Saturday, December 10, 2005

LOOKING FOR EUROPE

Andreas Diesel/Dieter Gehrten: Looking for Europe. Neofolk und Hintergründe (Auerbach Tonträger 2005)

ISBN 3-936878-02-1

Ein neues, sehr sorgfältig recherchiertes Buch, in dem etliche Musiker zu Wort kommen, die von Dichtern, Künstlern, Philosophen wie Arnold Böcklin, Jean Cocteau, William Blake, Gabriele d´Annunzio, Julius Evola, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Jünger, Yukio Mishima, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ezra Pound stark beeinflußt sind, ist jüngst im Verlag Auerbach Tonträger erschienen - und einige dieser Musiker sind bisweilen ebenso umstritten wie manche dieser Autoren. Neofolk - vielen Ernst Jünger-Lesern vermutlich eine terra incognita - ist eine Musiksparte, die in den letzten fünfzehn Jahren eine starke Renaissance erfährt. Im Grunde handelt es sich um eine eigene Kunstrichtung, eine fröhliche Wissenschaft, die wie kaum eine andere Dichtung und Heimatverbundenheit mit Mythologie, Philosophie, Symbolismus verbindet und häufig auf faszinierende Weise Malerei und Photographie in ihre Schallplatten und CDs einfließen läßt. Neofolk erscheint als eine Gegenkultur, deren Wert und Tragweite für die europäische Kunst- und Geistesgeschichte vielleicht erst in einigen Jahrzehnten wirklich erfaßt wird, vielleicht vergleichbar der Kunst der Präraffaeliten, des Symbolismus, des Jugendstil.

In welchen Zusammenhängen erscheint Ernst Jünger in diesem Buch? Auf den Marmorklippen beeinflußte ein Lied der englischen Gruppe Death In June. Inspiriert durch dieses Werk wurde auch die Gruppe Ostara für ihr Lied "On the Marble Cliffs". Von besonderer Bedeutung ist Ernst Jünger im Werk von Lady Morphia, deren Gründer Nick Nedzynski EJ als den "letzten Ritter" bezeichnet - diese Gruppe zitierte in einem Lied aus Jüngers Sanduhrbuch und vertonte auch einzelne Stellen aus dem Waldgang. Ebenfalls stark geprägt von Ernst Jünger ist die amerikanische Formation Blood Axis. Auch die deutsche Gruppe Orplid nennt Ernst Jünger als Einfluß. Auch die österreichische Gruppe Allerseelen verweist in ihren Arbeiten mehrmals auf Ernst Jünger - eine ihrer CDs heißt "Abenteuerliches Herz", eines ihrer Lieder "Annäherungen" nach dem gleichnamigen Drogenbuch Ernst Jüngers.

Nick Nedzynski, ein Musiker der englischen Gruppe Lady Morphia und auch Mitwirkender der deutschen Formation Werkraum: "Für mich war Jünger der Autor des letzten Jahrhunderts, wenn nicht der Autor überhaupt. Seine Werke berühren Teile meiner Seele, die nichts anderes so berühren. Seine Art, Sprache zu verwenden und Dinge zu verbildlichen, ist bewundernswert."

Das Buch ist hervorragend recherchiert, ordentlich gegliedert, es enthält zahlreiche Illustrationen, einen umfangreichen Anhang und - ganz wichtig! - einen Index, lädt also als Nachschlagewerk auch herrlich ein zum Querlesen und Schmökern. Zusätzlich dazu ist eine eigene Edition mit vier CDs und einem eigenen kleinen Buch der in Looking for Europe beschriebenen Musikgruppen erhältlich.

Gerhard

www.prophecy.cd

http://www.steinklang-records.at/

www.geocities.com/ahnstern

http://allerseelen.blogspot.com/

Sunday, November 27, 2005

HEILIGE FEUER IV CD + DVD

WALDTEUFEL MCD RAUHNACHT
500 copies

CD Euro 10

I. Allerseelengebet (Friedrich Hielscher)
Il. In den Zwölften (Hugo Kaeker)
III. Hexe Hild (Leopold Weber)
IV. Ur-Odin (Karl Wolfskehl)

"Rauhnacht" consists of almost 30 minutes of brand new music, with the exception of "AIIerseeIengebet" which was recorded Iast year far the occasion of the WiId Hunt concert at a church in PortIand. The songs/soundpoems all deal with the Wild
Hunt/Twelve Nights complex of foIklore & myth, wintery themes that are fitting far the upcoming season. We are very pleased with the result.

CHANGES/ANDREW KING MCD UNTILLED SPLIT
500 copies

CD Euro 10

CHANGES

I. Mahabharata of the Soul (Taylor(Tesluk)
II. Flame (Taylor)
III. Anthem to Freedom (Tesluk)
IV. Shenandoah (Taylor)
V. ...And Finally (Taylor)

ANDREW KING

VI. Two Brothers (trad.)
VII. Dives and Lazarus (trad.)
VIII. What is the lite of a Man (trad.)
IX. Kommer I snart, I Husmaend (Aakjaer/Nielsen)
X. The Farmer's Toast (trad.)


www.terra-fria.com



ALLERSEELEN - HEILIGE FEUER CD, DVD

Allerseelen brought back from Mother Russia and her beautiful daughters some dozens copies of the HEILIGE FEUER IV CD and the brand-new HEILIGE FEUER IV DVD, both excellent anthologies compiled by Der Angriff and Indiestate, the organizers of the Allerseelen + Changes live performances in St. Petersburg and Moscow in November 2005.

HEILIGE FEUER IV CD

Vetrophonia (Linja Mass), Painslut, Rasthof Dachau, Allerseelen, Bearer of the Inmost Sun

CD Euro 12

HEILIGE FEUER IV DVD

Vetrophonia (Linja Mass), Painslut, Rasthof Dachau, Allerseelen, Bearer of the Inmost Sun

DVD Euro 17

Postage Euro 3 (sea mail)

Please order from Aorta c/o Petak, Postfach 778, A-1011 Wien

aorta (at) aon.at

Thursday, November 24, 2005

ALLERSEELEN CONCERTS

Vergangenheit:

24.XI.MMV Allerseelen etcetera

Monday, November 14, 2005

2005 ALLERSEELEN HELDRUNGEN

Allerseelen - Wasserschloß Heldrungen - Thüringen

1.IV.MMV

GERHARD: ZAUBERISCHE ZEIT

"Gegen die moderne Welt konspirieren nur jene erfolgreich, welche die Bewunderung der Schönheit verbreiten."

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila)



FLAMMENZAUBER 5

WASSERBURG HELDRUNGEN (THÜRINGEN)

1.+2.IV.MMV

Zinnober.net

Lichttaufe.com



The Lindbergh Baby, Triarii, Allerseelen = Flores de Fyer, Coph Nia

Sturmpercht, Agnivolok, Blood Axis

Arriving in the early afternoon at Wasserschloss Heldrungen in Thüringen. A beautiful castle on an artificial island surrounded by water, meadows, trees. Feeling like a troubadour being invited on a magical island with a treasure hidden somewhere in its underground. An amazing dream coming true: Nothing is a matter of course. Being thankful for the possibility to perform in venues like this. Too many memories of dusty concert places in the past. The first day of April like a summer day. The sky gentian-blue. Meeting on this Zauberinsel other friends and troubadours. Making the acquaintance of a lovely young gentleman named Aldwyn Everett Cornelius Moynihan.

The Lindbergh Baby - psychoactive folklore songs written by Scott Broderick singing and playing guitar, Annabel Lee on violin and Michael Moynihan on accordeon and bodhran drum. Triarii - percussion, samples. Coph Nia with a very industrial bass and percussion.

Allerseelen performing using the name Flores de Fyer, an expression taken from a fairy tale from the Dolomites where the people are still talking Ladin, a language which is called the Edelweiss of the Romanic languages. The Hungarian drummers martial and precise as always, the Austrian bassist as passionate as usual. Several very old and some very new songs. The new song Wir tragen ein Licht (on the Allerseelen DoLP Sturmlieder) being dedicated to John Balance, the influential late singer of Coil. During this song the singer holding in his hand a human skull with a black sun painted on its forehead - not the black sun of the Wewelsburg in Westfalen, but the alchemical black sun that Coil used as emblem.

Visiting Weimar in the morning. The Schlangenstein in the park close to the creek Ilm - a beautiful sculpture of a serpent surrounding a stone from 1787 by Gottlieb Martin Klauer - a beautiful symbolic manifestation of the power of spirituality, wisdom over matter. But this Serpent Stone was an imitation - the original had been heavily damaged in early 1945 by aircraft bombs. Was this destruction another allegory? Returning to the idyllic island Heldrungen. In the water boats, swans. Being interviewed under the trees close to the castle for the DVD edition of Flammenzauber V.

Sturmpercht - an unforgettable live performance far away from their mountains. A powerful and incredible manifestation of the Austrian Way of Life. Hypnotic alpinism. Many songs based on the legends of the magical mountain Untersberg. The musicians heavily costumed like the wild hunt. The singer like an ancient medicine man wearing a fur and a huge pair of antlers. Accordeon, bass, guitar, drums. On stage surrounded by a huge amount of Austrian handicraft - branches, antlers, various totems - obviously the members were fighting on stage in vain against their Heimweh. Agnivolok - beautiful mystical Russian songs performed by Vera Agnivolok. Blood Axis - beautiful and powerful. Violin, accordeon, bodhran, bass, electric guitar and drums. Some amazing new songs. Especially some new songs very impressive, one traditional just featuring Michael singing and playing his bodhran drum. An amazing electric guitar.

Returning after these sunny days to a dusty city making me even more aware of having participated in a very magical event, an incredible festival taking place in another land, in another time. Dreams that came true in a field of force named music, memories of a peaceful and powerful Flammenzauber 5 - these memories being the actual treasure of this castle and island which the listeners and musicians are taking with them in their adventurous hearts. Being glad and grateful having been a part of this field of force. A Dankeschön to all the organizers of Flammenzauber 5, the activists of Lichttaufe and Zinnober.

Gerhard, 5.IV.MMV

2005 ALLERSEELEN KOPENHAGEN

SOLBLOT, DIE WEISSE ROSE, ALLERSEELEN

KOPENHAGEN, 19.III.MMV


www.bragagild.dk


DEN TALENDE KNOGLE

Flying to Kopenhagen. Azure sky. Himmel - in German just one word where the English language distinguishes between sky and heaven. The clouds below the airplane reminding me of photos of the antarctic Neuschwabenland. Reading some lines in Martin Heidegger, Was heisst Denken? "Was sich entzieht, kann sogar den Menschen wesentlicher angehen und in den Anspruch nehmen als alles Anwesende, das ihn trifft und betrifft." At the horizon the Austrian mountains. The desire to be there again. Looking forward to new experiences and impressions. Walking around with a member of Bragagild in the streets of Kopenhagen. Many antiquariats, many books also in German by Rainer Maria Rilke. My drummers arriving from Budapest.

On the roof of the Börsen, the old stock exchange, a monument of four dragons, their tails coiled together, forming a grey conic tower. Soundcheck of Solblot from Sweden, Die weisse Rose from Denmark, Allerseelen. My bassist arriving. In the afternoon the vinterbanket, the last winter banquet before the beginning of spring - grillet vildsvin (roasted boar) and many other things to eat. Thinking of Gullinborsti. This vinterbanket is a tradition of Bragagild, grillet vildsvin is eaten each year at this spring festival. Before the concerts den talende knogle (the talking bone) was passed around, a bone of the first boar that was eaten five years ago. Every one holding the talking bone was allowed to talk, to recite, to ask or just to say thank you. I said thank you for the invitation and the great meal prepared by a girl of Bragagild. I had one special wish - holding the talking bone during the whole Allerseelen concert. Solblot with ancient Swedish songs, guitar, accordion, long horn, beautiful music, but very short. Die weisse Rose with four drummers, one of them fourteen, soundscapes, some voices of Max Ernst and Klaus Kinski. On the stage white roses. Allerseelen were dynamic, music as ammunition - on my back and head I felt several wooden splinters from the sticks of one of the drummers. Holding the microphone in the left hand, den talende knogle in the right hand. During the love song Löwin I wound some white roses of Die weisse Rose around the talking bone.

Walking around in the sunshine with my bassist close to the Stadsgraven. The first flowers apart from the white roses yesterday. Visiting the Nationalmuseet with members of Allerseelen, Bragagild, Die Weisse Rose. I was impressed by the large, dark lures - strange ritual music instruments which were found by pairs in the black swamps. They looked more like tools. Oak coffins with dead women and men. The men with swords, the women still having combs and daggers with them - they would need them again after awakening. Woollen blankets to avoid that they freeze. There is no death, just sleep in cold nights. Thinking of Miguel Serrano´s beautiful words: "In diesem Kampf wechselt man auch nicht die Seite. Nur während des Todes ist einem eine kurze Ruhe vergönnt." Stones with helleristning (rock carvings). A stone like a small portable throne with footprints for an emperor or magician - who is standing on it, has power. Thinking of the stone birth out of the petra genetrix. Pieces of dark amber. Large rune stones, Tirsted from Lolland, Tryggevaelde from Ostsjaelland. The runic inscriptions almost always vertical, from the bottom to the top. The famous silver cauldron from Gundestrup which was fabricated in South Eastern Europe. Drinking Malbec red wine, Yggdrasil´s Mjöd (mead).

Spring equinox. Beautiful weather. Travelling by train with a member of Die weisse Rose to Odense. Going by bus to Otterup. In the North of Odense a beautiful and very dynamic "devilish" black sculpture of Thor with his hammer on his chariot with the two he-goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr. Dolmens and tomb chambers close to Kappendrup. Close to Emmelev a beautiful little jaettestue (dolmen), surrounded by thorns like Dornröschen, the sleeping beauty in the fairy tale. Close to Emmelev too a beautiful large dolmen, this one having a more martial impression - like a bunker. The entrances of the two dolmens looked towards South-East. Staying in the evening and night in Odense. Listening to the strange and surreal songs of Else Marie Pade. Listening to the dark chants of Utrenja, composed by Krzysztof Penderecki.

Going by train to Roskilde. The ships of the vikings. Buying a small Thor´s hammer which was found on the Danish island Falster. The Roskilde fjord. Going by bus to Öm. Walking on the road two kilometres to a beautiful tumulus, appearing like a female breast. It was possible to go inside the hill. The stone chamber had a length of around seven meters. Its roof consisted of heavy rocks. A beautiful place to spend the night. Its entrance looked towards East, the direction the rising sun. Almost no bones were found inside the chamber, solely flints, amber pearls. Maybe this tumulus was no tomb hill but a place where women went to give birth to their children. In a culture where death was sacred, birth of course had to be considered as sacred too. In fairy tales the farmers brought each winter solstice food to the jaette (spirit) living inside the dolmen to have a good harvest in the next year. Another hint to fertility. I was glad, saying thank you to be able to be at this place which appeared to me like the middle of Denmark. Is there a connection between the German words danken (to say thank you) and denken (to think)? The gaya scienza - to be able to say thank you, to be aware that everything might be completely different the next days: Als wärs das letzte Mal. Returning to Kopenhagen by bus and train. Being interviewed for the Danish black metal/industrial magazine Evilution. Speaking about the talking bone, about dolmens, about art as a powerful psychoactive field of force, about songs as seeds and lyrics as seeds, about my sold-out magazines Aorta and Ahnstern and its re-publication later this year in a beautiful old-fashioned book edition by Ajna, featuring all the tracts and the interviews with Kenneth Anger, Michael Moynihan, Varg Vikernes, Z´ev.

In the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Many beautiful symbols in the garden and on the facade of this building which would cause a lot of problems if I decided to use them for one of my publications. A Mithras relief. Again being fascinated by the dynamics of this monument and movement - a circle being formed by the tail of the bull touching the coat of Mithras who closes with one hand the nostrils of the bull and pulling the dagger with the other hand into the flesh of the animal. Fleisch - again in German only one word for the English distinction between flesh and meat. Statues of some muses - Melpomene (tragedy), Polymnia (hymns), Erato (poetry), Thaleia (drama). But Polymnia and Thaleia without arms like the female saint in Alejandro Jodorowsky´s psychoactive movie Santa Sangre. Also a marble bust by Antonio Canova from 1807 which seems to show Mithras with the Phrygean cap. Etruskan art. Egyptian stone reliefs - the representations of the Egyptian ships reminded me of the books of Jürgen Spanuth about Northern influences on the Egypt culture. Returning to Austria. The clouds blueish and purple like on the paintings by Nikolas Roerich.

A thank you to all members of Bragagild.

Gerhard

26.III.MMV

Danish dolmens:

http://www.nordfynsweb.dk/cgi-bin/index.pl?side-00-02-06.shtml


EVILUTION 1 - English interviews with Darkthrone, Laibach, Mayhem, Blutharsch, Napalm Death (December 2004). Recommended. Next issue with English interviews with Allerseelen, Ostara, Death in June:

www.evilutionmagazine.com



"Am Sonnabend, den 19. März 2005, richtete die Bragagild-Gemeinschaft im malerischen Kopenhagen in relativ kleiner Runde eine Konzertveranstaltung mit Solblot, Die weiße Rose sowie Allerseelen aus. Gegen 18 Uhr betrat dann das schwedische Projekt Solblot die Bühne: 3 Musiker, instrumental ausgerüstet mit Bläser/Akkordeon, akustischer Gitarre sowie Trommel. Die Band lieferte ein sehr schönes Neofolk-Konzert ab, gerade wegen des Akkordeons vielleicht etwas mit Forseti vergleichbar, allerdings deutlich „schneller“ gespielt. Leider dauerte der Vortrag nur knapp eine halbe Stunde. Ich wünsche mir, von dem Projekt demnächst mehr zu hören (Aufnahmen gibt es noch nicht), denn die haben Potential und wussten jeden zu begeistern. Gesungen wurde in ihrer Muttersprache. Anschließend wurde das Konzept des „Talking Bone“ vorgestellt: man hält einen Knochen in der Hand und äußert dazu laut seine Gedanken, Wünsche etc. Dieser machte die Runde, und so konnte sich jeder den Gästen mitteilen. Danach dann der Auftritt des dänischen Projektes Die weiße Rose: 4 Trommler, von denen 2 auch zum Mikrofon griffen und Manifeste verkündeten. Der Rest kam vom Band, und im Hintergrund lief Filmmaterial ab. Die Intensität der Trommeln passte sehr gut zu den Samples, jedoch gerieten einige Stücke etwas zu lang. Die Musiker standen nach ihrem Trommel- und Spracheinsatz teilweise 5 Minuten still auf der Bühne und ließen die Samples auf das Publikum wirken. Der Höhepunkt des Abends war auf jeden Fall Allerseelen: Gerhard am Mikro, die beiden Cawatana-Trommler sowie Marcel P. am Bass. Und was soll ich sagen: ein phantastisches Konzert! Die Trommler entfachten, unterstützt vom Bass, ein wahres Feuerwerk, es war so laut, dass die Samples vom Band kaum zu hören waren. Das machte aber auch nichts, da das Live-Konzept von Allerseelen mit den hochkarätigen Musikern eine perfekte Alternative zu den Studioaufnahmen darstellt. Gerhard hielt während des gesamten Auftritts den Knochen in der Hand und schleuderte seinen Sprechgesang förmlich ins Publikum. Es kam richtig Bewegung in die Runde, jeder im Raum war gefesselt von der treibenden Musik. Allerseelen spielte sich quer durch das gesamte Repertoire und hat sich mittlerweile seinen eigenen Stern am Himmel der hochkarätigen Livebands gesichert. Ich kann nur an die Standhaftigkeit der Rosenheimer appellieren, dass das Allerseelen-Konzert nächsten Monat im Blackout-Club auch stattfindet, sie würden sonst wirklich etwas verpassen. Nach den 2 lautstark vom Publikum geforderten Zugaben war der musikalische Teil des Abends beendet, und wir konnten bis Mitternacht noch das slowenische Bier genießen, die Reste des Buffets vertilgen und die Unterhaltungen fortsetzen. Vielen Dank an Bragagild für die ausgezeichnete Organisation und für den Genuß der dänischen Gastfreundschaft!

Axel Meese, März 2005


http://www.lichttaufe.de/lichttaufe/1x/data/s_content.php?id=Ax2005-03-21-0410

2003 ALLERSEELEN PORTUGAL

Portugal
November MMIII

Allerseelen performed live on November 1st, 2003, in the Museu Arqueologico in Odrinhas, close to Sintra. The event was organized by Dagaz/ Sol de Ferro/ Terra Fria.

"Todos conheceis a intratavel melancolia que se apodera de nos ao recordamos tempos felizes." (Ernst Jünger, Sobre as falesias de marmore)

"Em cima, ficava ainda demoradamente sentado a janela, invadido por uma alegria serena, sentinao do fundo do coracao come a vida interra se desbobinava do fuso em fios dourados." (Ernst Jünger, Sobre as falesias de marmore)

The airplane from Wien to Lisboa. Blazing sunlight on the wings. Thinking of the book Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima. In the evening with my drummers in Lisboa. Rain. The paving-stones slippery - like a paradise for frogs jumping around in the steep lanes of Lisboa. The Cervejeria da Trindade. The Incognito Bar. The first copies of the Allerseelen MCD Pedra which was published especially for the concert in Odrinhas.

Sintra was beautiful, very autumnal. The lane with the beautiful name Caminho dos Castanhais. Visiting the artificial paradise Quinta da Regaleira with the mysterious Poco Iniciatico, a staircase of initiation built deep into the ground with three tunnels leading to other parts of this hidden world with grottoes, pools. Reminding me of The Magical Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The strange flower Jarro, its vanilla white blossom like an ear with a long white microphone in its inside. Soundcheck and concert in the Museu Arqueologico in Odrinhas. Presenting on stage all the new songs of the MCD Pedra. In the audience also some small children. Midnight dinner in Azenhas do Mar.

The Museo Arqueologico of Belem - stone warriors from the North of Portugal, their expression of saudade reminding of the tragic figure of Don Quijote. Wild boars made from stone. The beautiful cloister of the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, also in Belem, with some beautiful flowers and mandalas in the stone. A large dolmen in Belas, between Sintra and Lisboa, re-constructed with the help of three-hundert soldiers. Peacocks in evergreen trees covered with moss. Books on the megalithic culture of Portugal, menirs, dolmens, cromeleques. Vinho tinto from Alentejo.

Searching in the cloister of the Se Catedral in Lisboa for the corvo e coruja, the raven and the owl which I had discovered in the book Portugal. Terra de Misterios by Paulo Alexandre Loucao. Finding Auf den Marmorklippen by Ernst Jünger in Portuguese, Sobre as Falesias de Marmore. Drinking coffee in the Casa d´Alentejo. In the Museu Arqueologico do Carmo many prehistoric artefacts, stones and bones and pottery with rock carvings. Two Inka mummies, a girl and a boy. The noisy soundscapes of Imbolc. The green eyes of the Portuguese cats. In the evening reading some lines in the two books by Otto Rahn, translated into Portuguese.

The train to Porto. Many impressions. Being almost in a state of dream or drunkenness. Vinho verde. The beautiful and passionate music of Sangre Cavallum, full of saudade. Sleeping in front of an open fire.

The train from Porto to Regua and Vila Real. The most beautiful colours of outono, autumn along the Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses. Golden chestnut-trees, ruby-red vine leaves, the ferns like rusty. More and more hills. Steep vineyards, tunnels, the hoopers of the train. Blood-red leaves. Lemons, oranges growing on the trees. Alto Douro, Tras-os-Montes. The river Douro like the Donau in the Strudengau. More and more stones, granite. Beautiful blue blossoms with purple pentagrams inside. Between Regua and Vila Real one of the most beautiful landscapes I ever saw . Flaming red vineyards, darkbrown earth. The colours of scarlet, gold. The excavations of Panoias. The small town Chaves. Drinking Brandymel. The dark music of Karnnos, Wolfskin. Visiting in the moonlight the ruins of the castle Montfort. The cries of the corujas, the owls.

Serra do Geres. Cows with long twisted horns. Beautiful mountains with grey peaks, golden chestnut-trees, golden maples, golden oaks. The ruin of the Mosteiro close to Pitoes das Junias and the sounds of the accordion of Karnnos in the warm sun of Callaecia. A small cromeleque in the evening, between the rising moon and the setting sun. Eating bacalhao, stockfish. Vinho tinto Cabeca de Touro. Walking in the blue light of the moon through pine woods. The blue face of the moon here much more clear than in Central Europe, mouth and nose like a painting by Joan Miro.

The ancient Roman gold mines of Tres Minas in the East of Vila Pouca de Aguiar. A long subterranean tunnel. Silver drops of water on the ceiling. The earth on the shoes like a mud containing particles of gold. Some ravens in the air. Thinking of alchemy. The actual gold not inside in the tunnels where the Romans were searching for it but on the outside - to be aware of the beauty of the omnipresent gold of the leaves. The autumnal music of Comus. The waste lands of Serra da Falperra and Serra da Marao. Being tired and enchanted - cansado e encantado. The Cozinha de Quessus in Penafiel - rural kitchen, vinho verde. The powerful and passionate and psychoactive folklore of Sangre Cavallum, again containing a lot of saudade - a word which needs in German three different words - Schwermut, Sehnsucht, Wehmut.

A rainy day in the Serra do Geres. A rainbow. The beautiful Roman and Templaric church of Bravaes with stone ravens looking like odal runes on the portal. The dolmens of Mezio, wild chestnut-brown horses in the rust-brown ferns that are turning whole hills into hills of rust. Cow bones in the fog. In the twilight the village Soajo with the strange corn containers named Espigeiros which look like the tombstones of the Bogomiles. Visiting at midnight in the rain the beautiful dolmen Santa Marta of Penafiel.

Alto Douro. The dolmen Orca Grande close to Alvite. Nossa Senhora da Lapa, a beautiful grotto sanctuary inside a church with a narrow tunnel. The castel of Penedono. Close to Penela da Beira the church ruin Nossa Senhora do Monte with a dolmen that was used as altar. Another dolmen close to the church. Great landscape, golden glowing chestnut-trees, dark-grey granite, blueish hills and a strange sunlight between the heavy clouds. Close to the river Douro, close to the village Sao Joao da Pesoveira in the twilight on the hill of Sao Salvador do Mundo - three white chapels on the hill, close to one of them a gruta, a grotto leading maybe to one of the other chapels. Radio Aveiro playing music by Allerseelen, O Paradis and other groups in the programme 4 Luas, Four Moons. At the beach. The water and the clouds again like grey granite.

Train to Lisboa. Síntra. Castel dos Mouros. Much granite stones, prehistoric traces, cisterns. The lighthouse Cabo da Roca. In Sintra a bookshop with Hölderlin in German and Portuguese: Elegias. In his poems again the Portuguese saudade very strong. In the village Janas the beautiful circular church Sao Mamede, unfortunately closed. The village Gouveia with its streets that have poems instead of names. In the evening in the Museu Arqueologico in Odrinhas - Roman sarcophags, stones, wisigothic stones, estelas discoideas, Templaric tomb stones. Walking in the moonlight. The village Eugaria - here the houses have no numbers but names. Searching for the Tholos de Monge, close to the Convento dos Capuchos.

Hölderlin reminding me of Alto Douro: "Und des heiligen Tranks sind voll im Strome die Schiffe, Städte und Inseln, sie sind trunken von Weinen."/"E os barcos que navegom vao carregados da bebida sagrada, cidades e ilhas estao ebrias de vinhos." And: "Warme Berge mit Wein"/"Cheia do vinho dos montes calidos."

Early in the morning the train to Lisboa. The ferryboat over the Tejo which was full of fog to Barreiro. The train to Lagos. The sea. The black sea ravens, corvos do mar. An iron rune on the coast. The white menhir Aspadrantes close to Raposeira. The nocturnal sea in Hortas do Tabual. The milky way very clear. The lighthouse Cabo de Sao Vicente - a lot of dolphins in the sea, around two-hundred metres away. Black paramilitary troops of dolphins heading towards North. Like a secret mission. My mission: art. The Templaric church Nossa Senhora de Guadelupe. The Necropole megalitica de Alcalar, unfortunately closed.

The train back to Lisboa and Sintra. The Convento dos Capuchos. A very earthy place, a lot of little cells for the monks, almost like caves. In some way a subterranean sanctuary. A beautiful place where the sun is said to shine at the two solstices through the round hole above the door of the chapel close to the well. Finally the Tholos de Monge, like the remainings of a megalithic tower. A bosque encantado in the twilight, a very beautiful magical wood, the branches with a fur of moss. Branches like green or black flames. Moss, ivy. Like paintings by Ivan Bilibin.

The chapel Santa Eufemia. The Parque de Pena - very much granite, very much wood. Beautiful. Many caves, for example the Gruta do Monge. The temple Alto de Santo Antonio with its twelve columns and the red Templars´ cross. Stormy weather. The Cruz Alta. Again at the Tholos of Monge. The church of Pedenha. The beach of Praia da Adraga, the storm throwing huge amounts of spuma branca, white foam, on the land - like a snow storm. Visiting again Azenha do Mar. Having dinner in a great restaurant. Fish. Great wine. Cor rubi, ruby colour. The poems of Fernando Pessoa. Portugal as Port-do-Gral.

The Casa da Alentejo in Lisboa. Leaving for Austria. The sunset glowing-red like Luzifers Hofgesind, a book which I saw various times in Portuguese in some houses in Portugal.

Gerhard, 31.III.MMIV

Aorta c/o Petak, Postfach 778, A-1011 Wien

www.geocities.com/ahnstern

http://allerseelen.dagaz-music.com/

http://www.terra-fria.com/

http://www.steinklang-records.at/

2003 ALLERSEELEN ST. PETERSBURG

18.X.MMIII

Allerseelen - St. Petersburg

"The headliner of the festival, Allerseelen, were bold enough to use minus phonogram, one could enjoy only live drums and the singing of Gerhard. He turned out to be a middle-height man of Mediterranean appearance with bright charismatic eyes. Black shirt and military trousers: who do we have to do with - Mussolini or Celentano? The melodic hypnotically monotonous composition by 'Allerseelen' was accentuated with sharp drums. Gerhard read his texts with his eyes looking somewhere above our heads. The music played tricks with us: the more you listened to it, the more involved you got into its joyful flapping energy. In comparison with the exaggerated cruelty of 'Legion Kondor/Rasthof Dachau' the apocalyptic-chanson by Gerhard had a most positive effect. We left the club and silence covered us with its heavy deafening breast. The sky cleared up and breathed with frosty hollowness. The mute stars bleaked in the remote space but their poor light sparkled as holy fire in our eyes."

Text: Asterius IN.

Amazing live photos by Coroner:

http://music.gothic.ru/events/heilige4/heilige4-ph1.htm

http://www.heimdallr.ch/Live





"Der Zar berichtete später in seinem Tagebuch, daß er und die Zarin schließlich vor Übermüdung am Bett ihres Kindes in ihren Sesseln einschliefen. Sie hatten drei Tage und drei Nächte bei ihrem Kind gewacht. Plötzlich wachten sie auf. Es war zwei Uhr morgens. Der Raum war beinahe dunkel. Rasputin hatte alle Lampen gelöscht. Nur die Kerzen vor den Ikonen brannten still und warfen den gewaltigen, schweren Schatten des vor dem Bett knienden Wundermönches über das Gesicht des todkranken Kindes."

"Am Eingang dieses Hauses stand jedoch wie der Erzengel Michael an der Pforte des Paradieses groß und mächtig der Starez Rasputin."

Heinz Liepmann, Rasputin, München 1989, S. 99f +137


16.-19.X.MMIII

Allerseelen performed live at the Heilige Feuer IV event in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 18th, 2003 at Red Club, Poltavskaya ul. 7. The other groups on stage this night were Vetrophonia, Painslut, Bearer of the Inmost Sun and Rasthof Dachau/Legion Condor.

As usual, I got to know the most beautiful and most powerful aspects of a country. Typing these notes, drinking some champagne from Krim, the peninsula where Tatars saved the life of the German stuka pilot and artist Josef Beuys, and listening to the beautiful recordings of And you will fear death not by the Hungarian group Scivias.

The amazing sky during the flight to St. Petersburg like a painting by by Nicholas Roerich. The amazing book I was reading: Heinz Liepman, Rasputin. A fascinating healer and visionary, much more a saint than I had believed before, his life and fate in some way reminding of Hermann Hesse´s Narziss und Goldmund. Sensuality and mysticism. Thinking of an image showing long-haired Serbian monks. The autumnal woods of Bohemia. The sky like mother-of-pearl. Then a sky like smoke. Russia. The cliché of endless endlessness. Fields, water. Landing. Edward and Igor bringing us to our small apartment close to the beautiful church Sobor spas na krovi with its blue and green towers appearing at night like an under water vision. In the subway, on the streets beautiful Russian women in pike-grey coats. Many buildings of St. Petersburg looking quite Mediterranean. Though the structure of the city with its broad channels appearing more like Amsterdam than Venice. Spending the evening in the lead-grey club Truba. Dark beer, the bread drink Kwas. Meeting musicians, meeting the artist Njard. Speaking about Rasputin, the Tsar, the Kossacks, about Nicholas Roerich and Ivan Bilibin. Another club, some great vodka, some great red wine from Georgia. Young girls dancing. In bookstores the beautiful images by Ivan Bilibin which I discovered for the first time in Oregon, the symbolistic paintings by I. Samsonov looking almost like ikons with its golden background. The amber room on all the images I saw much too baroque, much to gorgeous for my archaic taste. I am much more fascinated by the myth, by the room that disappeared than by the room that was reconstructed during the last years. Buying a beautiful book on Slavic mythology with beautiful drawings. Being told about the Tsarist bank notes depicting an eagle and a swastika. Some amazing wodka, different from all the wodka I ever drank in my life. Eating salmon at the restaurant Sunduk. Soundcheck at the Red Club, Poltavskaya ul. 7. Eating salmon again at the great Czech restaurant Krusovice. At the Red Club 300-400 people. Vetrophonia - industrial with a great futuristic video. Painslut - supple tiger industrial. Bearer of the Inmost Sun - two really great songs. Rasthof Dachau/Legion Condor - industrial noise. Drinking a lot of water, some beer, only a little wodka. The songs Allerseelen performed live: Unverändert, Traumlied, Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen, Santa Sangre, Mit fester Hand, Löwin, Krieger aus Stein, Flamme, Steingeburt, Kamerad, Sonne golthi-ade, Wir rufen Deine Wölfe, Als wärs das letzte Mal. Four of them for the very first time on stage: It would be great to be able to perform some of these songs in Russian. At least two of the songs containing splinters of operas or symphonies by Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovitch. Edward and I visiting the dark and beautiful Tibetan Kalachakra temple of St. Petersburg, Primorsky Prospekt 91, looking like a building from the Potala, Lhasa. Gentian blue sky. The Bolsheviki had closed, descecrated the temple for decades. The Ahnenerbe of the SS tried to get hold of it, attempting to combine occult as well as geopolitical interests. Gongs, drums, a golden cap. The Tibetan woman at the temple asking where I am coming from - Austria. She did not understand the name Heinrich Harrer, but understood it when I pronounced it Cheinrich Charrer. Returning to the airport. Returning to Austria. Looking forward to visiting magnificent Russia again within a couple of years.

Thanks to Edward, Igor, Andrej, Kirill for everything. The Russian cd compilation Heilige Feuer IV will very probably contain two songs by Allerseelen on the Russian healer and visionary Rasputin.

Gerhard

26.X.MMIII

2003 ALLERSEELEN PACIFIC WEST COAST

ALLERSEELEN - PACIFIC WEST COAST

VI.MMIII
Allerseelen Tour Washington - Oregon - California

MIT DER SONNE BEGINN ICH
DA GEH ICH HINAUS
GRÜSSE TAUSEND HELLE AUGEN
WIR MEISTERN DAS SCHICKSAL
WIR NEHMEN DEM ZUFALL DIE KRAFT

Friedrich Hölderlin, Hyperion

"Are you seeking entry to engage in criminal or immoral activities? Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were you involved in any way in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?" (Some of the questions on the form in the airplane from Paris to Cincinnati.)

Band Name: AllerseelenGenre/Style: Apocalyptic Krautpop + Industrial Folklore Band Origin: Austria

Allerseelen did in June MMIII three live performances at the Pacific West Coast - on June 14th at Optic Nerve Arts in Portland/Oregon with Sacrificial Totem and Waldteufel, on June 15th at The Fenix in Seattle/Washington with Sacrificial Totem and Waldteufel, on June 22nd at Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco/California with Chthonic Force, Children of the Apocalypse and Waldteufel. The Allerseelen Mannschaft on stage was different from the European shows which are usually performed by the percussionists Axel and Mario (both members of Hekate) and Gerhard (vocals): Aaron (Blood Axis/Waldteufel) contributed passionate and apocalyptic bass lines and soundscapes, Markus (Waldteufel/Blood Axis) played his powerful pagan Schlagwerk, Michael (Blood Axis) contributed his unique Irish bodhran drum play for the two concerts in Portland and Seattle. The lyrics were presented by Gerhard.The recent Allerseelen double lp Flamme was presented to the public as well as the beautiful new Allerseelen Edelweiss t-shirt designed by Ajna. In San Francisco the new Waldteufel 10" Eines Gottes Spur was already available too.

Oregon

Arriving at Portland in the evening. Next morning already the first holy mountain during the stay of Allerseelen in the United States - the snow-covered volcano Mount Hood. Great weather. The building where a part of the movie Shining was made. Mountaineering up to its beautiful blue glacier crevasses. At Cannon Beach. The orange and purple starfish at Haystack Rock, a huge and steep rock, covered with green moss, in some way reminding of Machu Picchu. Little shells moving with the light and shadow created by my hand. In the pike-grey Pacific Ocean on a little island the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. Falling in love with lighthouses, like sanctuaries close to the wilderness of the ocean. Sauvie Island, an island close to Portland with beautiful garter snakes in the grass and the strange plant horse tail. Searching on this island for the mysterious Warrior Rock Lighthouse. Getting to know a young lady with the tattoo of three ravens in a circle that Blood Axis used during their European concerts in 1998, an emblem reminding of the label on the Californian wine Ravenwood. Visiting Heimliches Deutschland, the beautiful dark-green cubic domicile where Waldteufel lived for several years. A house like from the Californian gold rush one century ago. Painting and records, many books in German. A book about the mandala-like hex signs in Pennsylvania coming from Dutch and German immigrants. The great dark beers Black Butte Porters, Rasputin Stout, Terminator Stout. Visiting the Larch Mountain in the East of Portland with its beautiful view on several volcanoes of the Cascade mountains - like seeing at the same time three or five optical echos of the Fujijama, the holy mountain of Japan on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. At Optic Nerve Arts in Portland the concert of Sacrificial Totem, the Waldteufel live performance with Aaron on bass and the medicine man Markus performing ancient and new songs from the new 10" Eines Gottes Spur. The Allerseelen concert featuring Michael (Blood Axis) with his bodhran during the last three songs Wir rufen Deine Wölfe, Sonne golthi-ade, Als wärs das letzte Mal. Travelling to a small organic farm close to Old Blue Mountain and Applegate in Southern Oregon. Raspberries and home-made Raspberry liqueur, humming-birds, white and orange and purple poppy capsules scratched by unknown neighbours, the poison oak on paths and small roads. A cold and windy day at the beautiful Crater Lake, reminding of an opened black egg with a blue lake inside and inside the tiny little black Wizard Island volcano, like the black yolk of the egg. The Howling Acres Wolves Sanctuary in Williams, a wolf howling and mourning for another wolf that had died a week ago. A young Timberland wolf with silver hair at close range.

Washington

Travelling to Mount St. Helens, the second holy mountain, invisible in the clouds. The adventurous Lava Canyon south east of Mount St. Helens with its magnificent iron-grey basalt formations. The beautiful June Lake in the rain, a magical water fall, black stones covered with golden moss. Walking very close to this little water fall. The amazing Pugent Sound with the Olympic Mountains, West of Seattle. The exhibition of Charles Krafft with shovels and urns made of porcelain containing human ashes. Touching the beautiful and fragile porcelain guns and the charming hand grenades at his place. The concerts of Sacrificial Totem, Waldteufel and Allerseelen at The Fenix in Seattle. The last three songs of Allerseelen again with the bodhran of Michael, on stage three members of Blood Axis who once were not allowed to perform in this place.

California

The petroglyphs of Petroglyph Point - human figures, serpents, stars, waves, close to Newell, situated North East of Lava Beds. Close to it the beautiful salt lake in the South of Tule Lake. Green grass, a white and treacherous salt beach, blue hills at the horizon. For the first time another holy mountain, the immaculate white shape of Mount Shasta, so different from the landscape surrounding it. The black Glass Mountain in the Lava Beds - a mountain consisting entirely of sharp splinters of obsidian like black glass or mirrors used by the Native Americans for their sparrow heads. Lense-shaped silver clouds - some of them looking like saucers, space ships close to the border of Nevada over the Madeline Plains. Strange legends about gurus and saints and saucers in and around Mount Shasta. Somewhere close to Honey Lake a rock with petroglyphs and cupolas and some hidden caves. My first Californian Solstice. In the evening rose petal mead and Toblerone, the horn passed around to the participants, members of Ajna, Allerseelen, Waldteufel. In the very dry landscape there was no fire allowed. Just lighting a candle on the instrument board of the white Cadillac - the smallest summer solstice fire of the world. A beautiful night in the desert in two tents close to the car. In the black sky myriads of stars. At sunrise in a narrow cave with petroglyphs. The sun light created inside the cave on the rock a glowing orange triangle. It was scintillating like a sacred flame - almost like the Valknut symbol, consisting of three triangles. "Hoch in meine Hände atme ich dich ein/und zum Herzen wende ich dein ganzes Sein/hell in mir erglühet Gottes goldnes Tor/Sonne golthi-ade, hebe mich empor." (Bernhard Friedrich Marby). Some hours later, at noon, already being on top of another one of my beloved volcanoes, another one of my beloved holy mountains, the Lassen Peak in the Lassen Volcanic National Park. At the peak a chipmunk and a small camouflage tower looking like a lighthouse. Close to the top a crater with brown and black stones and splinters. Down to the valley in the snow. "Was noch von Krankheit/in mir schlief/ich riss es aus mit fester Hand/und warf es lachend/steil und tief/hinunter/ins verschneite Land." (Hermann Hesse). At Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco the concerts of Chthonic Force, Children of the Apocalypse, Waldteufel and Allerseelen. Children of the Apocalypse with some great beats and Persian belly-dance. At the beginning of the Allerseelen concert a huge horn filled with magnificent Ajna mead, passed around to the musicians and listeners. An almost endless journey back to Southern Oregon along the beautiful black volcanic coast of Mendocino. A magical wood of Redwood trees being that mighty that I thought to be as small as Däumling/John Thumb. Ascending several hours on mythical Mount Shasta, up to the frozen and invisible Helen Lake.

Gerhard, 22.V.MMV

http://www.theajnaoffensive.com/

Aorta c/o Petak, Postfach 778, A-1011 Wien

"Clamberers of the rock of the holy mountains, dreamers of the rose and the dew, of milken hill and vine of immortality, these are they that tell of the gay wisdom, of the true end of pleasure beyond becoming - who seek what is to be. (..) The search is to be known only to the seeker, it is not to be taught but only to be learned, and then hardly." (Austin Osman Spare, The Focus of Life)

JULIAN COPE: ALLERSEELEN

Julian Cope: Allerseelen

"The remarkable music of Allerseelen is a bizarre Teutonic-Iberian hybrid shot forth from the mind of the visionary Austrian traveller, photographer and eco-artist known simply as Gerhard. The music of this stern-faced be-mohawked Gnostic makes September’s Album of the Month not only because of its sound, but because of the manner in which it is achieved, and the entire lifestyle that goes on behind it. Gerhard’s sonic creations are melded together from various natural sounds captured at source (often beside a brook at an ancient temple or somesuch), plus other rhythm sections retrieved from various Allerseelen live performances throughout Europe. Heaped on to these rough nuggets of sound are massively inappropriate guitar riffs and orchestral samples that up-end the balance and conjure up in the listener’s mind a feeling similar to the degraded samples of the Mellotron, the viewed-through-a-gauze atmospheres of a DW Griffith movie, the epic-soundsamplescapes of Cornelius’ first band Flipper’s Guitar, and the multiple overdubs soundloss techniques found in early Phil Spector and Joe Meek. Imagine the organ solo at the tailout of The Shirelles’ “Baby It’s You” sunk into a piece of music concrete and you reach a similarly disorientating place to that which Gerhard’s Allerseelen muse inhabits. Combine all this with Gerhard’s love of reading old Hermann Hesse texts along with his own gnostic poetry over these meditations and you soon grasp Allerseelen’s heady psychedelic combination; one that conjures in the English speakers’ mind similar feelings to those experienced by heavy doses of Nico’s DESERTSHORE and Walter Wegmuller’s monumental TAROT. Within the music of Allerseelen, disembodied samples such as the Stones’ “Monkey Man” merge seamlessly into elements of John Cale’s THE ACADEMY IN PERIL, which in turn givc way to the mid-1960s Japanese music concrete located within the grooves of the AMALGAMATION LP and People’s 1971 classic CEREMONY – BUDDHA MEETS ROCK.. “Nest” is like hugely evocative Chinese strings driving a sample snatched from the rhythm of my old “Charlotte Anne” single, whilst the manner in which Gerhard repeats the chanted title of “Santa Sangre” Gabi Delgado-Lopez-style suggestive of DAF’s hyper-catchy “Sato Sato”. Gerhard’s real artistic power lies in its usefulness. His words reveal an intense need to fuel both himself and his listener. Like his music, Gerhard’s lyrical ideas are more of the same disembodied snatches of ideas thrown at us in a manner that is both suggestive, impressionistic but entirely complete. In “Feuersalamander”, the opening track of this compilation, Gerhard states (here translated):

“Still I was discouraged, a tired warrior,
But then, in that night in my nest, I was listening to music,
Took a certain song, powerful and dark - music like medicine,
Encouraged, cheered on by the sound, my power returned - Music like ammunition.”

Gerhard is always ‘in his nest’ because he is a traveller with an unsettled lifestyle – the itinerant poet/artist never yearning for warmth and the cosy hearth, but drawn on by the next adventure and project, as the lyrics of his storm song (“Sturmlied”) attest:

“I don’t want a pillow under my head,
No walking on soft carpets.”

In the introduction, I described the music of Allerseelen as a Teutonic-Iberian hybrid mostly because it also contains huge elements that are redolent only of the Mediterranean as seen through the lens of the Northern European traveller at large in the hot southern climate, complete with castanets, Spanish rhythms and titles (“Spanish Dancer”, “Marques de Pubol”), bullfights, even Spanish lyrics here and there. This is because Gerhard is dedicated to “drinking from the Castalian source” (as he sang on an early track “Kastalische Quelle”), and Allerseelen has performed at such outdoor theatres as Spain’s Teatro Romano at Segobriga. Furthermore, his marvellous album ABENTEUERLICHES HERZ – the vast majority of which was taken by me for this compilation – features Gerhard’s photographic celebration of Menorca’s taula monuments. Perhaps my only complaint about Allerseelen is that each track could be rendered even more useful as a meditational piece were it only to be four times longer! Indced, the main groove of the “Abenteuerliches Herz” title track could last 20-minutes for my satisfaction. But it’s hardly a complaint when yooz demanding more rather than less of an artist’s work."

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/1401

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Allerseelen Interview Obliveon

Allerseelen Interview Obliveon

Um Politik und Ideologie kommt man als Journaillist im Interview mit Allerseelen augenscheinlich nicht herum. Doch nicht, weil das künstlerische Schaffen Allersselens Anlass zur kritischen Auseinandersetzung bieten würde, sondern weil selbsternannte Tugendwächter in der Arbeit der Österreicher eine latente faschistoide Grundtendenz auszumachen glauben. Auch hier gilt, wie für viele andere Künstler des Neofolk- und Industrialgenres, die politisch stigmatisiert werden, dass sich kaum jemand ernsthaft oder persönlich mit den Künstlern direkt auseinandersetzt. Vor allem bei der Beschäftigung mit dem künstlerischen Werk Allerseelens müsste der unvoreingenommen Betrachter dann unweigerlich zu dem Schluss kommen, dass hier das völkerübergreifende, verbindende Element und die unterschiedlichen Traditionen und Kulturen viel stärker sind, als die entgegengebrachten Vorurteile. Die letzten Alben Allerseelens sprech hier durchweg eine ganz deutliche Sprache, und auch "Flamme", das im le!
tzten Jahr erschienende Album macht da keine Ausnahme und so entstand das nachfolgende Interview.

Alben wie „Neuschwabenland“ oder „Venezia“ entstanden unter dem Eindruck des Reisens; der Stimmungen, die Du an den jeweiligen Orten empfunden und erfahren hast. Was war der inspirative Ausgangspunkt für Dein neues Album „Flamme“? Der Begriff der „Flamme“ und des Feuers an sich lässt eine Reihe verschiedener Assoziationen zu: die Flamme der Erneuerung, die alles verzehrende Flamme, die Flamme der Begierde, die Flamme des Lebens, die Flamme, die alles zerstört … welche Bedeutung verbindest Du mit dem Feuer und der Flamme an sich?

Das schöne antarktische Neuschwabenland habe ich leider noch nicht besucht - aber vielleicht können wir ja eines Tages dort in einer Kaverne im ewigen Eis auftreten, wenn sich ein mutiger Veranstalter findet. Allerseelen ist immer schon ein Spiel mit dem Feuer gewesen, man merkt es manchmal, wenn wir in manchen Ländern wie Österreich oder Deutschland auftreten: Meist gewinnen unsere Flammen, manchmal leider aber auch das feindliche Feuer. Das Feuer kann also sehr schöpferisch, aber auch zerstörerisch, grausam sein. Antonin Artaud beschreibt auch Eros als einen grausamen Gott, der alles Nebensächliche verbrennt. Das Feuer ist ein sehr kraftvolles und vielfältiges Symbol. Schwarzes, scheinbar totes Holz verwandelt sich in goldene Zweige. Mit seinen aufsteigenden Flammen und göttlichen Funken ist ein Symbol der Überwindung der Schwerkraft und Schwermut. Die goldenen Flammen steigen auf und bilden ein goldenes Band zum Himmel. Allerdings ist auch die Gestaltung der Digipak CD "Flamme" ein Symbol für eine Reise nach Venedig und in die österreichischen Berge - ein Foto zeigt einen kleinen Buben mit einer Fackel bei unserem Auftritt in Venedig am 20. Dezember 2003, alle übrigen Bilder stammen von einem Wintersonnwendfeuer in der Salzburger Bergwelt, das einen Tag nach dem Venedig-Auftritt von Allerseelen stattfand. In den letzten Jahren sind Sonnwendfeuer sehr wichtig für mich gewesen, sie haben mein Leben verändert und mich zu manchen Liedern angeregt.

Was hat Dich musikalisch zum neuen Album inspiriert? Musikalisch, finde ich persönlich, sind viele Elemente aus Postpunk und frühen Wave Sachen erkennbar. Ist diese Rückbesinnung auf ältere musikalische Einflüsse eine ganz bewusste Entscheidung gewesen?

Die wesentlichen Inspirationen finde ich immer außerhalb der Musik - Begegnungen, Erfahrungen, Dichtungen. Bewußte Entscheidungen gibt es in der Kunst fast nie, zu oft zeigt sich, daß Dichtungen, Bilder, Lieder, auch einzelne Klänge eine Eigendynamik besitzen, die stärker ist als der Künstler selbst. Ein einzelnes Wort, ein bestimmter Rhythmus, auf den ich durch eine Fügung stoße, entscheidet oft darüber, was aus der ursprünglichen Idee entstehen soll, entstehen wird. So entsteht manchmal aus einer Hymne ein Liebeslied, aus etwas Lyrischem eine brachiale Klanglandschaft. Die Kunst ist ein Kraftfeld, das sehr häufig stärker ist als der Künstler. Wenn mich Musik tatsächlich beeinflußt hat, dann wohl andalusische Flamenco-Klänge. Ist es tatsächlich eine Rückbesinnung? Vielleicht im positiven Sinne als alchimische Verschmelzung sehr alter Einflüsse mit neuen musikalischen Erkundungen. Meine Musik erfährt jedenfalls eine recht starke Erdung durch die Verbindung mit kraftvollen, rauhen, auch rockigen Elementen, die auf der portugiesischen MCD Pedra wohl am stärksten sind.

Von Deinen früheren Alben weiss ich, dass sie lyrisch häufig von Rilke inspiriert waren, oder auch Vertonungen von Rilke-Gedichten selbst waren. Hast Du diese Tradition auch auf „Flamme“ wieder aufgegriffen? Wenn ja, bei welchem Lied und warum, wenn nein, gibt es andere Dichter, Autoren, die ihre lyrischen Einflüsse auf „Flamme“ hinterlassen haben?

Bei den Aufnahmen zur CD und DoLP Flamme haben mich verschiedene Autoren beeinflußt.. Manchmal ist es einfacher, einen eigenen Text für ein instrumentales Lied zu verfassen. Manchmal eignet sich etwas bereits Bestehendes viel besser. Viele verschiedene Wurzeln und Zweige fügen sich da, wachsen da ineinander. Das Lied Sonne golthi-ade zum Beispiel, das in mehreren Fassungen vorgetragen wird, ist ein Gedicht des deutschen Runenkundigen Friedrich Bernhard Marby aus seinem Buch Die drei Schwäne. Dieses Lied ist ein Flamenco - gerade dieses Stück zeigt sehr gut, wie gut scheinbar Gegensätzliches sich vereinen kann - nordische Mythologie und andalusisches Licht. Selbstverständlich ist der Gegensatz nur scheinbar, die germanischen Vandalen und Westgoten lebten ja lange Zeit in Andalusien. Das Stück Söhne der Sonne stammt von Hölderlin aus seinem Werk Hyperion. Aus diesen Zeilen ist ein sehr energetisches Lied von Allerseelen geworden. Hölderlins Text ("von ihren Taten nähren die Söhne der Sonne sich, sie leben vom Sieg, mit eignem Geist ermuntern sie sich, und ihre Kraft ist ihre Freude") klingt sehr deutsch und sehr nach zwanzigstem Jahrhundert, ist glücklicherweise aber um einiges älter - sonst könnten mir manche Gegner wieder daraus einen Strick drehen. Ich widme mein Lied auch den Töchtern der Sonne. Bei Als wärs das letzte Mal handelt es sich um eine Coverversion eines recht bekannten Stückes von DAF.

Wie und in welcher Stimmung entstehen Deine Lieder? Hast Du für Deine kreative Arbeit so etwas wie eine gängige Formel gefunden, nach der es sich arbeiten lässt? Bedarf es eines bestimmten Anlasses, dass Du Dich hinsetzt und Lieder schreibst, oder ist ein innerer Zwang, Dich in dieser Form künstlerisch zu verwirklichen?

Die Grundstimmung ist eine alchimische Lust am Schöpferischen. Es ist ein Genuß, wenn aus dem Nichts etwas entsteht. Ich liebe den magischen Beginn, die Leere.. Spuren, die langsam entstehen, die werden, die wieder vergehene, die sich langsam aneinander, ineinander fügen. Das Lustprinzip ist vielleicht das einzige Geheimnis zur Entstehung von Kunst. Kraftvolles entsteht dann, wenn sich Kraft und Freude vereinen. Ist die Freude da, die Lust, dann springen die göttlichen Funken leicht und spielerisch über. Meine besten Lieder sind spielerisch entstanden. Ein Gefühl für Zeitqualität ist sehr wichtig. Alexander Lernet-Holenia schreibt in seinem Roman Die Auferstehung des Maltravers: "Die Gegenwart ist göttlich. Der Moment ist der einzige Zeitraum, in dem die Götter sich offenbaren."

Welchen Stellenwert besitzen die Texte für Dich? Musikern, die besonders viel Wert auf textliche Aussagen oder die Wichtigkeit ihrer Texte im kreativen Kontext legen, wird ja häufig eine gewisse Kopflastigkeit vorgeworfen, hinter der die Musik zurück zu stecken hat.

Es gibt auch allerseelische Texte, die trauriger, schwermütiger sind, im Grunde aber schätze ich Texte, wenn sie etwas Helles, Heiteres enthalten. Musik soll ja Munition und Medizin sein, soll Kraft geben, nicht nehmen. Mich interessiert das Prinzip der Musiktherapie - mit Musik heilen, mit Musik die Stimmung aufhellen, mit Musik Zuversicht verleihen. Da ich ein einfacher Mensch bin und die einfachen Dinge und Wörter liebe, das Schlichte, Spartanische, fließt auch in meine Musik nichts Intellektuelles oder gar Ideologisches. Ich beurteile Menschen und Werke nicht mit dem Kopf, sondern mit dem Herz. Ich liebe die einfachen Wörter. Apfel, Herz, Weg - dann erst kann ich mit einem Text etwas anfangen. "Das Göttliche ist immer ganz einfach", schreibt Alexander Lernet-Holenia im gleichen Werk - wir haben einige seiner Zitate auf der Allerseelen DoLP Archaische Arbeiten abgedruckt.

In einem Interview mit Zinnober hast Du Dich auch dahingehend geäussert, dass Hesses „Narziss und Goldmund“ wohl Dein Buch für die Einsame Insel wäre. Ein Buch, dass auch mich stark beeindruckt hat, eben aufgrund der geschilderten Zerrissenheit zwischen dem wohlbehütetem Klosterleben und dem Leben ausserhalb dieser Klostermauern. Siehst Du für Dich selbst eine Verbindung zwischen Deinem Leben und der Hauptperson des Buches? Was hat Dich besonders an diesem Buch fasziniert, dass Du ausgerechnet dieses Buch mit auf die einsame Insel nehmen würdest?

Es gibt eigentlich zwei Helden in diesem Buch, der eine, der den weltlichen Weg wählt und der, der den geistigen Weg gewählt. Ich bin aber überzeugt, daß beide Helden ein einziger Mensch sind. Hermann Hesse hat oft über diesen scheinbaren Gegensatz, diese Zerrissenheit in vielen Suchenden geschrieben. Ich liebe das Buch, weil es so lustvoll ist, so mystisch und gewaltig und auch gewalttätig. Ich sollte es wieder einmal lesen, auf der Toteninsel wird es zu spät sein. Ich mag auch das Glasperlenspiel von Hermann Hesse sehr, das ich letzten Sommer gelesen habe.

Für jemanden, der über lange Jahre neben Jay Kay von Forthcoming Fire/Weissglut/Von Thronstahl und Michael Moynihan das personifizierte Feindbild der linken Szene darstellte – und vielleicht immer noch darstellt? – gibst Du auf Deiner Netzseite erstaunlich viel über Dich selbst und Deine Lebensweise preis. Warum diese Offenheit, macht sie doch auch angreifbar und verletzlich.

Ich habe keine Geheimnisse. Ich weise jedenfalls die Unterstellung, rechtextrem oder faschistisch zu sein, entschieden zurück. Es gibt keine politischen Aktivitäten in meinem Leben, keine Wehrsportübungen, keine Ideologie. Wenn es Menschen des politischen Lebens gibt, die ich schätze und im Zusammenhang mit Allerseelen erwähnt sehen möchte, dann sind es manche Gestalten aus der Antike und die österreichische Kaiserin Elisabeth, von der ich einige sehr schöne Auszüge aus ihren Tagebuchblättern auf der Allerseelen DoLP Heimliche Welt abgedruckt habe. Die einzige Ausnahme aus dem zwanzigsten Jahrhundert ist wohl Corneliu Codreanu mit seiner Legion Erzengel Michael, die als ursprüngliche religiöse Bewegung sehr kraftvoll war, allerdings verwässert wurde, als er in die Politik ging und immer mehr Anhänger um sich scharte. Meine Arbeit ist und bleibt die Kunst. Dieses Kraftfeld ist eine Angewandte Mythologie, sie bewirkt mehr als jede Waffe. Ich brauche keine geheime Waffenschmiede. Offenbar sehen das auch andere so, sonst würden sie manche Musiker nicht so bekämpfen. Ein Samurai ist dann unverletzlich, wenn er zur richtigen Zeit am richtigen Ort steht.

„Heimat ist eine magische Welt“ heisst es auf Deiner Homepage, wo aber liegt Deine Heimat? In Deinem Herzen, einem geographisch fest umrissen Gebiet?

Meine Heimat liegt im oberösterreichischen Salzkammergut mit seinen Seen und Hügel und Bergen. Wenn ich Österreich liebe, dann hat das natürlich mit dem politischen Österreich oder gar der einstigen Ostmark nichts zu tun. Heimat ist dort, wo Herzlichkeit herrscht - so fühle ich oft auch Heimat an Orten, die mit Österreich nichts zu tun haben, zum Beispiel in Katalonien, in St. Petersburg oder Oregon. Glücklicherweise habe ich Freunde und Gefährten und Kameraden in vielen Teilen der Welt, wo ich mich heimisch fühle. Gerade meine Liebe zu kleinen Ländern und Regionen wie das Baskenland, wie Katalonien, Korsika, Österreich, Südtirol, Slowenien bewahrt mich davor, totalitäre oder autoritäre Strukturen und Systeme zu verherrlichen. Meine Aufgabe und die befreundeter Künstler ist es, in einer feindlichen Welt, die die Umwelt zerstört und rücksichtlos Menschen tötet, weil es darum geht, fast food und soft drinks weltweit zu vermarkten, Inseln und Inselketten zu errichten, in denen andere Gesetze herrschen, nicht die Gesetze des Kapitalismus oder Totalitarismus. Das ist etwas, das mit Politik überhaupt nichts zu tun. Langsam gelingt das, einzelne Inseln lösen sich auf oder werden wieder kleiner. Andere aber gewinnen an Größe und Umfang, schließen sich zusammen mit anderen.

Auch aus Deiner Naturverbundenheit machst Du keinen Hehl und so entstehen Deine Lieder, wie ich gelesen habe, zum Teil inmitten der Natur. Welchen Einfluss haben die verschiedenen Landschaften auf Deine Lieder? Hat die vielleicht schroffe Berglandschaft ein aggressiveres Grundgefühl zur Folge, die Ruhe des Meeres ein eher besinnliches Gefühl? Eine besondere Affinität scheinst Du zum Gebirge zu haben (als Österreicher vielleicht zwangsläufig ;o) , wenn man sich Deine Homepage ansieht … was aber fasziniert Dich so am Gebirge? Dieses Monumentale, Unverrückbare? Die Möglichkeit, sich als Mensch mit den Kräften des Berges zu messen, ihn zu bezwingen und dadurch eine neue Perspektive auf die Welt zu bekommen?

Die Lieder selbst entstehen nicht in der Natur, das wäre technisch nicht möglich. Die Lieder selbst entstehen in meiner Dunkelkammer, es fließen aber oft Geräusche ein, die ich in der Natur aufnehme. Manchmal spiegelt sich in meinen Arbeiten die schroffe, kantige, schneidige Bergwelt, manchmal das sanfte, scheinbar weibliche Meer. Die kalten Schultern des Berges, denen es gleichgültig ist, ob ich in einem Sturm oder einer steinschlaggefährdeten Wildnis am Leben bleibe oder nicht, besitzt auch das Meer. Die Berge können sehr harmonisch sein, der Atlantik sehr wild - deshalb ist es nicht ganz so einfach. Landschaften bereichern mein Leben. Prinzipiell geht es im ganzen Leben darum, Stätten, Orte, Inseln, Wege zu finden, die Kraft geben, nicht nehmen. Das ist in der Natur einfach, in der Stadt sehr schwer - der gleichförmige Asphalt raubt Kraft. Es ist anstrengender, in einer Stadt wie Rom zehn Tage unterwegs zu sein als zehn Tage in den Dolomiten. Deshalb heißt eines meiner Lieder Steingeburt - Kraft aus dem Untergrund, aus dem Wurzelwerk schöpfen. Die Steingeburt ist ein Mythos aus den Mithras-Mysterien - Mithras kommt aus einem Stein oder auch einem Pinienzapfen zur Welt. Und es gibt etliche Mithras-Tempel in den Alpen, zum Beispiel in Ptuj in den Julischen Alpen Sloweniens, die noch heute zugänglich sind. Es gab auch in Südtirol mehrere Mithras-Stätten. Ein sehr schönes Mithras-Relief befindet sich noch heute im Archäologischen Museum in Bozen. Die Steingeburt - so geht es mir auch in den Bergen. Die Berge laden auf, erneuern. Vielleicht ist es auch die Menschenleere, die Einsamkeit, die so viel Kraft gibt, die Klarsicht, die Übersicht, die man mit den neuen Horizonten gewinnt. Auch Berge sind Inseln. Aber ich mag das Heroische, Pathetische nicht. Es liegt mir fern. Auch sind nicht die Gipfel für mich das eigentlich Beeindruckende. Der Weg ist das Eigentliche, das Ziel. Ich habe auch vor, zum Thema Erster Weltkrieg in den Dolomiten ein Album aufzunehmen. Auch das wird nicht heroisch. Ich verherrliche weder Gewalt noch Krieg. Ich liebe nicht die Stahlgewitter, sondern die Steingeburt.

Sucht man im Internet nach Allerseelen, so stösst man auf eine Vielzahl von Kommentaren und Links, die Deine Arbeiten stets in einen faschistischen Kontext rücken. Stört es Dich, dass Du als Künstler von vielen leider nur auf diese Aspekte reduziert wirst und Dir eine darüber hinaus gehende Anerkennung aufgrund von Voreingenommenheit möglicher Interessenten verwehrt bleibt?

Ich habe mich daran gewöhnt. Das bekannteste Lied von Allerseelen ist das Sturmlied, geschrieben von Ricarda Huch, einer vehementen Kritikerin des Nationalsozialismus. Wird diese Aussage etwas bewirken? Wird die Aussage etwas bewirken, daß das Allerseelen-Lied Sonne Golthi-ade von jemand geschrieben wurde, der in Hitlerdeutschland mehrere Jahre im KZ war? Vermutlich nicht. In dieser Auseinandersetzung gibt es auf der Gegenseite eben keine Gegner, sondern nur Blindgänger, für die auch Charles Baudelaire und Friedrich Hölderlin rechts sind. Letztlich nützen diese ganzen Kontroversen Allerseelen, sie steigern den Bekanntheitsgrad und damit auch meinen Einfluß. Glücklicherweise werden in diesem Jahr alle meine Traktate in den Schriftenreihen Aorta und Ahnstern - selbstverständlich auch die umstrittenen Texte über Karl Maria Wiligut, Otto Rahn, Corneliu Codreanu, Blood Axis und Burzum mit den Interviews -als Buch erscheinen, dann können sich jene, die wirklich an einer differenzierten Sicht der Dinge interessiert sind, sich ein unmittelbares Urteil über meine Arbeit verschaffen, ohne auf Ferndiagnosen ideologisch Verblendeter angewiesen zu sein. Dieses Buch namens Blutleuchte wird mit zahlreichen Fotos und einer exklusiven Allerseelen CD auf Ajna erscheinen und am einfachsten über Aorta erhältlich sein.

Hast Du vor diesem Hintergrund je Probleme mit der Zensur gehabt? Wie ist überhaupt Deine Einstellung zur Beschneidung und Bevormundung der künstlerischen Freiheit? Was denkst Du in diesem Zusammenhang von der Art und Weise, wie Alfred Schobert und die „Grufties gegen Rechts“ ihren Kampf gegen das „Böse im Menschen“ führen? Würdest Du sogar so weit gehen und sagen, dass die Methoden dieser beiden Parteien schon selbst faschistoide Züge in sich tragen?

In Österreich, Westdeutschland und der deutschsprachigen Schweiz gibt es manchmal Schwierigkeiten, aber der künstlerische Kampf geht selbstverständlich weiter. Schwierigkeiten mit einer Zensur gab es niemals - es ist ja kein Tonträger von Allerseelen verboten. Ich bin selbstverständlich für absolute Meinungsfreiheit. Wenn ich das Feuer als Symbol schätze, dann sicher nicht als Sinnbild für Bücherverbrennungen.

Was können wir, nach der Veröffentlichung der Single mit O Paradis und „Flamme“, als nächstes von Allerseelen erwarten?
Es gibt viel zu tun. Ich nehme derzeit etliche Stücke für die Allerseelen DoLPs auf, die auf dem österreichischen Label Ahnstern erscheinen. Die Allerseelen DoLP Sturmlieder ist eben erschienen. Die CD Sturmlieder ist seit Jahren vergriffen. Die DoLP enthält einige zusätzliche Stücke, ein Requiem für den Coil-Künstler John Balance und anderem ein sehr blues-artiges Stück mit der neapolitanischen Sängerin Gaya Donadio. Es gibt auf Ahnstern eine Holzschatulle mit diesen zehn DoLPs, die in den nächsten zwei Jahren vollständig sein wird. Ich arbeite auch an neuen Stücken mit der katalanischen Sängerin Rosa Solé. Weitere Auftritte in Europa, auch in Deutschland, sind in Vorbereitung. Im September werden Allerseelen auch wieder an der pazifischen Westküste der USA auftreten, die Mannschaft wird sich von der europäischen Besetzung unterscheiden, ich arbeite mit dem Schlagwerker und Akkordeonisten von Waldteufel zusammen. In diesem Jahr erscheint auch auf Ahnstern eine Holzbox mit zwei Weinflaschen und einer Split-7" von Allerseelen und Sangre Cavallum aus Portugal zum Thema Wein. Das Lied von Allerseelen, mit der Stimme eines Mitglieds von Sangre Cavallum, ist bereits fertig aufgenommen. Eine Weinflasche wird ein Allerseelen-Etikett haben, die andere ein Sangre Cavallum-Etikett. Wie man sieht, geht es in meiner Arbeit um Bewußtseinserweiterung, um Kunst, um Symbolismus, um Rausch und Traum und nicht um irgendwelche rückwärtsgewandten Ideologien des neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts. Meine Musik ist völkerverbindend, ich arbeite mit Musikern und Musikerinnen aus vielen Ländern zusammen, aus Italien, Litauen, Katalonien, Neuschwabenland, Ungarn. Schon alleine der Name meiner Gruppe Allerseelen sollte ein deutliches Zeichen sein, daß Ideologie und Politik in meinem Werk keine Rolle spielen.

www.obliveon.de/

Allerseelen/Aorta: www.geocities.com/ahnstern

Ahnstern: www.steinklang-records.at

Aorta c/o Petak, Postfach 778, A-1011 Wien

Allerseelen Interview Raunend

Gerhard, I guess we can start this interview skipping cliché questions about Allerseelen history that you answered so many times. What do you think if we start speaking about your latest album "Flamme"? Do you agree if I say it is the most melodic album so far? I can even hear you singing on a couple of songs... not the usual magical speech... I can recall you singing on "Gotos=Kalanda" CD back in 1992-94. I really love this approach to vocals and hope to hear more in the future.

It is difficult to say if Flamme is the most melodic of my releases as I usually am not listening to songs which are already published on a cd or vinyl. It is like a diary - usually I do not read the pages of the past. Usually I am listening to the songs for dozens or even hundreds of time when I just have given birth to them. Up to this moment they are my personal secret, I only play them to close friends and the comrades joining me on stage. Flamme and Abenteuerliches Herz are definitely the albums with most influences from Andalucia. I am singing only on one of the songs on Flamme - but a friend of mine, Josef, was singing on Flamme on two other songs, Sonne golthi-ade and Sturmlied. I have not listened to Gotos=Kalanda for a long time. Basically most songs by Allerseelen are very melodic in their mystical marriage of folklore and industrial elements. Even the really ancient material based on bass and violins and kettledrums had some kind dark tango mood. But it was completely without vocals.

Something that is very magical to me is the fact that each album of Allerseelen has a totally different atmosphere but in all of them you can recognize the typical Allerseelen style... This is clear if we confront the melodic "Flamme" with the harsher "Gotos=Kalanda". Where is the magic?

Even Gotos=Kalanda - the cd is sold out and won´t be re-released, but we are currently working on the re-release of the double lp on Ahnstern in early summer - is, apart from some violent industrial elements, quite melodic. It is strange that already this so "German" release with the Wewelsburg on the cover and the Karl Maria Wiligut love poems had some Andalucian elements in two songs, in Lenzing and Heumond - and a loop from the drums of Calanda in Aragon too.. So already in the beginning of Allerseelen, the tango moods of Astor Piazzola and several Flamenco musicians have been influential for my work. I cannot explain this magic - but thank you for your words. Even if I could give an explanation, this might not be good. What is typical for Allerseelen is maybe the fact that everything is based on loops, an eternal recurrence of sounds and symbols like a technosophic mantra which sometimes is able to hypnotize. Maybe the magic of Allerseelen is some kind of hypnotic psycho-acoustic quality. I love loops, they are my passion, and I spend patiently a lot of time on the creation and metamorphosis of loops - similar to the work of an alchemist close to his athanor. In a less magical context, my work is like Lego, the favourite toy of my childhood, I am playing with it passionately and patiently, a sacred marriage of passion and patience. I have a very surrealistic access to the modern world in art with all the procedures like sampling and scanning - it is for me like the gaya scienza, a kind of sacred science. Maybe this surrealistic point of view is a part of this magic. Music has something very seductive. It might be dangerous and intoxicating. Some are addicted to music. So am I. Sometimes I am able to listen for hours to just one loop, just one song. Maybe one day there will be the same warning statements on cds like on the cigarettes.

Looking back in Allerseelen's history, it seems clear to me that each album dwells with a particular concept. I don't know if we can call them "concept-albums" but they all were for sure inspired by a defined theme. What do you think about this and could you speak about the themes that influenced your albums?

Already the cassettes were some kind of concept albums - their concept was always based on the symbolism of alchemy and Northern mythology. I was always in love with Odin´s ravens Hugin and Munin. I often used the symbol of the raven which I found in a close connection to the black sun of alchemy. I refound this symbol in Mithraism. Maybe the first cd Cruor - with a Roman Mithras temple on the cover - was the only cd without a really clear conception as it was an anthology of many works which had previously only been available on cassettes. The basic idea with Allerseelen was always to create concept albums. My desire is that each release represents a microcosm, a condensed life, a magical mystery tour - it is not just a recording, it is also a particular period of my life, consisting of experiences, of sounds, of lyrics, of images. The records are like published diaries. Sometimes it is a document of dolce vita like the cd Venezia, sometimes it is rougher, like the cd Neuschwabenland or the 7" Nornar Nagli. Each release is a testimony of a viaggio, of a travel from one landscape to another one, from one castle to the next one, from one mountain to the next, from one live performance to the next one. That what music is about - it is a journey into a hidden world, into an invisible landscape, a travel in time and space.

Your latest releases have been inspired with no doubt by hot-blooded lands of the Iberic peninsula. The sound is very charming, warm and gentle. This may sound strange since Allerseelen brings the cold Austrian mountains to mind. What did you find there that influenced you so much musicalwise?

Actually I spent a lot of time in Catalonia, Pais Valenciano and Andalucia as Ostara, the former singer of Allerseelen, lived there for some time. So I spent a lot of time on the country-side in these parts of Spain, visiting dolmens and many other archaeological sites. Allerseelen also performed some years ago in Segobriga in the ancient Teatro Romano with other groups like Sangre Cavallum and Sol Invictus. Allerseelen was then joined on stage by three drummers of Hekate. I was travelling a lot between Austria and Spain. Also I visited various times Rosa and Demian of O Paradis. I was fascinated by the landscapes, the small hermitages in the wilderness, the eagles and vultures, the shepherds.. Of course I also loved the Pyrenees. In Navarra I made a lot of photographs of the beautiful svastika-like symbol which is in the culture of the Basques an omnipresent symbol of life and good luck - but the idea to use these for Allerseelen releases could make Allerseelen even more infamous in countries like Austria and Germany.. I have also been inspired by the North of Portugal. We performed there in November 2003, and I spent some weeks in the beautiful North of this country, in Alto Douro and Serra do Geres. I was travelling around alone and with members of Wolfskin and Sangre Cavallum. Some weeks ago I also recorded a wine song with the beautiful voice of Rangel, the bag-piper of the Portuguese group Sangre Cavallum. We will publish together a wine-red split 7" on Ahnstern which will be accompanied in a limited edition by two wine bottles, one for Sangre Cavallum, one for Allerseelen. A very challenging conception, we intend to publish this in autumn.

Obviously, your trips are not ordinary ones. It is clear that you walk a different path from the one of the average tourist. What are you looking for then? Did you find it? I'm sure your search will never come to end since you are truly a "free spirit".

My music and my journeys are always quests, magical mystery tours. I was travelling a lot in my youth with the sleeping-bag, hitch-hiking to Germany, Italia, France, Spain. These spartanic journeys influenced my life a lot. Also last summer when Allerseelen and Lux Interna played on the castle Burg Vondern in Germany, all the Allerseelen members were sleeping in sleeping bags close to the Externsteine which I used for the cover of the Stirb und Werde cd. I always love to combine concerts with visits of ancient sites, museums.. So Allerseelen do not plan to do real tours. I am looking for new experiences, I love art and I love nature, and often I am most excited discovering places where nature and culture meet. I hope that this quest will never end. I prefer to search and release music for the rest of my life. Maybe my quest might end on the island of the dead like on the famous painting by Arnold Boecklin - actually the Roman Cimitero Protestante with the tombs of Keats and Shelley. But my desire is to return also from this island with new impressions or to even return from with a new record.

During your carrier as Allerseelen, you used many different samples such as classic Operas, Iggy Pop, Kirlian Camera, Spanish tunes etc... How do choose your samples? I'm always enchanted by the way you mix different "music pieces". How do you create a song? Using different samples, means that you listen to a lot of different music. What are your favourite bands? What do you listen to usually?

The sounds seem to choose me - they decide if I have to like or dislike them. Love and passion are never real decisions. I listen to something and then I fall into love with a special sound, a special melody or rhythm. Basically it is not me who decides to fall into love with this or that sound. It is something else, some demonic or divine force. I spend a lot of time working around with my Lego sounds. Sometimes beautiful or powerful rhythms or melodies arise from this game. Usually the greatest songs come into existence very easily. In alchemy one starts with the materia prima, the first matter - in the music it is the same. With a good, dynamic, energetic basic rhythm, it is usually easy to continue working on a song - a "male" rhythm can tell me that it wants to be accompanied by a "female" violinist or the sound of flames. Or a "female" rhythm could tell me that it wants to spent its time with a "male" cellist or the sound of breathing. Sounds have a character, they come or do not come along with others. Sometimes I am listening for hours to one loop or a half-finished song, and of course in these hypnotic hours words or special images are appearing in my mind. I am writing then a text or searching in my archive for already existing words which I wrote or I also search in my books. At the moment I am listening to PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. Some of my favourite groups at the moment are Malicorne and Tri Yann from France, Tenhi from Finland, A Filetta from Corsica. I was given a lot of old folklore and progressive rock recordings from members of Sangre Cavallum and Sturmpercht who are both experts on this kind of music, so these sound have been inspiring for me during the last two years and also had some effect on several songs I recorded.

The artwork of your CDs and DoLPs are in general really well done. Can youtell about them and how do you create them? Who is Salt?

I am coming from the world of poetry, so I want my cds to have booklets or to be like small books. I want to touch something, I want to look at words or images. Usually all the Allerseelen cds have 16 page booklets. I want all the lyrics included, normally we include them in German and English. I am often disappointed by cds and vinyl by other groups. Salt is the spiritus rector of Ant-Zen. We know each other for many years - Salt set up the first concert of Allerseelen in Germany. Usually I have a precise idea how a cd or lp should look like. I know which images to use, which colour to choose. Each cd basically has one colour, one basic conception. Then I give everything I want to be included to him, and we work together on the design. We are also doing most Allerseelen 7" releases together. With the double lps it is basically the same - but as they are published on Ahnstern, I am doing the design together with M. Presch of Steinklang. In the past I sent everything by mail but now we decided to work together on the country-side on the design close to the mountains of Berchtesgaden. So I am grateful to be in the lucky position to collaborate on the visual aspect of my releases with two great artists. Our collaboration is a great synthesis, and I intend to continue my collaboration with them for the next decades.

The cover of your 3rd CD "Sturmlieder" represent Odin sacrificed to himself. Can you tell something about this beautiful image? If I'm not wrong, that beautiful sculpture has been destroyed. It was adorned with many Runes. Are you interested in Runes? Unlike many others, Allerseelen artworks have never been over-filled with runes...

I used only one rune in the Stirb und Werde cd. Yes, I love runes. I was amazed to see a lot of rune stones some weeks ago in the Nationalmuseet in Kopenhagen. Most images in the emerald-green cd Sturmlieder which is now sold out show Haus Atlantis in Bremen, Lower Saxony. This house was built in the early Thirties by the Expressionist artist Bernhard Hoetger in the very centre of the city, the Boettcherstrasse. I came across it when I did some researches for a travel to this part of Germany. These researches changed my life. On the facade of this house there was in the Thirties and early Fourties a large wooden sculpture showing Odin surrounded by runes. This was the strangest Odin statue I ever saw (unfortunately only on images) with its sad expression. It is so far away from any heroic or sacred imagination of Odin as king or warrior or hierophant or visionary. It was much closer to a mandrake root, an animal, a plant. It also reminded me a lot of the strange and enigmatic Max Schreck in the old Nosferatu movie. In the Third Reich, many Christian as well as pagan National Socialists hated this statue because it was Odin or because it was an Odin some did not want to see. There were also articles in SS magazines against this "ugly" totemistic statue, calling it "Entartete Kunst". So Allerseelen used some Entartete Kunst on Sturmlieder. Finally it was burnt to ashes - but it were not National Socialists setting it on fire. It was burnt to ashes by British bombers through air-raids in WWII which destroyed a huge part of Bremen. Haus Atlantis has now another close and infamous connection to Allerseelen - on January 29th, 2005, the adventurous hearts of Allerseelen wanted to perform in the Haus Atlantis which is still existing but having another, quite boring facade now. It is now a hotel owned by Hilton. I was travelling there with my bassist and drummers but two days before the event there was a large press article against the evil group Allerseelen trying to perform in the centre of Bremen. So the Hilton Hotel cancelled the contract as this live performance could cause disadvantages for the reputation of the house. Of course they should have been grateful to have such a group performing there. We were searching for another venue to perform in Bremen but unfortunately it was carneval time and all the places were booked out. It was very strange to see in the centre of Bremen thousands of drummers - but we were the only ones who were not allowed to perform. This battle we lost. Allerseelen could not perform but yet it was a great and intense weekend that we spent with members of Lux Interna and Neue Aesthetik. Basically the same thing happened in the first days of May to Blutharsch in Gabriele d´Annunzio´s Vittoriale. Recently we published on Ahnstern the sold out Sturmlieder cd as double lp with a slightly different cover, it still shows the Odin sculpture but it now seems to grow out of a dark volcano lake which I visited with members of Ajna and Waldteufel two years ago. This double lp edition contains six brand-new songs, a requiem song for John Balance (Wir tragen ein Licht) which we performed some weeks ago in Thueringen with a human skull on stage and another song, Vino e cuore, featuring Italian vocals by Gaya Donadio. With her voice I already recorded another song which will be used next year for the Venezia double lp.

We are seeing that you increased your live activity and you performed various times in Italy in cities like Venezia and Roma. I guess that it is not easy to reproduce live the typical sound... Do you like to perform on stage?

During the last years we have been quite active on stage, travelling around a lot like technosophic troubadours. With all the rhythmic and energetic songs and some great master musicians assisting me on stage - the two drummers of Cawatana, the bassist either from Graumahd or from Halgadom - it has become quite easy and energetic. Also it is not our desire to reproduce on stage the studio recordings. Actually I have been in a studio only once in my life which was a sterile and fruitless experience. I am recording everything in my nest. The live performances are very different from the nest recordings. Some of the Allerseelen songs work really good on stage, especially those with a strong rhythm. We performed twice in Venezia and in early February we performed for the first time in Roma. I was glad to spend some time in these beautiful cities. The image on the first Allerseelen cd Cruor was taken from the Mithras temple beneath the San Clemente church close to the Colosseo - I had been there several years ago and was glad to visit this temple again this time. We will use this Mithraeum again for the cover of the double lp Cruor. Unfortunately the Mithras temple would be too small to perform there an Allerseelen concert. I like this idea but I do not think that it would be possible to play there for archaeological reasons. Maybe it would be better to be on stage in Ostia Antica.

Your contribution to the scene with Aorta/Ahnstern have always been fresh blood for those in the scene who like also to read about special matters. Will you continue publishing your writings or it is just a dead chapter? Often, old article have been re-printed in fanzine or books. "Blutleuchte" seems to be the most ambitious project from this point of view.

I stopped writing the tracts for my two magazines. Yes, several people told me that these personal texts have been quite influential for listeners of industrial, neofolk and black metal - as I published in one of the issues named Oskorei also an interview with Varg Vikernes of Burzum. At the moment Ajna in Oregon and I are working on the book Blutleuchte which contains all the tracts I wrote in German and English. Several people, like Markus of Waldteufel and Annabel of Blood Axis, are helping me with the perfect English translations of my old texts - some of them deal with Italian topics too, one issue was dedicated to the octogonal Castel del Monte in La Puglia, another issue dealt with the Serparii of Cocullo in the Abruzzi. In the past I visited both places, sleeping there in my sleeping bag. I hope to go there again, with or without sleeping bag. Maybe we should perform in the Castel del Monte with Allerseelen. The book will also be accompanied by a cd with unreleased Allerseelen recordings which I will record in the next months. It will also contain a lot of photographs which I took during my magical mystery tours.

Your artistic marriage with Austrian label Steinklang resulted in the founding of the (sub)label Ahnstern. The most important and special project is the subscription box Ahnstern containing ten different DoLPs to be publishing every six months. Can you tell us a bit about this wonderful object?

M. Presch of Steinklang loves vinyl very much - or maybe it is the vinyl that loves him and seduced him to work on the edition of ten Allerseelen double lps in a beautiful wooden box on the Steinklang sub-label Ahnstern. So far we released four double lps. Two of the double lps, Archaische Arbeiten and Heimliche Welt, contain very old, almost prehistoric recordings. Flamme and Sturmlieder have already been released as double lp too. The next double lp will be Gotos=Kalanda - the cd is sold out, but the double lp should be available within a few months. I am currently recording several new songs for this release, some of the recordings are already finished.

Thank you, Gerhard for your time. Close as you will.

"Clamberers of the rock of the holy mountains, dreamers of the rose and the dew, of milken hill and vine of immortality, these are they that tell of the gay wisdom."

Austin Osman Spare, Focus of Life


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Aorta c/o Petak, Postfach 778, A-1011 Wien

Allerseelen Interview Herz und Geist

Allerseelen Interview Herz und Geist

Lately you are performing rather often in Italy. How is your relationship
with the Italian audience? Which is your favourite place, city or site you
visited in Italy?

Allerseelen performed in the last two years two times in Venezia and this year in February in Roma. We always had a very good atmosphere, either it was very spartanic, like the first Venezia concert or very dionysic like the concert in Roma. As usually I had a very good impression of the people I met or who I got to know during our magical mystery tours - which shows that obviously I am on the right way with my music. Music is always a field of force, and a live performance is a field of force too - if it is successful it gives power to the audience as well as to the artists on stage. I know and love various parts of Italy. I do not have a favourite place as Italy is a quite manifold country basically consisting of dozens of smaller states. But I have some very strange and intense memories of the volcanoes in Sicily and near Napoli which still are very vivid in my mind. I already visited Stromboli, Etna and Vesuvio two times in my life, the first time when I was still in school. I stayed over night in my sleeping bag on top of the still active Stromboli - which was a great experience.I also tried to climb into the crater of the Vesuvio which was quite a dangerous adventure - I got wounded there as I had there a small accident. I was also on the Etna and filmed there with an old camera, maybe one day we will use this footage for a volcanic Allerseelen video. With all these volcanoes which I visited twice I have special experiences and I intend to visit all of them again, maybe already this year. I was also impressed by Pompeji, maybe one day we are able to perform there like Pink Floyd did many years ago.

The last time we met was for your 2003 Winter Solstice concert in Mestre,
Venezia. How do you remember that special live experience?

This concert was a very special event. Allerseelen performed on stage with two boys from the Austrian country-side holding torches in their hand. The idea was to have - like in the Mithras ikonography - Cautes and Cautopates on the left and right side of the stage. But around midnight the two boys already were very tired, so they were holding their torches just for some songs. We have some very beautiful images of these two young torch-holders, one of this I used for the Allerseelen digipak Flamme (Flame) which came out last summer. This first concert in Venezia changed also my private life very much, I got to know a young and beautiful muse who keeps me inspiring with her beauty and wisdom. The day after the concert, my bassist Jörg of the Austrian neofolk group Graumahd and the drummers Axel and Mario of Hekate returned to their cities. I went by train to the Austrian mountains and had there a winter solstice fire with some close friends and the parents of the two boys who had joined us on stage. This was also the last concert with the Hekate percussionists on stage as they had decided to make some holiday from all the touring around with Allerseelen. For the next Allerseelen concert in Venezia, Allerseelen already consisted of the two drummers Balazs and Gergö of the Hungarian group Cawatana and again Jörg.

In his poem F. Nietzsche compares Venice to Music. In Ecce Homo he also
wrote: "If I try to find out another word for the music, I always find out
only Venice" It's for the same reason that you have released an album about
this city?

I think I could find some other words for music too, words like Vesuvio, so I could also do one day a double lp or cd about volcanoes - which might be a great conception for the future. I have been various times in Venice, already when I was travelling by train to Sicily to my beloved volcanoes in the school holidays around Easter or in summer. One day I had the idea to create music for this city with its surreal atmosphere which appears so oriental and yet is very occidental too - without knowing this quotation by this volcanic writer. Then I was searching in my books for poems and other texts which my favourite writers - Anais Nin, Hermann Hesse, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Rainer Maria Rilke and various others - had written on this insular state. In some books by Friedrich Nietzsche I then came across these words. I used his poem Venedig for the Allerseelen CD Venezia and recorded it also in italiano with the voice of the Italian industrial artist Gaya Donadio - this will be published on the Allerseelen DoLP version Venezia which we will release on Ahnstern around winter solstice. This song has already been published on the Steinklang Disco cd compilation which came out some months ago.

In your works you often use lyrics taken from Nietzsche poems. According
to you, which is the most important heritage left by this great German
poet/philosopher to posterity?

It is difficult to say what I should consider as the most important heritage by Friedrich Nietzsche. Maybe his misanthropy, his hatred against all kinds of hypocrisy in politics and religion, against all the beautiful slogans like democracy, freedom, humanity, peace which already in his epoch - and even more in the twentieth and twenty-first century - brought so much misery and pain and terror to many populations. I am fascinated by the power and violence of his poetry. I also like some of his music very much. It was published some years ago on two cds. I like his sentence in Zarathustra that you have to write with your own blood to finally find out that the blood is spirit - some words which were often misunderstood by those who have no idea about mythology and symbolism. He was a real outlaw, a real adversary of the modern world. He was in love with the antiquity, with Greek philosophy, and maybe this intense love and passion was the reason why he had to leave this world at an early age. I like the ritual which he describes in one of his letters - drinking some red wine with friends and sacrificing a part of the wine to the demons with the words "Chairete Daimones" (be greeted, demons). Nietzsche is not dead - he just stopped writing. Everyone reading his words is holding him alive. Maybe even his enemies hold him more alive than his followers - there is a beautiful sentence by Martin Heidegger that some philosophers are more successful when they are attacked by public opinion. Nietzsche was for me and still is a volcano which is never really dead - a volcano is always dormant, you do not know when the next eruption will happen - I am sure that there will be other eruptions by this volcanic writer whose ink were blood and fire. Friedrich Nietzsche is another field of force with a lot of corrente ad alta tensione. With each artist, philosopher, writer and others fall in love with just one word of his writings, blood-red sparks will flash over again and again. He was exploding at an early age, and the first part of this explosion took place in Torino. I already used various poems by Nietzsche for my songs because his language is so powerful and beautiful, so full of symbolism, at the same time very German and very mediterranean in the sense of antiquity. I hope to have some of his blood and fire and lava in my works. I think I had his Zarathustra with me when I was visiting Sicily for the first time.

"Abenteuerliches Herz" (Adventurous Heart) is inspired by the Ernst Jünger novel of the same
title. Whom do you recommend reading this book?

I am not just recommending this book with its surrealistic and sometimes decadent descriptions of dreams and flowers and landscapes. I love the symbolism of the adventurous heart. I recommend almost everything by Ernst Jünger but I am not sure how much has been translated to italiano. I enjoyed a lot his Eumeswil with its symbolism of birds, with its anarchic and at the same time aristocratic statements. Some of these statements I used for the booklet of the Allerseelen CD Neuschwabenland. I especially recommend Ernst Jünger´s Heliopolis with its symbolism of fire, honey on a Mediterranean island - this book may have been inspired by Sardegna where Ernst Jünger spent a lot of time. Those who call this writer with his many facets, with all his knowledge and wisdom concerning art, drugs, literature, nature and many other topics - right-wing or fascist, clearly indicates that they have no idea about this essential German writer. But again, here the same seems valid what I said about Nietzsche - many enemies, much honour. Obviously enemies are a necessity for an artist, a philosopher, a writer - they are the friction (attrito, frizione) which is necessary for energy, electricity, for sparks to flash over. Maybe it is impossible to write something of value in a torre di avorio? If I compare writers like Friedrich Nietzsche or Friedrich Hölderlin or Antonin Artaud to dormant, unstable volcanoes which so far only partly erupted, Ernst Jünger, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Hermann Hesse, could be eternal holy mountains with easy and difficult paths and subterranean caves for those who dare to enter them. The peaks of these mountains allows a much clearer survey of everything around this mountain. Volcanoes do not really have peaks, their peak is actual a vertical cave. The caves inside the sacred mountains might refer to the drug experiences about which Ernst Jünger wrote in his book Annäherungen - I do not know if this book about his adventures with LSD, magic mushrooms, peyotl and other toxic substances was translated to your language. Meditazione delle vette - I like this book by Julius Evola which I have in italiano. I once bought in Torino a book named Il regno perduto with various essays sul simbolismo tradizionale della montagna - but I still have to read this. So I am living a life surrounded by real as well as symbolic mountains and volcanoes´.

Why did you adopt the ancient poem "Vino e Cuore" for the new
"Sturmlieder" re-release on vinyl?

I did not adopt an ancient poem as I wrote this poem myself last year, inspired by some ruby-red wines. Vino e cuore is the Italian translation of my song Ob auch mein Herz so funkelt on the Allerseelen CD and DoLP Flamme. Some friends in Italy helped me to have a perfect translation of this poem. The voice on this song comes from Gaya Donadio, an Italian lady who was born close to one of the Italian volcanoes. I like wine and I like poetry, so I decided to dedicate a song to the ruby-red wine in the glass which appears from its colour and size like a human heart. The flame and the heart are for me essential symbols, I like to play with symbols, and very often the symbols like to play with me. Sometimes I am considering myself to be the heart of Allerseelen - but maybe I am just one drop of blood in the veins of an organism that I do not really know. Maybe all the human people are only drops of blood of one large organism with a heart named God or sparks of an eternal flame. René Guénon writes in one of his books about the symbolism of a heart inside a mountain. I am also thinking of recording this poem in other languages too, hopefully in Catalan with the singer Rosa Solé. I already recorded a Portuguese version with the bagpiper of the Portuguese group Sangre Cavallum which turned into a completely different song. This will appear on a special wine-red 7" edition on the Austrian label Ahnstern later this year.

The song "Wir Tragen Ein Licht" is dedicated to John Balance. Which is
your memory for this artist?

Obviously John Balance was another surrealistic and symbolistic volcano too. His zodiacal sign was Pisces, and artists who have this sign must be very careful when dealing with the fields of force they find in art and drugs. It was John Balance who introduced to me the powerful symbol of the black sun with ten rays, five straight and five twisted ones, which Coil used on their record Scatology. When I got this record, I fell in love with its music, especially with the songs Tenderness of Wolves with the amazing voice of Gavin Friday and Solar Lodge, and I fell in love with this black sun. Some days I went to a tattoo shop in Wien to have this symbol tattooed. This symbol changed my life. I told John Balance about another black sun - the marble symbol with twelve rays of the German castle Wewelsburg which Allerseelen used for the Gotos=Kalanda cd. Probably it was good luck for Coil that they did not use this symbol too. It might have changed their life too. It was strange as some weeks before his death, we were trying to set up concerts of Allerseelen and Coil at the Pier Paolo Pasolini festival in or close to Roma. I also got to know the Chilenean writer Miguel Serrano in a booklet by Coil. This writer changed my life too. I like one quotation by Miguel Serrano in his book El Cordon Dorado: "In this fight one does not change the side. Only during death one is offered a short rest. Because the fighters are eternal, immortal." I think this is valid for a dionysic and volcanic artist like John Balance too.

Anything to add?

"The price of existence is eternal warfare" (Coil)

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Friedrich Nietzsche: Venedig/Venezia

Stavo sul ponte
poco tempo fa nella bruna notte.
Di lontano giungeva un canto:
gocce dorate scorrevano
sulla superficie tremante.
Gondole, luci, musica –
ebbre si perdevano nel crepuscolo…
La mia anima, un suono di violino,
a sé cantava, toccata da dita invisibili,
segretamente, un canto di gondolieri,
tremando di felicità multicolore
- L’ha udita mai qualcuno?...