Blackmore’s Night, the Renaissance folk-rock group led by founding Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and his wife, singer Candice Night, has just released its latest studio album, Nature’s Light.
The 10-song collection, which features mostly original songs, celebrates the wonders of the natural world while showcasing the group’s blend of traditional styles, Renaissance music and rock.
Night, who writes the group’s lyrics, tells ABC Audio that she gets her inspiration from the music Blackmore creates.
“I find that if you close your eyes and just listen to the melodies he comes up with, they’re so visual that they instantly start painting pictures in my head, which then becomes a storyline,” she explains. “And then I just kind of take it from there…I really just try to open up and channel what the song wants to be about.”
Blackmore, meanwhile, tells ABC Audio that his favorite songs on the album include two instrumentals he composed for it — “Darker Shade of Black” and “Der Letzte Musketier.”
Ritchie says “Darker Shade of Black” got its title from the piece’s descending bass line, which reminded him of his favorite all-time song, Procol Harum‘s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”
Meanwhile, “Der Letzte Musketier,” which means “The Last Musketeer” in German, is Blackmore’s homage to his friend Jim Evans, who died recently and who played drums his early band The Musketeers.
The album’s final track is a cover of “The Second Element,” which U.K. soprano Sarah Brightman first recorded in 1993.
“This track was just so hauntingly beautiful, and I fell in love with it the instant that we heard it,” Night says. “And [Ritchie plays] an incredible electric guitar solo on that.”
Check out a video previewing all of Nature’s Light’s tracks at the Blackmore’s Night YouTube channel.
By Matt Friedlander
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