Four musicians inspired by visions of sublime, reconciling vastness that comes from the contact with nature and landscapes, united by a genuine devoutness to the practice of music as a healing and liberating movement, called their new project Bosco Sacro (Sacred Woods). This Italian quartet was founded in 2020 by experienced members who have been constantly releasing and performing music within the Italian and European underground scene during the last decade: Giulia Parin Zecchin (Julinko), Paolo Monti (The Star Pillow, Daimon), Luca Scotti (Tristan da Cunha) and Francesco Vara (Tristan da Cunha, Altaj). In February 2023, Bosco Sacro released its dreamy and atmospheric dark folk/dreamgaze debut full-length, Gem, via Avantgarde Music and, with it, received only praise from fans and media alike. While the four musicians' musical roots come from ambient, doom, post-rock and trip-hop, the music of Bosco Sacro is much more than just that - it's an intensely musical and spiritual journey that, with its expressional energy, can take the listener into the magical lands. We witnessed them playing live on the 9 December in Prosecco (Italy), and the performance was pure magic (check on the report HERE), so we just had to schedule an interview with the band. Conducted about a week later with Giulia and Luca, here it is.
Interview with: Giulia Parin Zecchin and Luca Scotti
Conducted by: Tomaz, Jerneja
Edited by: Jerneja
Tomaz: Hello Giulia and Luca! Bosco Sacro made quite a stir in the dark music scene with already its debut album, Gem, which came out in February 2023 via Avantgarde Records. So, what's the secret?
Giulia: We don't know the secret, and even if we knew it, I guess such secrets can't be revealed. We were all active in the Italian and European music scene before since we all come from different projects and bands. We were recording albums and doing live shows. Bosco Sacro is a newborn project, but we, as musicians, were already circulating. We were lucky to encounter the enthusiasm of a well-established label, Avantgarde Music. That helped us a lot to spread our effort. We found a good alchemy between us, so the music almost worked by itself in a way.
Jerneja: Bosco Sacro, translated from the Italian language, is sacred woods...
Luca: The name Bosco Sacro was born in the place where we recorded our debut album, Gem. That was in Monteggiori in Tuscany. We were inside a forest, and the name came up somehow naturally. When we went outside the studio, we saw only the forest.
Jerneja: So, it's a particular sacred forest?
Luca: For us at the moment, it was particularly that forest outside the Monteggiori Studios, but in truth, all nature is special.
Jerneja: Is this the same place where the video for "Fountain Of Wealth" was shot?
Luca: No, that is another forest near my home. Francesco and I own a rehearsing studio, and the forest in the video is the garden of that studio. It's a beautiful garden with bamboo.
Tomaz: So you had the music done before coming up with the band's name?
Luca: Yes, our music was composed in the Covid period. Francesco and I wrote some parts of the songs, recorded them, and then Giulia and Paulo added their parts. In the summer of 2021, we met for the first time to play the songs together, and that's how the songs of Gem were born.
Tomaz: From what I heard, you had an interesting way of composing the songs since you all live in different parts of Italy...
Giulia: The songs on Gem were made in the distance. Everything started with some ideas done on guitars and drums. This magic also worked well when we met in person. There's actually one song Gem's song that we composed together, "Les Arbres Rampants". Let's say that it started by composing songs with us being distant one from another, but now a new wave is coming, and we are composing when we are together. We can see better what we can do as a band when we rehearse together, and the things that come out are more organic.
Jerneja: You, Giulia, also have a solo project named Julinko. To me, Julinko sounds like Giulia in Japanese. And I find certain elements that remind me of Japan also in Bosco Sacro's music...
Giulia: I'm happy to hear this because no one ever told me about this Japanese link you've noticed. There's no logical link to Japan, but when I wanted to create my own project, I was living in Prague (Czech Republic), and they used this way of creating nicknames: Julija becomes Julinko if you nicely call a person. So, my name is Giulia, and I created something like Julinko, and yes, it reminds me of something Japanese and masculine in a way. It was a way to put the project away from myself directly and speak through it from a distance. The point is that the music can go out without being related only to me. This Japanese thing was a little secret in my mind, but you also noticed that, and I'm happy because of it. It's funny and nice. Thank you.
Jerneja: Have you ever been to Japan, or do you intend to go?
Giulia: No, I was never there. I would love to go. My brother was there recently and talked to me a lot about the country. So, in a way, a part of my blood went there, haha.
Tomaz: Your moves on the stage also reminded me of some kind of Japanese dance or a moving tree...
Giulia: Oh really? Wow, thanks for that. I have received many different reactions regarding my movements, which are really spontaneous and natural. For me, it's a way to stay connected with the music, to stay in the rhythm, and mostly to stay connected with Luca, the drummer, because I can feel his drumming. Using your body as an instrument means also creating your own space in the ambience. Somebody told me that I reminded him of Replicant from Blade Runner. Then somebody put the photo from Die Puppe, which is a German expressionist movie from the 20s.
Luca: It's very difficult to explain it.
Giulia: OK, it's not something logical, but it's something related to feelings, sensations and illusions. All of the lyrics are more or less about a way to stay in nature. This nature is not just the outside nature but also the inner nature. The album was written in a moment of solitude, which is not only a personal one but more a collective one. In this case, I'm talking about Covid times. Gem is a movement in a wild, ferocious, but still peaceful and natural place of solitude and retirement. It's a place where there's time to reconcile our dark and light parts; it's a place to create steps to go towards improvement and reconciliation with other creatures. Gem, as a word, can mean a little very precious stone that you can find on your path. In Italian, "gemma" also means the very first sprout of the plant. That is, again, connected to the thematics of nature. We gave this title to our music because it is our first creation, which came out very spontaneously and simply. For us, it's a little treasure, so it's also a way to give us some good luck for the future.
Luca: In the songs on Gem, you can find some dark and some light faces.
Jerneja: When I was thinking about the album title Gem, my first thought was the one of a valuable stone. This album is a real musical gem, and I guess that also your future albums will be in this regard gems as well, so won't it be difficult to name them?
Giulia: Well, well, now we've found the titles for all of our upcoming albums, haha. No, I'm joking, but thank you for your words. I mean, naming this album was not meant to be an arrogant thing, but it's an honest value of something that you've created it has for yourself. We wanted to be honest with ourselves and the people who would be listening.
Tomaz: When you recorded the album, you actually did it as a live studio recording?
Luca: You are right. We recorded the album directly. For this reason, this kind of recording gives it a live feeling. We recorded it together with producer Lorenzo Stecconi. It took us two or three days to make the songs, and then we recorded over the vocals. So, for this reason, the album sounds almost like a live one.
Giulia: The instruments on this album, because of our way of playing, couldn't be recorded separately. It was necessary to have this real and honest listening experience. We wanted to bring the special climax and create those little shades of sounds that you can hear in the recording. With the vocals, it's a bit different because I like to work on some details, and because of this, it was recorded separately. Anyway, once the instrumental parts were recorded, I was also singing with them. It was like it was recorded live, and then we did the final takes with vocals.
Tomaz: The album works like a ritual or meditation...
Luca: I can say that when I play with Bosco Sacro, I'm in total trans. When I play on a stage, I go into another world. For me, it's a type of meditation. At the same time, I can listen to the music but also visualize another world. I think that it's a form of meditation.
Tomaz: When listening to these songs live, I got a sense of everything being even deeper as if an additional dimension was present in your music. It differs from the album versions quite a lot. The songs felt more multidimensional or more atmospheric... Does this always happen when you are performing live?
Giulia: I think that it happens every single time. It's probably because we don't meet so often to play together, so when on stage, it's a very authentic time. That is the time for listening, confrontation and showing what you have and can give. It's there, that's the time, there's no other time. That makes it very intense and emotionally strong. One thing is when you play for yourself in your room, but another thing is when you play in front of people, and there you have this kind of confrontation with another energy present. It becomes much more aggressive but not in a violent way.
Luca: I think that for this reason, our songs grew up with us and thus changed a bit from the initial compositions.
Giulia: Maybe, just maybe, if we would record the same album now, it would be even better. With this, I want to confirm what Luca just said. The more you play something, the better and more experienced you get.
Jerneja: Many things regarding Bosco Sacro are about nature, but you still live in the city...
Giulia: Yes, a lot. You know, when you live in a dream place for a while, where you open the door and smell the season, you smell the cold, you can feel the spring, you smell the night, you hear the sounds filtered by silence all around you. In a town is different because there are so many objects. Sometimes, when you open the window, you see just a little portion of the sky; you don't see the moon. I moved into town some months ago after an experience of living near the forest for many years. Sometimes, I forget how it was living that way. It's easy to get accustomed to another type of living. In a way, it's important to write an album and to have a band like Bosco Sacro to keep that memory alive and to honour the wilderness. Nature is, in a way, always around us, even if we cover it with objects like streets, cars, windows, curtains and so on.
Jerneja: As I told you when we met, you have a great voice with a wide spectre. You probably have sung a lot as a girl...
Giulia: Well, definitely, yes. I started to sing as a child in the church where I used to go. I have been singing in choirs since I was nine years old. I studied singing for a couple of years but without success. Still, it was good because when you are at school, you can find a teacher who helps you find your real value. To me, it happened I met a person who couldn't see what I could do. Nevertheless, as a child, I used to sing the songs of Spice Girls and sacred music, haha.
Tomaz: And what about your musical influences?
Giulia: Regarding the band, I must say that we listen to many different kinds of music, and everyone has their favourites, but we all have something in common with ambient music. I'm talking about sounds of landscapes, field recordings and such things. We all have a soft spot for doom and rock, and yeah, we all love Dead Can Dance, Portishead and that rhythmic feeling that they have. From my vocal point of view, I can say that Beth Gibbons (Portishead) and Chelsea Wolfe have been very important artists. Just before I started writing vocal lines for this album, I was listening a lot to Hilary Woods. Some years ago, she made an album called Birthmarks, and that album I like a lot. One another artist who influenced me a lot is Enya. I love her phantasmatic, ambient and reverberating voice. I have a huge respect for Alice Coltrane as well. There are many artists I like but these are my main influences and inspiration.
Tomaz: You are probably already working on a new material. Do you have something ready, and when can we expect something new from Bosco Sacro? Will your new music be Gem's continuation, or will you bring some new ideas into your musical spectrum?
Giulia: Well, I guess that you can expect both things. Maybe it won't sound like a continuation of Gem because we are trying to experiment with the approach of the compositions. This time, we are trying to meet in person in a rehearsal room. We are trying to recreate that live energy that you've heard. We have made some new songs and are working on many others. I don't know when it will come out, but we are certainly working on that.
Jerneja: Since you are all living in different parts of the country, how did you find each other in the first place?
Giulia: I met Luca and Francesco in 2019. They have an instrumental post-rock/ambient duo called Tristan da Cunha, and we had a concert together near Venice. I was performing as Julinko, and there we met. After some months, they contacted me because they were invited to take part in a compilation of instrumental bands joined by singers. I put my voice over one of their beautiful songs, and the result was very good. It was spontaneous and natural. The two of them already knew Paulo because he has the solo ambient/drone project The Star Pillow, and they toured together some years ago. After we recorded that song for Tristan da Cunha, they asked me if I would be interested in doing something more together, so we decided to create a new project with Paulo, too, and that's basically it.
Jerneja: Are those projects of yours still alive?
Giulia: Yes, all of them. Paulo had a concert some weeks ago, and Tristan da Cunha is creating new music. Julinko is right now sleeping, but it's not dead, haha.
Tomaz: Besides new music, what can we expect from Bosco Sacro in the future?
Giulia: I must be honest and tell you that "expectation" is a word that I want to eliminate from my vocabulary. It only creates suffering, so don't expect anything, haha. All the beauty will arrive - sooner or later. I don't want to be mysterious or something. Maybe we will tour a little bit more with our album Gem, but we will focus even more on creating new music. That requires time and dedication. We don't want to make any promises; we only want to give full focus on our work.
Tomaz: But you are recording a live video documentary...
Giulia: Yes, that is true. The thing is that when we recorded the album, there was a director with us who also directed the video clip we made. He started to do this in-scene and behind-the-scenes documentary, which is also partly visible in some promo videos. There are still many other moments of making the video clip, and, in time, he wants to put it together, but I can't tell you right now when this will happen. It was the idea of the director to do this kind of work. He wanted to have a long-term retrospective of the work that we do.
Tomaz: I almost forgot to ask you about the cover art. It's pretty symbolic, so I guess there's something to tell about it.
Giulia: I'm very happy I can explain it because this artwork was created by Carlo Veneziano, who is a long-time collaborator of mine. He's a musician and visual artist. You can see a flame, which seems rooted on Earth since it has roots at its base. At the bottom part, there's a stamp of a log. In between these two parts are two other signs, which can be understood as some kind of an alchemic transmutation. The heat or sweat crystallises in the stone, which is a gem, and on the other side of the log is like some kind of smoke, which grows into what can be understood as the meaning of the gem. As I explained before, a gem or "gemma" in French or Italian can also be understood as a sprout. It's some kind of an alchemical allusion related to the concept that I explained to you before. You can see the fire and log also in our logo, which we like a lot, and I guess we will keep it. For us, Bosco Sacro is a place or an image of mysticism and retirement, but also a vicinity to some other forces and a symbol of circularity, like all of the sacred woods, which in Latin were called Nemeton. They were circular and had this shape to channel some kinds of energies. That's why our logo has this kind of shape and results just right to our concept, idea and feelings.
Jerneja: I hope you don't burn down the forest ;) Who are the people who listen to Bosco Sacro's music? Are they fans of ambient music, metal, doom, post-rock, darkwave, or others?
Giulia: Honestly, I don't know. People who come to our shows are very different. Not only by musical tastes but also, which I'm very happy about, they are different ages. We played at the Frantic Festival in Italy last summer, and a group of 17-year-olds came to buy the vinyl and wanted autographs. There's no specific profile of people who like our music, and we are happy with it.
Tomaz: But we can't go past the fact that you signed with Avantgarde Music, which is, in the first place, a metal label, and you were promoted mainly in the metal media...
Giulia: Yes, you are right. A lot of metal fans now know our name. I like metal music as well. I listened to a lot of metal music in high school, and yes, metalheads are very welcome to listen to our stuff.
Jerneja: We came to the end of the interview... let the last words be yours...
Giulia: Thank you. It was a long interview but an interesting one.
Luca: Thank you very much for the interview and your questions about us.
Live photos by: Tomaz
Official photos by: Dario Perissutti, Michele Canevari
Bosco Sacro links: Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp
