A LONG STORY...

...that I'll try to make short.
The idea for this album dates back to the creation of an imaginary Japanese anime series (a cartoon, that is) by some members of an Italian forum of anime fans. That fake series was about a giant robot called "Grottango" and I was asked to create the soundtrack for it. The person who got me involved is a guy known as FaGian, a very good artist who has the uncanny ability to draw just like anime artists did in the 70's/early 80's. It all sounded like a lot of fun, so I got to work on it, helped throughout the making by FaGian, who gave me advice and suggestions and - above all - supported me unceasingly. The music was supposed to be in the style of old giant-robot anime series, so I thought it would be fun to research those old soundtrack and reproduce their style and cliches, which I was very familiar with but had never used as a musician.
I'm normally very fast when it comes to making music, so the album could have been finished in a matter of months. Unfortunately, that year one the most painful periods of my life started, as I found myself accompanying a family member I loved deeply along his final journey. I recorded this album while that horrible disease was slowly taking him away from us and during the - for many other different reasons - very difficult year that followed his departure.
The album that was supposed to express joy and fun ended up representing my personal feelings, no matter how hard I tried to prevent that from happening. The result was an album that only occasionally featured tracks in old anime style, while most of the music on it was somber and sad. The work was also marked by some inconsistency due to the exceptionally long time it took me to finish it.

The truly great theme song written and performed by another band was supposed to be included in the soundtrack - as a matter of fact, I had also incorporated parts of the theme in some of my tracks. Some misunderstandings, however, made this impossible. As it didn't make any sense to use my tracks in a fake soundtrack when the main theme song was not included, so much for Grottango's soundtrack...
By then, I was sick and tired of the whole thing and I was trying to decide how to recycle those tracks for my other albums in the making, but FaGian - whom I had informed of my decision - sent me some drawings of a new and absolutely fantastic robot he had created especially for the ex-Grottango soundtrack: that robot was Moonblade, and man, was I excited (and moved) about it!!
So there I was, back to work to remaster all the tracks in order to make them more consistent in terms of sound and to re-record the ones that were based on Grottango's theme song.
Once again, thanks to FaGian's support and talent, I finally completed the album.

However, due to the ordeal its making had been and since it wasn't really representative of my usual music (click on the home page link on top of the page and navigate from there if you want samples of it) I decided to offer it as free download as MP3 files. You'll find below the links to download music (zip file) and artwork (please print the cover on photopaper, the drawings are better than the music!!)




Finally, after this long story, here are the links:

For the complete album as WAV files (CD quality) plus cover, trading cards and postcard, click HERE

For the complete album as MP3 files (320 kbps) plus cover, trading cards and postcard, click HERE


What else can I say? if you find at least one track that makes you feel good or touches you in any way, then it will have been worth it :)

Hugs,
Mac