La Torre dell'Alchimista (translated as "The Alchemist's Tower") was founded in Bergamo, Italy in 1997 by Michele Giardino, Davide Donadoni and Michele Mutti to record original symphonic progressive rock in the grand tradition of Italian legends Le Orme, PFM and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. About a year later, they sketched out the melodic and harmonic structure of a few songs that later appeared on their debut album.