2016-01 Noise Magazine Poland
How often do you get amused by someone's attempt to put Aluk Todolo's sound into the frame of some obsolete definition?
Antoine Hadjioannou : Quite often, especially because people tend to analyse music with references in mind, which lead them to compare us to other bands, and they get confused as we do not play our music with the goal to sound like anything but Aluk Todolo… This has happened since our very beginning when our music was labelled ”krautrock meets black metal”, which is probably a way to describe it, but certainly not a concept… We named our music occult rock, because it deals through all its aspects with the hidden powers of cosmos and mind, and that we play it with classic rock instruments. But then there was this „ occult rock” revival, so it got even more confusing. Actually we don’t really care, people are free to put our discs on the shelf between any other album by any band.
It becomes pretty evident right from the first seconds of your new record that your music is probably the worst enemy of the comfortable, established way of perceiving and qualifying it, refusing to adapt to usual terms and genres. Have you ever thought of your songwriting as an act of rebellion, refusal to play by conservative rules of nowadays music?
AH : This is true, from an exoteric point of view : we envision our music as an act of rebellion against the modern world, and we stand against the established mediocrity, since always and forever. But this never affected our sound-writing in any way, as we are focused on the esoteric aspect of things, ie the self realisation through art, leading to the bliss of enlightenment instead of the anger of rebellion. Also, I’m not sure that nowadays music is conservative, most of the entertainment, commercial music I am exposed to sounds super weird to me, very post modern, and very difficult to appreciate without cultural references, contextualisation, and most of the time irony. I guess we are the conservative ones, as we prefer analog technology, old gear, live recording, and to jam very loud in our practice space, just like an old rock band. And as for us, we feel very comfortable with our music, but we make it for us, to compensate for a lack. It's our own esoteric tool, that we build for our own use in the first place.
One thing, which seems to cling to what you do is a comparison of your creation to the act of painting. Whereas most of nowadays' guitar music seems to aim for concrete, structured forms, Aluk Todolo seems to take a different, abstract or even surrealist approach. What is the reason for opposing structure in your particular case? Do you, indeed, feel more like Salvador Dali or Pablo Picasso than for example Bosch or Brueghel?
AH : I actually never thought of comparing our music to painting , but maybe it would make sense to compare the act of painting to the listening experience because of the mental landscapes induced by the music? I’ve never felt like a painter while playing, as a drummer I have a more physical approach, and I’d like to state that what we propose is a sensation. Any subsequent emotion or vision is left to the listener’s discretion, so really one is free to visualise anything while listening to Aluk Todolo. I don’t feel more Dali than Bosch, and I guess it depends of who is listening and his own imagination, in the sense that our music works like a mirror. But if I had to compare Aluk Todolo to a painter I’d think of someone with a more vibratory approach, like Kandinski maybe. And I would not call Aluk Todolo „guitar music” either, it’s guitar + drums + bass, and even though each instrument has a specific role and place, we do not consider the guitar as the lead instrument. Concerning structure, Aluk Todolo is pretty structured and articulated to me, maybe in a way that you are not used to?
You've been notorious for recording your first two albums in locations far from typical, but finally ended up in studio. Looking from current perspective, how do you think it affected Aluk Todolo? Wasn't it like sacrificing a part of what you had used to be, getting rid of some untamed, primal energy?
AH : We indeed recorded Descension in a cave in the Alps, but we did it because the music required it. We try to always do what the music requires. Ending up in a studio doesn’t feel like a sacrifice, more the contrary. Focusing on the playing instead of having to deal with technical aspects of the recording is actually giving us more liberty. We took the decision to go to the Drudenhaus after having tried to record „Occult Rock” ourselves, and failed. Also I must tell you that the Drudenhaus studio is a very special place, It’s not a typical studio. It’s located far from everything, in the western reaches of France, and there is a very peculiar atmosphere there. It’s all analog. And the sound engineer is a very special person too, extremely dedicated to what he does. I don’t know many people who build their own quadratic residue diffusors, for example. Working with us was a challenge for him, as he told us, that’s why he did it, and he had to adapt his methods to our band, to find new methods actually, in a way to record this untamed, primal energy you mentioned: not only the sound of three instruments playing together, but also the vibration in the room, something „spiritual” that only analog technology is able to capture.
What did inspire „Voix”?
AH : Voix means voices in French. We knew we wanted to work on the inner voices that are present in our music. Something that is created by three instruments playing together, on a subliminal level. We wanted to unveil these voices, but just like these, the processus was subconscious. And step by step, Voix took its shape, by removing things more than adding some I must say. I realise there was no proper choices in the end, but revelations, as we’ve always been looking for a feeling of absolute necessity. It’s not easy to rationalize inspiration, and our writing method is kind of mediumnic, and not really conceptual. We’re in quest of something primordial, and we try to reach the very principle of a music that we think pre exists before its materialisation. In the end inspiration is also „expriration”, just like sound is the beginning and the end, the evocation and the manifestation.
I imagine it's pretty hard to repeat the experience immortalized on tape in live conditions with the music so far removed from song structures. How do you approach the concerts of Aluk Todolo? Are they supposed to strictly recreate the compositions from the album or you rather allow yourselves to take more spontaneous attitude?
AH : Every version has its own intensity, its own feeling, and interpretation is the beginning of improvisation. But, again, the music of Aluk todolo is actually very composed, and very structured. What you hear on the album is what we are playing live. The very reason why we recorded live and on tape is precisely because we feel more at ease to play in a live context, just like in the practice space, and we tried to capture this sound without unpure transformation. Some parts can be stretched up a bit during a live show, but it’s pretty much all written.
What do you, as a guitarist find the most challenging aspect of Aluk Todolo?
AH : I'm the drummer, but the main challenge is undoubtedly the same for all the members of the band : to keep silent as an individual and serve the music. Then it's all about vibrating together.
„Voix” is yet another album released in partnership with The Ajna Offensive and Norma Evangelium Diaboli. Bearing in mind a strong ideological or even religious background of these, do you consider Aluk Todolo to be in any way bound by any shared belief?
AH : I think it's no wonder if we ended up signing with those labels, and even though we never discussed so much about our beliefs, as we are not very talkative, I know that Tyler (Ajna) has a keen interest in Magick. He immediately perceived what inspired the artwork for Voix.
Regardless of not being bound by any particular genre, Aluk Todolo is still a name which appeals to the extreme music circles. Do you think your band can in any way benefit from that fact?
AH : I Actually never thought about that and I’m not sure I have anything interesting to say about it.
In one of the old interviews, you mentioned entheogenicity as the ultimate goal of playing in Aluk Todolo. This state of feeling a divinity within oneself can be also reached by contact with certain substances. Are they also involved or a necessary factor in the forging of your music?
AH : No, we do not use drugs. I took a lot of psychedelic drugs when I was younger and it certainly showed me the way to „spirituality”, but I don’t use or need them anymore.
„Voix” will be released in the beginning of February, two months after the new album of what I consider to be, in some peculiar way, your soulmate project, namely Sunn O))). You've had the opportunity to tour with Stephen O'Malley and both reside in the same country. Have you ever thought that there might be a certain link between both bands? Do you think that you could co-operate on a creative level?
AH : To me Stephen’s approach consists into transforming sound into a religion, and our is about transforming a religion into sound, so yes there is a connection. I’m not sure if a collaboration between Stephen and us could work, on first sight our respective sounds might no be very easy to mix… But maybe we’ll try it one of these days.
Are there any other contemporary or more „classic” artists you consider specifically influential?
AH : Outside influences do not drive the band, as I said we’re looking for a feeling of absolute necessity, so there’s no room for references, but we certainly can be inspired by some artistic approach and the freedom and devotion of some musicians. I for one love the band Magma. I consider Christian Vander as my master, and I often dream about him. I had this dream once, he appeared to me as Injun Joe from Tom Sawyer, but I knew it was him. He was holding a black sphere in his hands and said : ''now look at this'' then he closed his hands, and when he opened them again, there was no more sphere but a black pyramid. I understood later that it was a teaching about Hemiolas. He is indeed specially influential to me.
The stakes for the new Aluk Todolo record are high and should with no doubt be followed by a touring schedule. Do you already have any idea how this will look?
AH : We’ll play Russia in march for the first time, then we’ll have a few shows in Europe in April, before a small tour in June, including Funkenflug solstice ceremony in Austria. We hope Poland will be in the routing as our few shows there stay memorable to us (Krakow and Wroclaw Industrial Festival). After that, we’ll try to go on the US west coast at fall. I hope it works out.
Year after year, the consciousness of Aluk Todolo is getting higher. You are cited as an inspiration by an ever-increasing number of artists, the name of your band is displayed by the press in different summaries of the most expected releases, etc. Do you experience your rising popularity on a regular basis? Is there, on the other hand, a group of people who are rather unwelcome in your artistic realm?
AH : I didn’t notice any spectacular rising of our popularity. We’re doing Aluk Todolo since a bit more than ten years now, so to me our popularity seems pretty slow to rise. But our music is certainly challenging for the listener, and we’ll never do any compromise to please any audience. So I guess our band is never going to become extremely popular or mainstream, which in any case is not something we aim for. But despite the hermetic aspect of Aluk Todolo, we naively believe that anyone with an open mind can enjoy it, and everybody is welcome to listen to our band.
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