Andy Digelsomina

Guitardämmerung! 

Andy DiGelsomina (pronounced "DEE-Jehl-Soh-ME-nah") is a composer and a lead guitar player. He has been a lifelong admirer of Ritchie Blackmore, and is an avid enthusiast of the composer Richard Wagner. 

Andy hears a link between the powerful, uniquely personal expression of Richard Wagner and the music genre called heavy metal. Although the influence was often indirect, the Wagnerian link is apparent in myriad forms: from the passionate music of bands like Manowar, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, and Bathory, to the unique, unmistakable guitar styles of players like Ritchie Blackmore and Michael Schenker.

Andy considers large portions of Wagner's works to be more heavy metal than practically anything since. Though it's commonly accepted that Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath invented guitar-driven heavy metal, Richard Wagner was the father of the musical genre itself.

Andy's favorite pieces of erudite music are Ludwig van Beethoven's Opus 132 and of course Richard Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Back to guitar-driven Metal! Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was Andy's first metal album and to this day he loves the music of the 1970's era of Rainbow above any other Rock/Metal. This favoritism encompasses the albums from the Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonnet periods exclusively. Andy's favorite guitar player is Ritchie Blackmore, and his favorite song is "Stargazer". Blackmore's playing on the tracks "Burn" and "Man on the Silver Mountain" first sparked Andy's interest in in baroque, classical, and romantic music.

Though Ritchie Blackmore has been Andy's biggest lead guitar inspiration, it was actually

Tony Iommi's playing on the first Black Sabbath album that motivated him to begin studying the electric guitar. In particular, the song "Warning" from that album featured an intensely personal, improvised-sounding lead guitar part that Andy felt he had to learn. The most important thing that Andy learned from this solo was to play with feeling (heart) first, with technique (mind) a distant second.

Guitar had intimidated Andy before hearing Tony, because players like Blackmore, Ulrich Roth, and Michael Schenker sounded incredibly advanced. Tony Iommi had formidable skill, but his style lent itself to making a young guitar player think, "Hey, I can do that!" Tony Iommi has remained a giant of guitar and both him and Black Sabbath have remained favorites of Andy's ever since.

In regard to other metal gods, Andy became a fan of Judas Priest in 1977, when he purchased a cut-out vinyl copy of Sad Wings of Destiny. This was an early period in the band's career, when few others in the U.S. even knew who they were. The music of Judas Priest imposes a powerful influence on him to this very day.

Andy has cherished the music of Manowar since their 1984 release, Hail to England. He has watched admiringly as Manowar became more Wagnerian with each release, culminating in an unbeatable peak with their 2007 album, Gods Of War. They set the bar high in Wagnerian Metal, and have profoundly inspired him.

In 1986, after Andy had been playing guitar for over two years, he was introduced to the albums Rainbow Rising and Michael Schenker Group's Assault Attack. This constituted the most significant event in Andy's playing and writing since he first picked up the guitar. Though he had been a fan of Rainbow and Michael Schenker for years, he had been unaware of those particular albums (both releases had mainly been popular overseas). Andy was struck by how musically involved those albums were; that his beloved Metal could be so musical. From that point on, those albums became a spiritual thing to Andy; he dreamed of someday composing and playing music as involved and dramatic as that on Rising and Assault Attack. Those albums seemed to him to have so much more drama and personality than the neo-classical trend that followed them in the 1980's. Andy wanted to start up an organic, flowing style of Wagnerian metal, and this goal has resulted in the groundbreaking music of Lyraka.

Here, Andy pays tribute to the cover of one of the biggest musical influences of his life: Assault Attack.

Andy says that his life really started when he met Jasmine. before then, he had given up even music.

In case you hadn't guessed, Andy is crazy about rainbows. One of Andy's favorite songs is "Catch The Rainbow". In realizing his twenty-five year dream of working with living legend, Graham Bonnet, Andy feels he has really "caught the rainbow".

Andy sums up his feelings for Graham with this statement: "The Lyraka material is the style of music that I think is perfectly matched for Graham Bonnet's voice. As evidenced by Graham's classic Desert Song, Graham's voice is perfect for Epic Metal; not to mention 50's and 60's rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, hard rock and even extreme metal! He remains one of the elite world class Rock vocalists to this very day. Many people aren't as familiar with Graham's non-belting singing voice, which can be even more moving. Bottom line, the resoundingly individual tone, flexibility, creativity, and nuance of Graham's voice makes it an invaluable instrument. Even better, Graham throughout my experience with him, has proven to be that rarest of individuals: dependable, trustworthy, and extremely kind. Working with Graham, the singer for my favorite band ever (Rainbow), is my dream come true."

Andy plays a customized '70's Fender Stratocaster with jumbo Gibson frets and DiMarzio HS pickups. His gear includes a DOD 308 pedal, Dunlop Bad Horsie Wah, and a BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor. His amplifiers of choice are Marshall DSL 2000 and Marshall JCM 800.

 

Influences:
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
Richard Wagner
Black Sabbath
Manowar
Judas Priest
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Michael Schenker Group
Deep Purple
The Who's "Quadrophenia"Album
Bathory
Ulrich Roth
Anton Bruckner
Edward Van Halen
Richard Strauss
Joseph Haydn
Randy Rhoads
Giuseppe Verdi
Graham Bonnet
Gustav Mahler
Gary Moore
Metallica (Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets exclusively)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Deicide
Henryk Gorecki's Third Symphony
Jeff Beck
Ronnie James Dio
Death / Chuck Schuldiner
Scorpions (the 1970's material)
Testament/ Alex Skolnick
Extra special thanks to Joe Stump, a great player and a terrific person.

"Sacred Heart of Jesus, have Mercy on us and on the whole world."

Andy will read fan mail sent to the address below.

 

Empress Jasmine

A.K.A.

The Gothic Metalhead Empress of Mermaids

Jasmine created Lyraka.com using Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash.

Jasmine dreamt up and is the total inspiration behind the entire Lyraka concept, including but not limited to the Lyraka screenplay, music and artwork.

This page reveals what inspires Jasmine and how she came to be the way that she is.

When she was four years old she went to the theater for the first time in her life and saw, "The Little Mermaid". Ever since then she's had an obsession with mermaids. She spent her childhood daydreaming and singing along with Ariel.

When Jasmine was seventeen she met a man that changed her life forever. Andy DiGelsomina wrote a song for her, "Coronation" which inspired her to no end. Much to her delight, many more songs were to come and many years of being in love.

Andy DiGelsomina has enriched her life in many ways. His philosophical musings aroused in her a desire to ponder the relationship between the subconcious and conscious aspects of the mind, as well as the significance of symbolism and the oh-so-mysterious archetype. Simply by being Andy's other half, she's learned via osmosis the hypotheses of the greatest thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Hegel, Carl Jung and of course Richard Wagner.

When she saw "Beowulf" in theaters, she was blown away by the state-of-the-art 3D CGI animation. Jasmine's decided that Motion Capture is the technology she's going to use to present her movie.

Jasmine has an interest in starting other screenplays. One is for a zombie flick and the other would be a libretto for an Italian vampire opera called, "L'idolo Vendicato" (The Avenged Idol).

She loves most of the same albums that Andy loves. She also loves certain albums by Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Marilyn Manson, Orgy and Cradle of Filth.

There are exceptions but she is generally not a fan of rap, R&B, Raggae, Blues, Hip-Hop, Jazz or Country. Jasmine is known to enjoy industrial, opera, techno, gothic, black metal, but above all, HEAVY METAL. She finds death metal, punk and thrash to be tolerable in small doses and if there's a mosh pit, she'll likely stick around.

 

Who says video games are for fat, depressed people? The impressive attributes of the ultimate femme fatale, Lara Croft, and many characters in the Resident Evil series have inspired Jasmine to pursue martial arts and weightlifting. When Jasmine sprints, she thinks of Wesker doing his mad dash. In the video on the left, Jasmine lifts the second heaviest weight she's ever achieved. On the right, she shows that rowing fifty pounds for fifty reps is a breeze. You can search for Lyraka on Bodyspace to check out some of her powerlifting records.

If Jasmine were a Sim, her traits would be Artistic, Athletic, Computer Whiz, Loner and Lucky.

Jasmine doesn't have any MySpace, Facebook or dating profiles, so if you see one, it's fake!

Photographers: Jasmine is available for your mermaid or gothic fashion photo shoot. You may contact her directly for booking.

 

 

Ken Kelly has been creating much coveted works of fantasy art for over thirty years and was taught by Frank Frazetta.

Ken Kelly is petitioned by rock legends and best-selling authors alike. He has created CD cover artwork for Kiss, Rainbow and Manowar among others. He has portrayed many well-known characters  for comics and books such as Conan the Barbarian, Vampirella and Tarzan.  To make a long story short, lets just say I wouldn't have quite enough time to read all of the books that his artwork is featured on. Apparently, Ken Kelly very much likes to paint.

 

Our composer, Andy DiGelsomina, reminisces, "I remember buying Kiss' Destroyer and Love Gun albums when I was very young, mostly because I was knocked out by the album covers. Ken's art totally blew away the music on those albums in terms of quality. I am fantastically inspired and honored to be working with Ken Kelly: not only is he my favorite fantasty artist, but with his participation it's like I now have a spiritual link my favorite bands ever, Rainbow and Manowar."

 

Lyraka novel

West Street Digital Recording is operated by former 8084 guitarist, Andre Maquera.

Andre wears many hats as a producer, capable of producing great recordings in many different types of music. He has handled the demands of Lyraka's diverse material with ease, making him a producer and engineer of the highest rank. West Street Digital has also proved itself to be a very discreet and confidential entity as well, protecting the musician's recordings as a matter of professionalism and respect.

Andre also happens to be an awe-inspiring guitar player, having distinctive, exciting rhythm and lead styles. His playing is influenced by Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Gary Moore, Eddie Van Halen and Jeff Beck among others. He even has a Jeff Beck Fender Stratocaster on display in the studio.

Andre is responsible for playing all rhythm and acoustic/nylon guitars for Lyraka, and plays many of the guitar harmonies.