Behind The Artworks: Lares - Et In Arcadia Ego (2024)

The story behind the cover of our new album “Et in Arcadia Ego” goes way back to 2020 when we first began to write and arrange the album. Covid lockdown and all of its despair and isolation inspired us to write our own “Memento Mori”, to embrace the uncertainty of our and everyone’s future, or the one certainty that united us all. We instinctively chose Guercino’s “Et in Arcadia Ego” painting (created between 1618 and 1622) as our cover album, suggested to us by our previous synth and guitar player Simone, who, like the famous painter, was born in Cento (IT). The painting is the first recorded instance of the phrase being used, translated literally as “Even in death I am”, expressing the omnipresence of death in time and space. Lares wanted to make an anti-hymn with the gospel that there is no deliverance in heaven as there is no relief in hell. There are those who try to escape to religious fantasy kingdoms and there are those who wrap themselves in privilege and take everything in this material world for granted, but in the end all share the same fate: everything will soon be destroyed. The only reality is death.