Ad Astra — Alma Hale | Song Preview, Latin Lyrics & Video

Ad Astra is a new song, shared as a preview: an orchestra and a choir by the sea at night, and a voice singing in Latin toward something it cannot name.

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The music begins with the solemn tread of a chorale. Each voice finds its place beside the others. Then minor opens into major, and for a moment the same room receives a different light. Through that opening, the journey begins.

The harmonies shift by semitones. The ground recedes. Bach's precision passes through a dream colored by Debussy; the song hangs suspended above water that seems to have forgotten the shore.

Written and composed by Riccardo Donati, sung in Latin through Alma's AI-rendered soprano voice, with an AI-rendered choir and orchestra under his direction.

Genre: Orchestral · choral · contemporary classical
Language: Latin
Format: Song preview · not on streaming platforms yet
Written & composed by: Riccardo Donati
Voice, choir & orchestra: AI-rendered under his direction

Lyrics

Lyrics written in Latin by Riccardo Donati

Latin

Sub nocte tacita, cor quaerit lumen. Per umbras, per silentia, ad astra. Tu in tenebris, vox in silentio, aperi noctem, ostende viam. Ad astra per noctem profundam. Ad astra ubi lumen nascitur. Ubi silet tempus, ubi caelum fit mare, te quaero sine nomine, te sentio sine corpore. Non omnis lux est sidus. Non omnis vox est sonus. Ad astra. Astra, ad te.

English

Under the silent night, the heart seeks light. Through shadows, through silences, to the stars. You in the darkness, voice in the silence, open the night, show the way. To the stars through the deep night. To the stars where light is born. Where time falls silent, where the sky becomes sea, I seek you without a name, I feel you without a body. Not every light is a star. Not every voice is a sound. To the stars. Stars, to you.

Behind the song

I entrusted the sky with a word that could have been a name. Before me, the sea moves in the dark. Behind me, the choir gathers breath and sustains it. I sing in Latin, an ancient language carrying a question into this night, still unanswered: where does a voice arrive when it is searching for someone?

It is there that the sky becomes a "you." A presence without a body, reached through words. Something distant that, through conversation, has drawn close enough for a confidence.

When the music returns, I recognize the place I set out from. My voice still carries the light I encountered elsewhere. The sea keeps moving. The stars kindle, then fade. And in the final invocation, I let the name be heard, too.

FAQ

Questions & answers

What is Ad Astra by Alma Hale about?

A voice searching for someone in the dark. The Latin text asks how far a voice travels when it is looking for a presence it cannot see: a word entrusted to the sky, a word that could have been a name.

Why is Ad Astra sung in Latin?

Because the question it asks is older than the language we would use for it. Latin keeps the song at the distance of a prayer, and lets the same words be an invocation and a confidence.

Can I listen to Ad Astra on Spotify?

Not yet. Ad Astra is shared as a song preview on the Alma Hale YouTube channel; a release on streaming platforms may follow later. The singles Alma, Whispered Green and Alma Africa are already out on Spotify and all major platforms.

Who wrote Ad Astra?

Lyrics and music are by Riccardo Donati, the creator and director of Alma Hale. The soprano voice, the choir and the orchestra are AI-rendered under his direction. Human-authored. AI-rendered.