Belladonna: A Name That Carries Danger and Beauty

The name Belladonna doesn’t just sound mysterious—it carries a heavy history behind it. Taken from Atropa Belladonna, the deadly nightshade plant, it draws on centuries of myth, medicine, and mortality. It’s a name that immediately sets the tone: seductive, dangerous, and never entirely what it seems.

In the Middle Ages, Belladonna was a tool for both healers and killers. Alchemists and assassins alike extracted its potent compounds—sometimes to slip into potions for visions and altered states, other times to deliver quiet death. During wartime, armies laced enemy water supplies with Belladonna to confuse and weaken their foes. At the same time, royalty and nobility used tiny, controlled doses of it to dilate their pupils, believing it made them more beautiful, more desirable, more powerful.

This sharp divide—between beauty and destruction, control and chaos—is at the heart of the Belladonna project. It’s not just a name pulled from a history book. It’s a blueprint for the entire world Nico Chiara has built. The music, much like the plant, doesn’t sit safely in one category. It’s hypnotic and immersive, but there’s always a tension just underneath the surface. Something unpredictable.

Belladonna isn't tied to a genre; it's tied to a feeling. Tracks aren’t just songs—they’re reactions. They intoxicate, disorient, seduce. They leave the listener a little off-balance, pulling them deeper with every second. Like the plant it’s named after, the effect can be overwhelming if you let your guard down—and that’s exactly the point.

Choosing Belladonna as the identity for this project signals more than a style. It signals intent. It tells you upfront: this is not designed to sit neatly on the shelf with everything else. It’s made to be experienced fully, for better or worse. And just like the ancient extractors and rulers who played with the power of Belladonna, those who engage with it will find themselves altered—whether they expect it or not.