Rosa Selvaggia #XXVIII, 05/2004
On the invisible front of winter
1. The new release of Kirlian Camera, "Invisible Front,
2005" should be out soon via Trisol. Looking back is impossible to not notice
that much, very much time has passed since the release of "Still Air". Could
you tell us something about the birth of the new record? Why did you make to
wait your fans for so much?
ANGELO - We released many records, in the past of the group, but a few albums.
This time, since the last official release of unreleased material three years
have passed, years spent to put ahead different projects: Stalingrad me and Elena
and Siderartica, only Elena. Meanwhile we continued to think also about a new
Kirlian Camera release, but it had to be something special, at least for us,
I mean the most beautiful album of our history. It could have been different.
We couldn't accept the opposite... the new record had to have everything we
were unable to realize in past. We needed maximum concentration and, considering
the times, this was not easy, so... we thrashed away the demo of an entire album,
a complete project (called "Where's the trick") and we started again.
Little by little "Invisible Front. 2005" was borning, without that we, at least
at the beginning, noticed it. We didn't have any dead-line. In the
same time we tried to play concerts, which ones, little by little, becoming
always more "indipendent factors". Again, I must say that we were changing
label and the passage to Trisol made us spending some time more than expected,
due the series of troubles that it brought behind for a little clear second
contract caused by debatable Italian-German relationships concerning
incomings report by show operators. Now everything is resolved more or less,
also thanks to the same label, but if this was not enough the mastering of the
final result took two months and more than sixty masters - realized in various
studios - literally thrashed away as they were not good, as the people work with
their asses, lately, notwithstanding that "professional air". Everything has
been very strange: more we wanted total concentration, more our days went bad
of our absence for their stupid request of attentions and... create continuous
problems. Then the concentration became denser, total, absolute, desperate.
We put a barrier between us and the passing days, trying to not believe to their
heaviness. There was a tremendous strength, that never abandoned us. We are
impreganted of it, now and... fortunatly or unfortunatly I don't believe that
we can return back. Also the psychiatrist got ill!
2. So it is an album that's a sort of new beginning...
how much different are Kirlian Camera from the group that record for Discordia /
Triton?
ANGELO - This new beginning started since 2000, year when we worked on "Still
air" and "Absentee - ep", in fact, sometimes, the monicker 'MK3' sided the
original name, just to underline that something, effectively, was happening,
even if with discretion. Today KC are different from those of '90s as they
are more involved in what they do. We were not 'distant' in that time, but
it was almost a solo project where three or four friends sometimes meet
together among dinners and some attempts. Saying this, I believe to hurt
nobody. In the '90s then I set the future of this group, with the help of
very good companions. Today I have the band of my dreams, that is a group
"in full time", trained, genuinely "romantic" concerning... passionate
extremism!
3. A very long way! Do you regret to have done
something along this road?
ANGELO - I regret to have given help to many idiot bands to see the
light. Too much envy, moreover badly addressed, as result. I don't know
even how some people can live...
4. Are all the problems that afflicted you recently
to be considered totally resolved? At the light of the current situation,
how is KC today (in studio, on stage, for label)?
ANGELO - Both I and Elena are the persons who manage to write music, lyrics,
to do arrangements and production, I mean pratically everything apart
the final mixing, that usually it's done by Elena only, who is able to
"put out" the sounds at their best. Then we have some collaborators to
be used as reference for what concerns especially the concerts and also the
little helps in studio. For the moment, on the stage we have Simone Mulé
(guitars and synths), Andrea Fossi (taken from Siderartica - synths), Lydia
Dumfeh (synths), Mia Karin Egger (synths) and others... In studio, now we
have short collaborations with Jarboe (Swans), Lloyd James (Naevus) and Patrick
Leagas (Sixth Comm/ex-Death In June) and the remix continues to
be done substantially by Simon Balestrazzi (T.A.C.), Rudy Ratzinger (:Wumpscut:)
and Leonardo Von Leibnitz (Y-Lu-Ko / Emotional Violence), when they
are not done by ourselves. Other persons are "behind the barricade", helping
with not official but useful sites, like Adalberto Orrigo and Enrico Eisert...
others quicken the mail when we are on leaving... Many people, then, but most
of the work is clearly developed by both of us, that go to sleep regularly
at the 4 am and wake up at 9 am. We want to manage personally everything very much.
By the way, Elena should open a label, in a short while, so personally manage
the bands (especially KC, Stalingrad and Siderartica), with my help. For what
concerns the problems connected to KC... The polical structure mixed and
balanced - in the worst way, in negative way - of the western world, needs
to frame KC and the other realities as "destabilizing", in fact, having values
and being not so "careless"... Today the finger is pointed against the heavy
entity, except if these ones burp every two minutes and are identified as
"third world sympathizers by convenience". Left-wing and
right-wing plays their game, in this: they were able to
create this situation, where if one thinks and even dares to laugh sometimes
he is dangerous. And they are right! They told us that we are here to corrupt
the "healthy european youth!!!". It's the delirium tremens, now... Or the
"omnipotence delirium" too, because this people is... a bit "almighty",
unfortunatly. I can only say that until a move like "Passion" will be accused
of antisemitism... we will have problems. And many.
5. Rumours say that the new record will be accompanied
by a good amount of singles; one of these in particular strikes our imagination
for its name "Dead Zone in the Sky". Could you tell to our readers which "the
dead zone in the sky" is"?
ELENA - The human beings bases their existance on dimensionality. Everything is
dimension, everything is done in a limited place, just in a dimension. The
dead zone in the sky, instead, represents a dimensional absence, that, sometimes,
could be perceivable by who is in hallucinatory states. Here there is no trace
of everything we are used to see. It's a zone that permeates of the form of
the souls of who is able to enter in it. It keeps the past and then the memories
returning nothing back. There is no return to life. But if weren't they be
only "hallucinatory states"? And if some people could see places that are sci-fi
for others? Then, the dead zone in the sky would be the border between science and
madness, it would be the threshold that goes over the impossible. All in all
the invisible front is such thing only for who doesn't want to see it!
6. Classic question: what there is in the future of Kirlian
Camera now?
ELENA - We will try to intensify at maximum our live presence and in the next time
we will extract a double album, available als in DVD and VHS as video, that will
be the first official live of the band. However for that project there is time,
because now we are very busy for the work behind the last album - that is
undoubtlessly our main goal - which will have also further musical developments.
In this moment we planned the release of two e.p. just related to "Invisible Front.
2005". The first one, "Dead zone in the sky" will be out I think in late Spring and
the second one "K-oroner's-Pax" should be released in September. All the new
works by KC will be licensed by the German Trisol Records in collaboration with
our private label United Gladiators Inc. and distribuited by EFA, Audioglobe,
E.M.I. for what concerns Europe, by the same Trisol in U.S.A., and then pressed
in Russia by Irond Corporation. Meanwhile, "Berliner Messe" is going to be
released, that is a short picture-disc vinyl single limited to
only 150 copies for the Italian Small Voices, that features two electronic
previously unreleased tracks made recently, but not related to the album; just
an extemporaneous thing, then. The official bootleg "Live in London" of Kirlian
Camera & Stalingrad is available in the merchandise stand during the concerts of
the bands since 5th March, date of Gent/Belgium gig. Then, apart, I'm finally
leaving the Masked Man a bit quieter, I'm finishing to mix the new album of
Siderartica titled "Shapes and colours from the land of God", that should be
out in September always for Trisol Records, with the distribution above-mentioned
for KC. Concerning Stalingrad, the new album will be out along the time, with no
hurry. We believe it will be released by the English label Cold Spring or with Trisol,
we will see. No hurry, however... Angelo and me worked a lot, in these last years
of relative "silence" and then, after so many recordings done during this time...
now it's the time to return on stage!
7. Please satisfy a couple of curiosities about some
songs: continuing to listen to "Still Air", one of the tracks that mostly
strikes us is "Helma nah' shmarr", that seems to mix traditional elements
with the purest kirlian-style. Could you tell us how that
song was born? What does it speak about?
ANGELO - We worked on this song and on the album you mentioned almost
like an exorcism of the climates of "Unidentified Light". We liked this
one, really... but I believe that Elena began to adapt more to the group
just thanks to "Still air", not liking so much the direction sometimes
"jazz-oriented" of the previous work. "HNS" was born like
a kind of a reversed mantra. It's not a satanic hymn, but it's full of
"obscure" meanings, as the world were seen by a negative sea and aware
of its own "distance". The words seem completely invented instead some
of them reports also echoes of names linked to the so-called
infernal hierarchy. It's like a prayer, a psalm of despair, full of
"reversed" beatitude, but not for this forgetful of the truth and the
light.
8. And in second place, recently you recorded
a cover of the early Pink Floyd ("Julia Dream", released on the sampler
"Songs for Landeric" of Cynfeirdd). Fifteen years ago it happened with
"Epitaph", written by King Crimson: a simply coincidence, or the prog
rock and psychedelic scene of those years influenced you in some way?
ANGELO - There were some musical passages, in the progressive bands,
that almost gave the push to the birth of this band. In fact, KC was not
born by American rock, exactly. The progressive bands were the first to
dramatize the new sound of the epoch, then there was some new-wave
even if with different concepts, then some example of 'new-electronica'
in the '90s. For the moment, to find something vaguely interesting could be
a problem with hard solution! I love Pink Floyd more than any other group,
however... even if the first album of the American Pavlov's Dog, of 1976, was
really good.
9. Angelo, you are on stage since 25 years with Kirlian
Camera and you lived surely not easy situations. Did you have a moment where
you thought to stop?
ANGELO - I had that moment twice, apart every time I see the face of the
idiots playing around. However, the first crisis was in 1978, because
notwithstanding I was very interested to the new wave punk-wave
I was not so involved in the nihilist spirit of the many connected to
that area. I had very "clear" values to put in music and, sometimes, I
felt they were not asked. Then I stopped to play for a couple of years,
because I was interested to that movement and the sounds coming from it,
but I hardly accepted the rules of the scene in the matter... Then Joy
Division released "Closer" and Ultravox released "Vienna" and I understood that,
even if I don't like everything of that records, maybe there was somebody
more similar to me and then I began again, also because what I was doing
was very similar to what those bands was playing in that moment and this...
impressed me and also bothered me a bit, AH, AH, AH!!!. The second time
happened very later, in 1999: I didn't want to stop, but KC was "going
out of my hand": too many pressures, stress, misunderstandings and, sometimes,
also little internal cohesion. I wanted to change the name of the band, but
Elena asked me to think better and this thing made me pleasure too... so
KC is here today, very, very motivated and united as it has never been possible
before, FINALLY!
10. Angelo, Elena, thanks for the interview.
Would you like to leave a final message for our readers?
ELENA, ANGELO and KC FAMILY - Give a look to Europa, the satellite of
Jupiter.
Oflorenz e i lupi di Winhall
English translation: Adalberto Orrigo