Nicola Testa

"We are vulnerable. We are rainbows", sings Nicola Testa on the aptly titled Rainbow, the bewitching pop song that opens his first album "No More Rainbows". As an invitation to enter his nuanced universe, this song immediatly establishes itself as the declaration of faith of an artist who feels comfortable in his era. The fragility of the human being, the loss of illusions that often goes hand in hand with coming of age, doubts, passionate love, regrets, but also hope and desire... These are many of the themes developed by Nicola on these eleven tracks sung in English, that seduce as much with their consistency as with their contrasts. From the conquering chorus of Rainbow to the more melancholic verses of No More Rainbows, the crepuscular conclusion to the album, Nicola Testa shows his true colours indeed. With him, a "dark Cadillac" (Koko), a "light breeze" (The Letter), or even a "purple smile" (Platoon) will be at issue. And at the end of this musical journey, designed as an LP A side/ B side, there is this sentence ("Oh there must be a place where the colours stay") that leaves the door open to all possible meanings. Love, death, the world around us, the after life... What is this "place where the colours stay"? It's up to you to answer this question.
"I have always thought that rainbows were one of the most beautiful things that a human being could observe", explains Nicola. "It is real and surreal at the same time, eternal and and ephemeral. When a rainbow disappears from your field of vision, it immediatly appears in someone else's. It is a metaphor of our existence, a theme that can be found recurently in this album". Written and composed over a period of two years by Nicola Testa, the eleven songs from "No More Rainbows" were recorded "at home", in Brussel's Six Studio, and mainly in Paris' Soyuz Studio with director Antoine Gaillet. Coproducer of "No More Rainbows" with Nicola Testa, Antoine Gaillet made a name for himself in the new French pop music by collaborating with artists including Julien Doré, Talisco, François & The Atlas Mountains, Armand Méliès and M83. "There was a lot of dialogue, questionning and exchange with Antoine", clarifies Nicola. " He always managed to stay attentive. His great strength is that he respects the universe of the artist he works with, while managing to suggest at the right time the little idea that will enhance the song. It's pretty rare to meet people like him".
As with Christine & the Queens, for whom he performed an overjoyed opening act at the Botanique in October 2014, everything comes in pairs in Nicola Testa's universe. "No More Rainbows" goes from light to shadow, from the warm sound of a piano to the cold but welcoming indifference of a synthesizer. Nicola Testa mixes machines and organic instruments together. He takes us under the mirror ball with Koko, a love quest where 80's electro music is up against Belgian dandy Daan's guitar. Further, he plays the starkness card with The Letter, which piano/ voice arrangement, highlights a deeply melancholic text. Inspired by the reading of Italian novelist/ poet Alessandro Barrico, Land of Glass overflows with oneirism while glancing at New Wave. Under carefree and danceable appearances, FM evokes those difficult next days when you regret what happened the day before. World is introduced by its author as a "domestic crusade" that needs to be carried out daily so as not to fall into a romantic routine, while on the electro/pop ballad Lost & Found, the ups and downs of our romantic life bump into one another. Under an enigmatic title, Mellotron Skies reinvents (in its own way) the term "dark beauty". Finally, as a way to wrap up an inspired and perfectly mastered project, No More Rainbows comes like a sovereign echo, as an answer to the opening song Rainbow. "I moved forward very instinctively on this first album, without imposing any rules on myself. In the end, the only thing that I forbade was to put words, tunes or feelings on this record that I didn't feel myself." Welcome to the colorful world of Nicola Testa...