Cecilia Bjärgö – Arcana

Interview by Miriam Cadoni

I must thank a dear friend of mind that some years ago introduced me to this particular musical genre [ the neoclassical/ambient genre] and consequently make me adore some of its important acts such Dark Sancuary, Dead Can Dance, Die Verbannten Kinder Evas & Dargaard. Today I’ve the pleasure to speak about Sweden’s Arcana, that along the mentioned bands, represents one of the  most expert ensamble since their long career (their first release is to date is in 1996). In particular, I’ve contacted Cecilia Bjärgö, one of the singers and Peter‘s wife [the mastermind behind Arcana], for an interesting interview about their latest album “As Bright as a Thousand Suns” and some updates.

Hi Miriam=) I am fine, thank you. I am in the middle of changing apartment though, and that takes its time. Dust everywhere, cardboard boxes everywhere, stuff everywhere… and I am having such a hard time throwing away things;) Continue reading »

Eluveitie – “The Early Years” (2012)

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Review by Tony Cannella

When it comes to Folk Metal, it simply doesn’t get much better than the Swiss band Eluveitie. The band formed in 2002 and in 2004 they released their first EP “Ven”. In 2006 they released their debut full-length “Spirit” and have never looked back. Earlier this year they released their latest album “Helvetios” and now they are back with some newly released versions of old songs.

The first 6-songs that makes up “The Early Years” is a re-recording of their rare “Ven” EP; and next 11-songs is their debut album “Spirit” which has been re-mastered. The re-recordings of the songs from “Ven” (with their current line-up) are a huge highlight, since as I mentioned the EP is a rare and very hard to find these days. The songs on “Spirit” run the gamut of traditional folk-ish influenced numbers to poundingly heavy tracks like “Of Fire, Wind & Wisdom” and the re-mastering gives the songs an added kick. Continue reading »

Eerie Sounds Interview : Tilo Wolff – Lacrimosa

Interview by Miriam C.

After four three of silence gothic/darkwave Swiss duo Lacrimosa are back! So we took the chance to ask a few question to the mastermind Tilo Wolff about on “Revolution”, the new album out on Hall of Sermon.

Hi Tilo, first of all thank so much for reply at our questions. How are you??

Pretty fine. We are on tour in Germany right now, have the last five shows ahead and so far we are pretty happy with everything that happend during the tour!

“Revolution” comes after a three year break with “Sehnsucht”, how was the album’s genesis, when have you started to nail down the first lyric?

Actually the first lyric for “Revolution” was “This Is the Night” which I wrote in Bejing right after we played there in 2009. So the first seed for this album was planted while we were still on tour with “Sehnsucht” which might also be the reason why this new album sounds like the conclution of the previous one.

For this last album you have worked with Mille Petrozza (Kreator) and Stefan Schwarzmann (Accept), how’s this collaboration was born and how was working with them?

It was quite spontaneous. Mille was at my house visiting me and I played him the track “Revolution” in a version recorded by myself. He instantly liked it and asked if this would be the final version. “Why?” I replied and he said that he’d like to play this song himself. Of course I had nothing against it and then he played more and more songs getting really into it! Afterwards I asked Stefan if he’d like to participate on the production since we already some time ago talked of doing something together, and well, so it developed.

Will you shoot any videoclip from the “Revolution” album? What songs will you choose?

Yes, we made a short clip for “Irgendein Arsch ist immer unterwegs” and a live clip for “Revolution” which is in the post production right now.

How is to be your self entrepreneur of your music? What are, in your opinion, the pros and cons? Also I’ve read that you have taken the decision to not sign anymore external band like has happened with Sandra Schleret‘s Dreams of Sanity, why?

The pros are that there is no-one telling me what I shall do and what I shall not do. I can write and produce exactly the music I want to free from any commercial aspects! This is essential for me! The cons are that I don’t have much free time. This is also the reason why it always takes so much time from album to album. While other bands are on tour their record labels are preparing the next album and taking care of the promotion while I’m just busy traveling and playing.

Between “Sehnsucht” and “Revolution” are passed 3 years, there’s something that you’ll change in “Sehnsucht” and, in your order of ideas, what are the differences between the last album and this one?

I improved in the production and mixing matter but I love “Sehnsucht” as it is. Pure and majesticaly unpolished while the new one is straight, direct und uncompromising – so far my favorite album!

What is the lyric in “Revolution” that you are more fond of/attached to? And why?

“Weil Du Hilfe brauchst”. Here it all comes together for the album. If we don’t realize that we have needs that need to be fullfilled and that there are people around us that might need our help, if we don’t realize that we all are sitting in the same boat and will only survive if we row together and not against each other, than we might be lost!

In your long musical career what is/are the thing(s) that you regret the most and there’s something that you’ll change?

Of course when you are doing all by yourself and have no adviser you make mistakes here and there but all in all I am pretty happy with everything and if things would have been different I wouldn’t be where I am right now and where I am right now makes me thankful, so no need to regret anything so far!

How should consider the status of your other band Snakeskin? Something is going on or all is quiet and would be for a long long time?

Well, it’s all a question of time. Since years I want to make a new album for Snakeskin but I just don’t come to it. Maybe in the end of next year, let’s see.

Maybe this question can sound harsh to you but I hope to explain well what I would like to ask : what you can tell me about Anne‘s musical background and, if I recall right, in 1994, what was triggered the decision to insert/add her in the line up? In the end what was the thing that you have been hit/intrigued about her?

Since I started with Lacrimosa I was trying to find a female voice suiting my voice. Already on the first album I recorded with some but never was so completely happy. When I heard Anne plus she playing after I never had a good live keyboarder I asked her in for some test recordings and musically and personately it worked perfectly.

Well, dear Tilo, I really thank you for this interview, hope you’ll finding it entertaining and interesting. I would ask you now to greet your fans and our readers. Thanks

Thank you and take good care!

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Interview : Chrigel Glanzmann & Anna Murphy – Eluveitie (2012)

Interview by Rachele Valente

Shortly after the last Italian date that took place in Bologna as headliner for the Paganfest, Eluveitie comes back to Italy, but this time as the support act for the Swedish band Sabaton with the Hungarian band Wisdom. On the occasion for the release of the new album (compilation), “The Early Years”, Chrigel and Anna gave a little appetizer about it, remembering something of the early beginning of their musical activity. Here you are with our interview!

Today Femme Metal has the pleasure to welcome to Chrigel and Anna from Eluveitie. Hi guys, how are you doing?

Chrigel: Allright!

Anna: 

Your last show in Italy was last year in Bologna, as the headliner for the Paganfest. Now you’re coming back in Milan, supporting the Swedish band Sabaton. Why did you decide to be on tour with them?

Chrigel: Because we’re masochist No, they were just looking for another band to join this tour and we’ve been asked and we thought “Yeah, it’s just a great opportunity for us to expose our music to a completely new crowd”, because in this tour a lot of people are coming for them and it’s like a really different crowd. I mean: most of the people like classic heavy metal and stuff so we just thought “It would be cool to present our music to people that maybe don’t know who we are”… so… that’s why we decided to join this tour!

This is the first tour without your own guitarist, Simeon who has recently left the band and you’re playing without Päde, who’s coming back in a couple of weeks. Can you explain what happened?

Anna : Well, Päde died unfortunately, that’s a sad thing (she jokes with Chrigel). No, he has to do a work-shit and so he couldn’t join us and Sime left for a personal decision. We didn’t get any fight.

Chrigel : He was actually thinking of it since a year or maybe more… I mean: he just wants to reach some personal goals. He was thinking about it for a long time actually, so yeah, the time has gone.

After the great success of “Helvetios” you released with Nucler Blast “The Early Years”, a collection containing “Vên” completely re-recorded and a remastered version of “Spirit”. Why did you decide so?

Anna: ‘Cuz it’s cool

Chrigel: Yeah, I mean: both albums have been sold out since a quite long time and many people were still asking for them so many people actually told us “Yeah, you should release them”, like management and the record company. Everybody told us “Yeah, re-release it, seriously!”. Everybody wanted that, but we thought “That’s cheap to just re-released it, it’s not that cool, we don’t want to do that!” and then we had the idea to completely re-record “Vên” which sounded for us at least like an amazing idea, because, you know, those songs are about 10 years ago, those songs are kinda developed together with us and we just thought “It would be cool to re-record it again and just see how the songs sound today”, so yeah, that’s why we decided to do that!

Just before the release date of “The Early Years”, you published on your official Youtube channel a lyric video for the song “Lament”. If I don’t get wrong you said you had completely revised the song. What can you tell us about this choice?

Chrigel: To be honest, I wasn’t too happy with the old lyrics. I mean: the original lyrics were written from a point of view of today looking back to the time of Helvetians and I actually made the exactly same thing but with the time switched and the lyrics now, the new version, are also looking back to the Helvetians but just from 2000 years later. Helvetians were already Romanized and stuff and it’s written from that point. That’s a different version but I prefer it!

“Vên” was released in 2002. At first, there was a song more you couldn’t finish to write. Now, in 2012, this song is finally completed: “Divico” will be part of your own edition of “The Early Years”. Why in Nuclear Blast version of the album the song will not appear?

Chrigel: One reason why we did this now is also because of our 10th anniversary and we just thought that it would have been cool to do something special as well and also to give people something that just comes directly from us. It’s like a personal birthday present or something like that! That’s also why we did this own edition because every little detail about the album is done by ourselves, I mean: everything is done by ourselves. We wanted to have something special on that too so that’s why!

Can you tell us something about “Divico” song?

Chrigel: That’s cool! I like it!

Anna: Yes, I like it too.

Chrigel: It’s just a song about a character of Celtic history which played an important role in the Gaulish Wars and the history of Helvetians.

You have changed some lyrics too. How did this decision come out?

Chrigel: We revised them, the lyrics basically are still the same, especially the Gaulish part in the lyrics, I’ve just corrected, you know, because it was 10 years ago and my Gaulish back then was “very little” and very bad, especially the song “Uis Elveti”, the lyric was catastrophic, if it comes with the grammar and everything it was really, really bad! Today I know much more about the Gaulish language and I’ve just corrected. I mean: the lyric is still the same, it’s just in a better Gaulish

If I’m right you’re planning a big show in Zurich, this December, the second edition of your own festival “Eluveitie and Friends”. Can you tell us something about this show?

Anna: That’s a great opportunity to make a own festival and invite bands and friends of ours even if something arrive many people that we ever known that’s pretty cool.

Chrigel:  That’s actually a kind of “special guests”, we basically invite bands from somewhere, bands we toured with and then there’s always a kind of “special guests”, it could be anyone.

Anna, let’s talk about your upcoming solo album. Why did you decided to work on it? Are you excited about it?

Anna: Yes, I’m very excited! I decide to start on my own stuff like, I don’t know, two years ago but in between I did stuff… It just kinda happened and I don’t plan anything. More people behind me pushed me to do it… It’s a lot of kind of developing.

In these years you have joined many side-projects playing different instrument and singing. How did you manage to do something? What are your personal plans now?

Anna: I don’t really think about what I gonna do in the future, what I doing in the moment is just music, music and music and not really anything else. I’m really happy about this and I have to be proud of it and Eluveitie is always first of course and so everything else is just filled around…

What are your future plans?

Chrigel:  Pretty much as she said. I mean: right now we’re on tour until next Spring or so… I mean: I’m pretty sure we’ll work on new material for a new album, to be honest we’ve already started but yeah, we don’t have many plans exactly.

Thank you for your time. Would you like say something to our readers?

Anna: You’re awesome! Thank you!

Chrigel: Thanks for your interest in Eluveitie!

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Interview : Chrigel Glanzmann & Anna Murphy – Eluveitie (2012)

Interview by Miriam C.

For the second time we give space to one of the last metal sensation of these years : Eluveitie. We asked to the singers and instruments players Chringel Glanzmann & Anna Murphy some news about their recent new album “Helvetios” and his concept behind. Enjoy!

Hi Chrigel and Anna, how are you?? I hope all allright!!! And thanks for reply at our questions!

Anna: Hey there! Fine, thank you. And that’s no problem, thank you for the interview.

Ok, let’s get delve into the brand new album “Helvetios”. How was the genesis of this album, when you have started to compose it?

Chrigel: The idea of doing a concept album about the so-called gaulish wars we had quite a while ago. Somewhen in summer 2010 I started working on the concept for the album. I started composing the single songs somewhen in winter 2010, but most of the songs actually emerged in spring/summer 2011 though. I worked closely together with our guitar player Ivo. He’s an amazing composer of awesome riffs.

First of all what’s means the word “Helvetios” and is related to the lyrics inside the album?

Chrigel: “Helvetios” is basically the name of the celtic tribe that inherited the area of todays Switzerland: The Helvetians. The album tells the story of the gaulish wars – from the Helvetians perspective.

How’s recording an album with a great legend like Tommy Vetterli? Is like a mentor, a friend or a little despotic (XD I’m joking now hahaha) ?

Anna : If somebody would have told me 7 years ago that I’d be talking to Tommy Vetterli on the phone on a regular basis I would have freaked out, haha. I’ve always been a huge Coroner fan so I was thrilled and a little nervous at first to record an album with him. We were quite overwhelmed by his perfectionism, the guy has insanely good ears and you can imagine that that can create quite a problem for him when dealing with tons of folk instruments that simply aren’t perfectly in tune all the time. But soon enough we could work together really well and we got to know him as one of the nicest and funniest guys we’ve ever met. We’re still good friends and spent some fun times on the 70’000 tons of metal cruise together. And more importantly, “Helvetios” is our best sounding album, I’m sure we will be faithful to Tommy for a while!

I really liked the historical in-depth explanation that you have published on Facebook and get me to assumethat “Helvetios” is a concept because I’ve seen quite a connection between the 2 lyrics. Who were the Helvetians and firstly when you have decided to focus on these topic? Also are a lot of historical infos that you have provided, where did you got it? You should have an encyclopaedia at home!

Anna: “Helvetios” tells the harrowing chronic of the Gaulish war. But it’s not just a chronological account of this terrible war, the album tells the story from the viewpoint of the Helvetians, a Celtic tribe. This wasn’t a very simple task, since history is mostly written by those who triumphed in war which in this case was the Roman empire, Gaius Julius Caesar to be exact. Most of what we know about the Gaulish war nowadays stems from Caesar’s transcripts and that these do not convey the full truth is pretty obvious and also confirmed by historians. His scripture “De Bello Gallico” is political propaganda for his benefit to a great extent in which home and family defending Gauls become “belligerent barbarians” and sheer genocide over Gaulish tribes become “glorious battles” that were fought by Roman legions “heroically to protect the Roman people.” So you can see it’s not an easy undertaking to portray the Gaulish war as Helvetians (Gauls) would have. We still tried and cooperated with scientists to question historiography and let historical and archeological findings influence us in writing the album. But we also just let simple emotions and feelings speak by imagining what it really must have been like back then.

I’m getting so really curious about the various goddess and god workshipped by the Helvetians. Excluding Epona, who totally hit me, are you able to give us more cultural insights about this population?

Chrigel: First of all we have to face the fact that we don’t know too much about the Celts religions today. All we can base on are historical literature on one hand (which is partly very vague) and archeological evidence on the other hand. The existence of diverse gods (such as Epona) is documented by the latter. All across Gaul there were small Epona temples found. Regarding this goddess there’s also one note in historical literature, stating that there were usually fresh cut roses or rose petals offered to Epona in those little temples (that’s also where the song title comes from, btw).

According to Facebook – “Helvetios is a concept album about the gaulish war (58-50 B.C.), the story of the war being told in a chronological timeline.” – can you, somehow, explain the chronological timeline referring to the songs titles’?

Chrigel: To be honest, I seriously think that this would break the mold of an interview – it would be a bit too much (unless you’re planning to publish an 8 page Eluveitie feature, haha ). But yeah, the story of the gaulish war is actually well documented and publicly accessible. So, just check a good scientifical book on the gaulish wars. If you’re familiar the story of the gaulish wars, the song titles will make a lot of sense.

Talking instead about the cover album is really simple, white and black a badge. What’s stands for? Who representing? And why opt for so simply cover? (You know, that badge remembers me a lot the Aurum from the 1984′s “The Neverending Story” film, never watched it?)

Chrigel: Haha, yeah I’ve seen the movie, when I was a kid. Well, the album cover just shows a traditional helvetic ornament, which has been found through archeological excavations (it was chased in a golden fibula). So, it basically represents the celtic tribe of the Helvetians. The black, simple cover forms kind of a “book cover”, you know. The inside of the (btw quite extended) booklet pretty much elaborated. The idea behind the album artwork was to create something like a volume of art photography. You know, to create pictures as they would have occurred if a gifted art photographer – such as Andre Kertesz or Henri Cartier-Bresson – would have been there, 2000 years ago, and documented the events of the gaulish wars photographically.

Now for Anna only, which are the vocal part that you have enjoyed recording the most on the latest Eluveitie album? Also, not so time ago, you have joined Nucleus Torn, how happened and how you’ll manage it?

Anna: That’s a difficult question, I enjoyed everything of course. But in a different way, maybe. “A Rose for Epona” is probably the most difficult (and high as f***) thing I’ve ever undertaken, so my singing was taken one step further just by recording this song I’d say. “The Siege” is something completely new which was a lot of fun, but made me lose my voice completely for two days, haha. I guess I still enjoyed “Alesia” the most though, because I probably improvised more than half of my parts in the studio and Chrigel and I were still working on arrangements right before recording them… I really like doing things spontaneously. Yeah, Fredy asked me quite a long time ago if I’d like to do some guest vocals on his new album. We noticed that we work together very well and have similar tastes, so it came naturally that I joined as an official member. We’re going to compose new stuff together very soon and I’m looking forward to it! I’ll manage somehow, of course Eluveitie is Nr. 1, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be creative with other projects, I just don’t have all the time in the world.

Chrigel, running down the list of the line-up and the instrument played I notice that you’re playing the gaita too. I’ve never heard of it, can you explain its peculiarities?

Chrigel: Hmmm, check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_gaita The gaita is just a bagpipe. We’re using diverse kinds of bagpipes in our music and among others also the galician gaita. It’s a rather simple bagpipe. But really love it’s sound and also the way it can be played (it allows much more “emotional” expression than a scottish bagpipe for example).

The band started as a merely studio project, Chrigel, when have you “understood” that Eluveitie was evolving into a proper live metal band?

Chrigel: To be honest – the only reason I formed Eluveitie as a mere studio project at first, was because I couldn’t find dedicated fix members for a band back then. You know, back then the combination of folkmusic and metal was not common at all, there was no folk metal scene or something like that. It was new, unknown and most people considered it a pretty weird, crazy and pointless idea. But yeah, actually it has always been my wish and idea of have Eluveitie as a proper live band – which was possible later then, fortunately.

In your opinion(s) where lies the differences between “Everything Remains as It Never Was” and “Helvetios”? What is the step towards a musical evolution that you have accomplished on this last album?

Anna: I don’t know Chrigel’s opinion on this one, but I would never think about differences between albums. We just write music, do what we feel sounds good and if it sounds different from the last album, well so what? We don’t care or think about these things. At least I don’t, haha. I mean, our music has always been very diverse, though still creating a solid entity. That’s what Eluveitie is.

Will be a an “Evocation II” in the near future?

Chrigel: There will be “Evocation II” for sure. But I can’t say if it will come in near future or not (well, regarding the fact that we’re just about to release a full studio album and thus we just started a world tour that will keep us on the road for at least 12 months, it’s actually not very likely that “Evocation II” will happen in NEAR future ).

Anna, can you talk more about ThruByRed and Fräkmündt I must presume that are some other bands beside Eluveitie and Nucleus Torn. And by the way congratulations for being so diverse in your tastes, for being so really young (me and you we have tha same age hahaha) you rock.

Anna: Hey cool that you checked out my other projects, thanks! Well, Fräkmündt is my other band. It’s Swiss traditional folk music, but still has a rather dark, atmospheric and sometimes even modern touch to it. We’re all really good friends and do exactly what our music sounds like, we hike in the mountains for hours or days and then go get wasted somewhere and talk for hours from philosophical debates to complete and utter nonsense. I play the hurdy-gurdy, flute and acoustic bass, do some vocals and composing. ThruByRed started shortly after I joined Fräkmündt. Christoph Ziegler (who is also in Fräkmündt and apart from that the man behind Vinterriket, Atomtrakt, Nebelkorona etc.) and I really hit it off when we got to know each other and pretty much immediately decided to start an electronic project together. The plan was for it to just sound completely weird and have all sorts of musical elements and confusing lyrics in it. I think we managed pretty well, ThruByRed was born!

Well, guys I think we’re at the end do you have any last consideration about your next projects?

Anna: We’re touring our asses off this year to promote “Helvetios”, that’s project Nr. 1! Then, I guess we’ll see what’s next.

Chrigel: Yeah… couldn’t add anything to that.

Just greet as you want your fans and our readers. Thanks so really much for everything! Hugs, Miriam x

Anna: Cheers to our fans and readers! You guys rock! And thank you Miriam for the cool interview and your interest!

Chrigel: Yep! Thanks! And see you on the road! Cheers

Credit Photos

Photos by Manuel Vargas

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