2 years ago, Driftmoon released his first artist album: (R)Evolution. And it was le-gen-da-ry. It sounded magically and it was very well received by the other DJs, the fans and the press. This year, he decided to amaze us with a new one: Invictus. And no. It is not a follow up of the first one. It is more than that. Juraj has raised aim, game and ultimately the Driftmoon name with this one.
‘Invictus’ started life not as sounds, but as words and pictures, in graphic novel form. With a mediation-on-loss its central theme, (per Juraj himself) it deals with “a story told from the perspective of a father who is recording his memoirs, before going to the funeral of his two children who’ve died far away, and in circumstances unknown”. An extraordinary subject to author on, as Juraj is not yet a father himself.
“I am a firm believer that strong and emotional life experiences can change a human being in their entirety. I wrote the story to try and gain an understanding of how a parent must feel when they lose something they’ve given life to. There’s a lot of my own experiences bedded into the story but he clarifies they are figurative in its overall scheme”.
To make this experience complete, Juraj worked alongside a lot of great names from the trance scene: legends like Giuseppe Ottaviani, Eco, The Thrillseekers, amazing music men like Robert Nickson, Ferry Tayle and Exis, but also perfect voices like Julie Thompson, Merethe Solvedt and many more.
Playing a key role in the album’s extraordinary make-up are its spoken interludes, which relate the story of ‘Invictus’. Driftmoon became reacquainted with voiceover artist Robert Polo (with who he’d previously worked and who plays the central part of the father). Polo, in turn, connected him with an American couple living in Prague (Shakespearian actors Guy Roberts & Jessica Boone) who voiced the story’s siblings.
Commencing in the summer of 2017, storyboarding and writing the screenplay for ‘Invictus’ took 6 months. The germ of every new track produced for album took seed through an idea on that started life on Juraj’s storyboard. The music mirrors the arc and mood of the tale. From the melancholic & lamenting to the hopeful & uplifting, it ebbs and flows, engaging the listener with the plot in a multidimensional manner.
“Apart from the very ending I wrote the whole storyline myself, says Driftmoon. As I do not have kids yet, Robert told me he would write the final monologue, where the father is recording the very last message, talking about his children. “It was, he says, one of the most emotional moments in my life when he, a professional recording artist, broke down during the recording session, imagining himself in the same shoes as his character”.
A project epic in scope and boundless in imagination, one ripe with ambition and ‘nothing’s impossible’ attitude, ‘Inviticus’ is a “production” in the truest senses of the words. A release unlike any other from electronic music’s quarter, you can advance order Driftmoon’s extraordinary ‘Invictus’ here: https://driftmoon.choons.at/invictus
Driftmoon – Invictus tracklist
Disc 1.
- The Message [Prologue]
- Homines Novi Classis
- They’ll Never Find Us (with Eco)
- What Remains Hidden (with The Thrillseekers)
- The One (with John Grand & By An Ion)
- Fire Which Burns Us All (with Robert Nickson as Astrosphere)
- Revelations [Vihaan’s Theme]
- Calling Of The Void (with Merethe Soltvedt)
- Invictus [Isha’s Theme]
Disc 2.
- When Heroes Fall (with Eller)
- Beautiful Life (with Julie Thompson)
- Avalon [Hybrid Suite]
- FVTVR3 (with Enzo)
- Chasing The Dawn (with Giuseppe Ottaviani)
- Unforgettable (with Ferry Tayle)
- Lost Language (with Exis)
- Only You (with Julie Thompson)
- Please Don’t Go [Epilogue]
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