With love from ancient Greece – DEA VELATA delight us with an ode to human affection: AMO!

To walk in the halls of the gods has always been an unfulfillable dream of people in many parts of the world during their earthly existence. From the Norse Asgard to the cloud palace above Mount Olympus – which housed the gods in ancient Greece and stimulated people’s imagination from high arts right down to ordinary life and back –, architecture, poetry and music were characterized by the desire to look up and ultimately ascend.
In their new video single AMO, DEA VELATA now make this string in us resonate musically and lyrically with great determination. The compositional force and the heaviness in the ensemble’s lyricism are allowed to give way this time. Instead, the trio gently opens the door to a wide and towering acoustic space in which Gabby Abularach’s guitar (CRO-MAGS, VOODOCULT, CARLOS SANTANA), tuned like an ancient Greek lyre, intimately unites with the gently alluring voice of British soprano Angela Hicks. AMO is a very pure piece of simple elegance, addressing the longing for the blissful state of suspension that outside of the divine only love can evoke in us. And this light-footed duet is about nothing less than the unconditional affection and devotion within us when we find ourselves on cloud nine, head over heels in love. A theme as old as mankind and yet as unspoiled as a just-ripening apple.

The ageless, sublime beauty and sheer magnitude of the feeling of loving someone unconditionally is visualized in the song’s accompanying music video through a breathtaking backdrop and the touching performances of Angie and Gabby. “Set in a beautiful 19th century palace in the famous Spanish city of Jerez, AMO tells the story of a lover’s unrestrainable love for his beloved, and of her exquisite and delicate beauty”, says the composer and guitarist himself, adding about the creation of the piece and the bespoke lyrics by author and visual artist Stefano Losi: “Amidst all the heavy and intense energy of the other songs, I asked Stefano to write a simple, beautiful love song – and he truly did! The guitar parts were written in the mountains of Arcadia in the Peloponnese before DEA VELATA as we know it today was even formed.”

Get carried away by the video single AMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ke85-YRhhM
Listen to AMO HERE:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/deavelata/amo

The band’s eponymous first album DEA VELATA will be released on October 16th, 2024. With ten tracks, the brilliant ensemble intends to bring the sounds, consciousness and spirit of the ancient world back to life today. DEA VELATA’s sound is truly offering something unique, something new, something that heals the soul, exalts the spirit and which connects people to the beauty and magic of the classical world of antiquity. Italian poet Stefano Losi writes the lyrics, in the form of contemporary poetry in Imperial Latin, which are then being carefully carried on symphonic metal wings. “The lyrics and poetry provide a personal perspective on the existential unquietness inherent in the human condition, and all its concrete manifestations, from the deepest desperation to the purest love. They draw an imaginary connection with the lyrics of the Poetae Novi of the Ist Century, reemerging in my own poetry filtered by a clear contemporary sensitivity, redesigning the eternity of life, the timeless value of emotion”, says the talented lyricist.

DEA VELATA Album Tracklist
1. PHEBEVS FVROR
2. OBITVS
3. AMO
4. DAEMON
5. IMBER ARIDVS
6. HIATVS
7. KORE
8. VVLTVS
9. IMBER
10. EVANESCENS VESTALIS

The full album DEA VELATA will be released October 16th, 2024. On ten tracks, it will feature contemporary poetry in Imperial Latin – all woven in a fabric of ancient Greek and Roman music with neo-classical coloring and threads of symphonic metal.

Met by high critical acclaim, the musical ensemble performed an exclusive 5 song acoustic set at Circulo de Bellas Artes in Spain on June 25th, where they premiered the OBITVS video. During a live performance by DEA VELATA you can expect a wide range of sound, from intimate classical, acoustic duets with Gabby and Angela, to full symphonic metal. The talented artists delve into genuine ancient music and bring it into life in a modern world – a combination, which sets them apart from other bands, and makes their live events an upscale experience, no less impressive or cathartic than a classical theater performance in ancient Rome. A live recording of the impressive performance has just been published, in a compilation with interviews, serving as a short documentary about the event, offering interesting insights and taking you along on their musical journey.

Enjoy DEA VELATA’s acoustic live performance at Ciculo de Bellas Artes HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_SVCHO6wJA

After the release of three singles, with the album release coming up next, DEA VELATA will present their videos and exhibit Stefano Losi’s art at the United Nations in NYC on November 7th, 2024. On December 5th, DEA VELATA will play live in London Tower, UK, followed by another show on December 6th in Lancastershire, UK. Stay tuned for more to come!!

About DEA VELATA

The longing for the ancient narrative power and the fascination it is capable of arousing in us is resurfacing among critics and fans alike. And in the form of DEA VELATA, it has now reached music – at several different levels. First of all, with the very own instrumental hero’s journey of New York guitarist Gabby Abularach, who, as a trained classical and jazz guitarist with metal genes, refined the studio recordings and world tours of NYHC legends CRO-MAGS and later continued the same as a founding member of VOODOOCULT. In addition to these energetic wrecking balls, Gabby also brought his six-string magic to legendary recordings by the likes of CARLOS SANTANA, EVERLAST, KORN and JOHN SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION. His secret love, however, lies in the art of antiquity: Gabby, who over the years has increasingly specialized in filigree-sporty flamenco playing, often imagined what the musical underscoring of recited stories might have felt like in ancient times.

The explorative guitarist was in the middle of an ongoing phase of researching ancient Greek and Roman music when, in the summer of 2017, he met Stefano Losi, an Italian poet and visual artist also based in New York, who had just published a poetic work in Imperial Latin. Together, they began composing and pouring the many eureka moments of their musical and now also poetic journeys into material for an album unlike any other.
The British soprano Angela Hicks, who is also drawn to ancient music, joined the duo as the angelic voice of the work DEA VELATA, and not just in a figurative sense. Despite her young age, Angela can look back on an eventful career: She made her operatic debut at the Teatro alla Scala di Milano under the direction of Thomas Guthrie and has subsequently appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Palace of Versailles, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Berlin State Opera, among others. She also made a guest appearance on the big screen alongside Emma Stone, Rachael Weisz and Oscar winner Olivia Coleman in the 2018 movie “The Favourite”.

The luscious guitar, which sometimes finely chisels an uplifting flamenco into the steps of a stage of epic breadth, sometimes strives towards the warm elegance of a harp and sometimes unfolds into the full weight of symphonic metal, is combined with an always respectfully discreet metal drumming (performed by Mike Podber) and a voice that resembles God’s rays on a Tuscan painting. And together they create a soundtrack that, behind closed eyes, lets Odysseus’ ship sail from a gentle lull into a mystical storm.

DEA VELATA online:

https://www.facebook.com/deavelataofficial
https://www.instagram.com/deavelataofficial/
https://www.youtube.com/@DEAVELATA
http://deavelata.bandcamp.com/