ALBUM REVIEW: III – Candles & Beginnings – Auri

For the first time, AURI are going on tour. The don’t-call-it-a-side-project project by NIGHTWISH’s Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley, completed by singer Johanna Kurkela, has thus far been a studio endeavour, intermittently dropping beautiful records that are as much soundscapes as they are conventional albums. There may be spiritual bridges between Holopainen’s songwriting here and his other, higher profile act, but this is no symphonic metal outfit. AURI is altogether more ethereal and expansive, coming from a different room, one lit by lanterns, within the same house.

It is easier to get a handle on III – Candles & Beginnings than the band’s previous work. For every repeated incantation and hypnotic pulse, like on The Apparition Speaks, there’s a Libraries Of Love, a natural successor to a song like NIGHTWISH’s Eva. The record is a phantasmagoric journey with checkpoints along the way to catch your breath and reflect as you go. A stop at Blakely Ridge, named after the site of one of England’s most remote pubs, is a welcome respite by a fireplace after being taken among the stars on Oh Lovely Oddities, a dramatic wander through an ever-shifting imagination.

Since 2015, NIGHTWISH has been fixated on the magic of science and the natural world, leaving behind much of their earlier influences which were rooted in fantasy and melodrama. With a few records now under their belt, AURI have properly picked up the baton NIGHTWISH dropped. Holopainen and Donockley here have brought the childlike wonder and introspective soul-searching back to the fore, and Kurkela plays a major part in giving it space to flourish. Her voice is that of a storyteller’s, one that sings nursery rhymes and hymns, that can bring comfort and paint the clear night sky. For those who miss NIGHTWISH leaning into the awe of the metaphorical and the sublime, III – Candles & Beginnings might just be a revelation; its sense of awe is overflowing.

So when Kurkela introduces The Invisible Gossamer Bridge, her voice warm and ethereal, it is as if a blanket is wrapped round the listener, welcoming them home somewhere they have always longed for. When, on closing track A Boy Travelling With His Mother, she says ‘hold my hand’, it is as if God is inviting you on a metaphysical journey. Mileage will vary depending on whether you find all this deeply profound or slightly cheesy. It doesn’t help that A Boy Travelling With His Mother bears a slight similarity to Go The Distance from Hercules, and Museum Of Childhood goes full The Lion King. That will be music to some people’s ears and kryptonite to just as many.

But III – Candles & Beginnings was only ever going to reveal itself to those who jump in with both feet. Those who can take a pinch of folk, a smattering of new age, a dollop of whole-hearted sincerity. The closing track is so progressive it would fit comfortably on some Steven Wilson records. It is AURI’s finest hour yet, utterly glorious and deeply emotional.

Rating: 8/10

III – Candles & Beginnings is out now via Nuclear Blast.

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