First of, just want to thank you for participating in this edition of Infidel Interviews. Could you start off by giving a little information about both of you to the audience? Whatever you feel comfortable with, but name, age, what instruments you can play, and where you live would be pretty standard?
Greetings from Silesian mountains ( Czech republic ), which is north-west part of Carpathian mountains. We are Jindrich & Lucie, married couple for 16 years. We live in our house on the edge of the woods at wonderful place between two rivers amongst mountains with our three kids and many animals. I am 50 years old and I have played the violin since I was 6 years, so 44 years of music. Of course now I am playing mostly on synths, samplers, guitars etc. Our projects are Druhá Smrt ( fifth album on Sombre Soniks Studios label from England will be released this spring ) and A Most Accursed ( just recording second album , also Sombre Soniks Studios ).
Your music often comes from a deeply spiritual and esoteric place. When you hear the term "magick" what does that mean to you?
When I hear the term „magick“. Aleister Crowley defined magick as the „art of causing change to occur in conformity with will“, but he also defined it as „energy tending to change“. So I thought about this energy. It's art, like Crowley wrote. Magick is for me intentional act, which via transferring energy is able to create change in mundane world. Manifestation. But I don' t see „magickal act“ ( also ritual ) as isolated ceremony, rather more integrally like natural part of life-flowing. More like „tendency“. Way of life.
What sort of philosophical and magickal currents do you guys follow? What sort of impact does mysticism have on the actual physical composition and sound of your tracks, not just your image?
Current 93, current 23, current Sombre Soniks magick mainly, philosophically phenomenology, psychologically archetypal psychology... and our own current of course... we perceive reality to be imaginal, so the process in which in the consciousness emerges creates musical soundscapes like a stream in which can be explained through the process of attunement (Stimmung), which is related to what exactly the conditions of where we live, what rituals we are doing, and what psychological content just come from unconsciousness (from psyche better), via dreaming, active imagination, invocation etc. … musically more spontaneously in practice... when time comes we recording... always, musick already sounds in imagination... just now we finished short film ( video ) with A Most Accursed and it contains a specific ritual on the specific place, which was fundamental in this case...
Magick and Spirtualism are often seen as superstitious and unscientific to the uneducated. However, contrary to the popular opinion, there is actually deep current of Physicists, Philosophers, and Psychologists who have had deep interst, or even impact, on the fields of modern magick. What are your thoughts on the parallels between art, mysticism, and science?
For me, there is a fundamental connection ( fýsis and psýché ). I can not ignore the roots of culture, which is „composed“ from all of this complementary parts. I think the misunderstanding that occurred and occurs is caused only by superficial approach. Separation of art, psychology, philosophy and science. I see the "heroic" influence of Christianity and the Enlightenment. Hybris. Loss of holistic perception, which is primary aesthetical and ethical ( in Heraclitus - „ethos anthropoi daimon“ ) but that I think was always just a personal ego failure. Ambitions etc. Gnosis always remains, although sometimes like a „undercurrent“ in the „underground“ in hermeticism, alchemy, and mythology. For me especially all psychology traditions from Freud, C.G.Jung to James Hillman and also philosophy from Nietzsche, Heidegger to Derrida are the true renaissance of gnostic approach to life and death. There was important collaboration between C.G.Jung and Wolfgang Pauli for example also. Archetypal psychology from this point of view is really magickal. Archeology of culture. Resurgence of aesthetic, metaphorical, poetical thinking about man in the world. Return of the soul of world to us and ensoul our world now again. I read amazing scientific book recently, „Endless Universe : Beyond the Big Bang“ from theoretical physicists Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok, and I perceive very similar point of view like „eternal recurrence“ of Nietzsche philosophically and Hillman's „ the realm of Hades“ psychologically. So I think that there are possibilities for people who want to see wholeness.
Obviously mysticism has a huge impact on your musical creative life. What other aspects of your life would you say your path to peruse magick and mysticism have evolved?
All aspects of life. Life-flow is the process of evolving, and at the same time „deepening“. Musick like creative current which is expression of all what we are doing, what we are dreaming, all of our obsessions and possessions. Every next album is like a ritual, a step further into both depth and beyond the horizon. Overcoming self again and again. We like weight-lifting and hiking for example. We don't believe in a goal. In a sense we don't believe at all, but living, loving and creating is what we knows.
Are there any good resources, books, or websites in particular that you would suggest to someone interested in perusing a path of occult discovery?
I can recommend what I like personally only in the occult space. Favourites... Aleister Crowley „ Liber AL“ „The Book of Thoth“, Frater Achad „The Anatomy of the Body of God“ . Certainly Typhonian trilogies from Kenneth Grant, all 9 books. Andrew Chumbley. Michael Bertiaux. David Beth. Thee Psychick Bible. Stephen Mace. Phil Farber !...and more and more... especially I like books about theurgy and witchcraft.
As for your origins in music, you seem to have a pretty diverse sound. What sort of music and art influenced you growing up and helped encourage you to peruse to artistic path you have chosen? Are there any bands that you would say struck you with the chord that inspired you to peruse your current path of musical aspirations?
Oh. Very difficult question to answer. Musical aspirations.There was an incident that tells us that we started thinking about our project, Endvra end, which music and approach we like a lot. It's true, but we were listening to so much different music. From industrial , dark ambient, black metal to minimal and drone. I was in the eighties a singer in a punk band for example. In nineties singer in black/death metal band. But yes, what inspired us generally was ritual approach to music. Hybryds, Sigillum S., Zero Kama, Coil, T.A.G.C., later Endvra, Nordvargr/Drakh and other projects from CMI, Maeror Tri/Troum, Herbst9, TenHornedBeast... now Akoustik Timbre Frekuency, Viginti Tres Saecula for example... but we never think about some genre or specific sound, that we will create, because all music from the bands which we were listening was unique and we always know that. We don't create a specific sound of our projects. This is just how our projects sounds to us. It's similar like dreaming. People say : I had a dream. I say: psyche dreams me. So vision of sound is autochthonous also ( unconscious ), not only conscious. Of course there is also factor of love ( eros ). The sound that we ultimately like is our sound. So we must record... it's obsession in a good sense...
Within the band how do you guys define your roles within a track, or do you each have more specific roles within the band in general? I know that with modern bands and technology the "band role" has become more of a fluid concept, however this is not always the case. Sometimes having defined roles, even if only for a specific songs, or moments within a song, can help create fluidity and coherence. Where do you guys stand when it comes to each others role's within the composition of the music?
We are inspired by images, images in the broadest sense. Psychic images, words, ritual consequences, sounds in nature, what we see during our walkings in the woods...all this are images. Reality is imaginal. So I record musick, when I hear this soundflow in my imaginal mind. Lucie creates visual parts of this, and vocals, but sometimes it's otherwise...we're singing or speaking during rituals and words like images are in the background, a root, from which musick grows. Practically when I hear musick, I go and record. Together we are selecting and creating sounds. Together recording vocals, sometimes during ritual. All layers I record without using loops. I like when I play sounds in real time. Of course we use processing, editing etc. ...aaand important part of recordings is mastering , which is usually work of Priapus TwentyThree owner of Sombre Soniks ( label where we release our albums ) and great musician from Akoustik Timbre Frekuency.
What would you say would be you short term, and long term, goals for the band? Do you find that you two have to find a balance between your different directions and goals? Or do you work together fluidly?
Fluidly. It's the correct word. We are couple and we are together all of the time when it's possible. Goal not. Goal like „telos“ is maybe living like we live. Recording musick, live, love...we have no ambition than to participate on currents flow ( that's how we wrote vide supra ) that musick may have an impact to people. Memetic change via beauty and terror of musick. Like Nietzsche wrote in „The Birth of Tragedy : Out of the Spirit of Music“.
Creating still better recordings in all this sense. We also maybe hope, that if our musick could have the therapeutical effect for us, it could have it also for listeners.
Would you say there has been any major obstacles that you have had to overcome working together in this band? Not only working together, but also in general establishing yourself as a new independent band?
I think not. Although generally the situation with production of music isn't so good, like before 15 years when it was better. We are very happy. We are a part of Sombre Soniks Studios label as musicians with Druhá Smrt for 5 years and now also with our twin project A Most Accursed. We had the great fortune and we like where we are and where we are going...
Have you had any particular moment(s) that you would like to share, that you would consider to be a crowning achievement in your musical career so far, or moments that you would say truly continue to inspire you to pursue your artistic path?
I'd hate to be mean to sound trite, but we enjoyed each new work, album, compilation, video ( film )... but of course there were wonderful moments, every release celebrations etc. But quite honestly, we have never thought about success like success in career, we considered that we are on a journey that will not end and this is our approach... because it is real and wonderful life...
Playing live shows, recording new tracks, attempting to go live the life that gives you the experiences that inspires it all... it can be difficult to balance the time. Do you have any particular methods that you use to keep yourself focused or balanced in your direction?
Indeed ! Meditation and contemplation first. Focus and intention, concentration and ekstasis. When it comes, time must be found... although it's better thinking about it like „ outside of time“, it's possible to record at any time... personally I am recording often very early in the morning, until dawn, but sometimes all day and even night...when I have obligation, I do it in the „ zen state“ and I return to recording quickly…
Other than what you currently produce, what other sorts of genres, instruments, and sounds would you like to use in the future? Are there any people you would like to collaborate with in the future artistically, musically, or socially?
Some field recordings will be maybe more in future soundscapes, although they already are... In our project Druhá Smrt we are now ( and on the upcoming album ) more concentrated on string quartet/quintet sound ( still more cellos, violins etc. ) of course immersed in our soundscapes... and I think that this is what we like now very much... with A Most Accursed again sound is still more „guitars“ because we like feedback drone and ebow guitars also... and I want to be evolved in this way too... our own visions of both dark ritual ambient and mystikal drone ambient... but they are only „terms“... somewhere in background is common source...
Do either of you have any other musical projects that you are involved with, or do you have any other musicians or artists that you collaborate with in some capacity? If you could collaborate with any musician or artist, dead or alive, who would it be? And what in particular draws you to want to collaborate with them?
We are concentrated on our projekts, but on compilation Dark Ambient Vol.5 we recorded common collaboration track with Akoustik Timbre Frekuency and we hope that in the future we will together record something new... also there is collaboration with Fecal Fetal on Dark Ambient Vol.10, there will also be collaboration with Misantronics and Seesar I hope... and something what we can't write about so far...
Thank you so much for participating in this episode of Infidel Interview. Any parting words for your fans, or my audience?
We thank You very much for opportunity to answer on Your intelligent questions with deep insight. We wish all good to all who create music and to all who live music and to Infidel Network.
Check out Druhá Smrt on:
Check out A Most Accursed on: