was working on promoting his first solo album with Aboutmeemo. At first, he was reluctant and did not want to get involved with a new project. However, the strong bond between the Ania and Mimmo, and their constant confrontation of ideas, vision and criticism of the current state of the world matured to a stage in which music collaboration made sense.
Ania and Mimmo flirted about music and having a band together for a couple of years before they decided to go ahead in making a project together. Considering Ania’s character, Mimmo was often telling her that she is living in Wonderland. Ania, on the other hand, was always pointing out how Mimmo is bursting her view of the world. And so Bursting Wonderland was born! Not only the music itself, but also the idea of disarming the fake reality people sink into every day became their driving force. The topics that Ania and Mimmo explore in their music are all daily-basis subjects, interconnected and involving all of us: politics, religion, spirituality, revealing new points of view regarding people, relations with one another and the unspoken, harsh thoughts occurring throughout a life.
The band also strives to express the raw truth behind art and everyday life. Their name, music, and mission are about stripping down all the bells and whistles of the show business and revealing the real deal behind it. Bursting Wonderland point out the contradictions of the music scene, both local and abroad, that destroy the concept of art and of making art. They spotlight the fakery around music business and music preferences, aiming to take a deeper breath, and with further sight, portray a brave and brutally honest reflection about making music today. Ultimately, Bursting Wonderland’s aim is to exist and be honest, believe in what it is worth to live, to praise culture, love, romance, hard work, and empathy—to react and revolt to any passive-aggressive, toxic, corrupted way to look at the world, and to go against driving the world into a dark place.
Bursting Wonderland signed with French label M&O in December 2020, leading to the release of their debut album, David vs. Goliath, in March 2021. The album alternates a hard rock kick in the soul to more mellow, melancholic sounds.
One of the songs first written by Ania, which was released on David vs Goliath and also as a single, is “In Memory Of.” It’s a song dedicated to her grandma, and is a personal story about a broken and forbidden love gone tragic after a run away into the cold forest night in Poland during the beginning of the last century. Ania was hit by the story of her grandma (Maria)’s lost love, John—the first true love that she had to let go that cold winter night, long ago. It was a forbidden kind of relation, and an unwelcoming blessing to their parents until they decided to run away one night. John got sick and tired, until contracting pneumonia that killed him, abandoning Ania’s grandmother alone and forever. She eventually got married and lived a long life, but she could never forget all of this and most of all, forgetting him. This is a story that Maria narrated on her deathbed to Ania and her mother, and Ania felt inspired to write a tribute. From this, Mimmo created the music, trying to picture those feelings, that drama, that love, and that destiny.
This very tune was selected as a potential soundtrack for “The Witcher 2” series on Netflix, for its ancestral Celtic vibe and also for the connection between Ania Chmielewska and the author of the book, both being Polish. Unfortunately, this didn’t go through, and now Bursting Wonderland are on standby for the third season.
“In Memory Of” is also accompanied by a music video, which you can watch here:
“In Memory Of” begins with a somber melody of a reverb-laden electric guitar, soon accompanied by foreboding percussion and resonant bass notes amidst dark ambient effects. Ania’s vocals soon join in, her lyrical passages building nicely on the haunting mood of the track as she tells her grandmother’s sorrowful story. A distorted guitar then joins in, its tone awash in a bleak atmosphere of feedback, producing a nearly hypnotic effect; and later in the track, its sustained drones build up to a dynamic culmination of sound, as subtle acoustic guitar strumming underscores touching vocal harmonies, in turn echoed by melancholic electric guitar leads.
At the same time that “In Memory Of” perfectly evokes the dark atmosphere of the true story that it tells, it is also quite an enjoyable listen, highlighting Bursting Wonderland’s brilliant songwriting and superb musicianship. I would highly recommend this track to fans of folk-rock and alternative/indie music alike.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify. You can also visit their official website. If you enjoy their music and are able to provide monetary support, you might consider downloading it on Bandcamp.
It also helps to stream and share their music; you can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Alterindie State Of Mind, Female Rising Stars, Sickest & Dopest, and Unknown but Essentials!!!.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists that we have presented here!
This coverage was created via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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