Virtuoso Rock Guitarist Band’s Stunning, Gloriously Retro, ‘Fundamental Darkness’ Album Released February 23rd On Dirty Dog Records / London: Purple Turtle Headline Gig Feb. 28th

“Nico Tamburella is the man in question here – as lead guitarist, songwriter and driving force of this quartet, it’s from him that the band gets its name. The other band members help to generate the alchemy by performing their perspective roles with force and inspiration. This is a hard rocking sound that owes its roots to the 70’s…The material is as strong as the sound of the band: tight, concise and varied enough to please all. Candido supplies the vocals with enough power to carry it off but Nico is awesome, so check out ‘It’s Enough’, the instrumental title track and the vicious guitar sound on ‘Save Me Jesus’ – truly excellent stuff!!! 5/5. Album Of The Month.” Guitar Techniques, reviewing a pre-release promo of ‘Fundamental Darkness, December 2008 issue.

Nico’s Alchemy’s ‘Fundamental Darkness’ album, set for release on February 23rd 2009, on Dirty Dog Records, distributed by Cargo, is all set to catapult this virtuoso rock guitarist into the upper echelons of the hard rock world. This concise ten song musical tour de force simply oozes class, with Nico’s guitar pyrotechnics superbly complemented by Candido’s powerhouse vocals and the incredible rhythm section of Danni Stanner on bass guitar and Dave Wire on drums.

“What I like in rock music is spontaneity, I don’t like chopping my solos to take the best bits and glue them together, I like to play the whole solo as one take - it doesn’t matter how perfect - what matters is what it’s got; if it touches you then that’s the one” states Nico, in explanation.

Nico’s Alchemy will follow the release of ‘Fundamental Darkness’ with a headline gig at the Purple Turtle in Camden on February 28th 2009. Doors open @ 7.00pm. Tickets are priced £5.00 before 9.30, £7 thereafter. This gig will be filmed for a DVD.

Nico Tamburella started playing guitar aged ten and by the age of 14 he was performing live in his first band, Stardust, replicating the solos and songs of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore and Van Halen, interspersed with his own compositions on stage, in radio studios and on TV shows in his native Italy.

Nico then formed his own band, Nico’s Fleet, who were signed by the Videostar/ BMGAriola label in the late 80’s, which released 2 albums, ‘Born For Your Ears’ and ‘Burned Down To The Wire’ in 1988 and 1992. Both albums went down a storm in continental Europe, while Guitar World USA’s Mike Varney proclaimed him a ‘Hometown Hero’, enthusing ‘Nico was inspired by Eddie Van Halen to delve deeply into two-handed playing, with a strong vibrato, a vocabulary of guitar pyrotechnics and song writing skills make him someone to keep an eye on.”

Nico’s Fleet flew to America in the mid Nineties and based themselves in Los Angeles, playing every rock club gig on the local circuit. Nico soon came to the attention of Capitol Records A&R department, who told him that they would sign him on his own, as long as he built a new band with US musicians. But his personal life in Italy was falling apart and after

flying home to a disastrous divorce, he lost his musical mojo. In an attempt to recapture it, he moved lock stock and barrel to London, arguably the rock’n’roll capital of the world, taking his 2 favourite Stratocaster guitars and very little else.

But his guitars remained untouched, stored under a bed, for a couple more years.

Then Nico discovered Nichiren Buddhism, which helped him to clear his ‘Fundamental Darkness’ and after a ‘Eureka’ moment in 2002 he rediscovered his musical mojo and began practising and playing guitar. The first song he wrote, “We Will Win”, was snapped up by Sony Music in 2003 for one of their Popular Spanish artists (Lexter), and was placed on the soundtrack of 20th Century Fox/MGA movie ‘The Bratz’, which went on to sell millions.

Rejuvenated (and refinanced!), Nico built his own recording studio and started to look for the best rock musicians he could find who shared his love of hard rock music and were similarly driven to perfection. He first met Candido, a fellow ex-pat Italian living in London, in a rock club, and recruited him after hearing his powerhouse vocals and discovering a shared love of Deep Purple, Rainbow and Zeppelin. Danny and Dave immediately felt ignited by the pair’s obvious musical chemistry, and Nico’s Alchemy were fully formed.

After two years painstakingly putting down tracks in Nico’s studio, all the while gigging around London’s rock clubs testing out new material and building a live audience, ‘Fundamental Darkness’, (a Buddhist term indicating the state of internal hell and blindness) was born.

‘No Time For Sadness’ bursts out of the speakers, perfect riff after perfect fluid guitar riff immediately immersing the listener in ‘Fundamental Darkness’.

‘It’s Enough’, ‘Miss Sensation’, ‘Save Me Jesus’ and ‘Shine On’ are full on, balls-to-the-wall modern metal anthems with high voltage guitar solos, all highlighted by Candido’s strident, soaring vocals.

The mesmerising ‘A Leap In Space’ lopes off into another direction entirely, fusing futuristic modern keyboards and drum and bass rhythms with intense guitar segments, before a return to more familiar territory with raucus rockers ‘Sleeping With The Devil’, ‘Fading Away’, and ‘Fundamental Darkness’, while closing track ‘Miles Away’ juxtaposes Candido’s melancholic rock vocals with Nico’s effortless acoustic and electric guitar fretwork.

Nico Tamburella will not be one of rock music’s undiscovered guitar heroes for much longer once the cognoscenti of the rock world get their ears around ‘Fundamental Darkness’, a stunning, melodic hard rock masterpiece of an album.

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