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Hails everybody!
Soon it will be out: our upcoming acoustic album “Evocation I – the arcane dominion”!
We have the pleasure to already present you the songs of the album exclusively here on our space!
Below you can find an exclusive “song by song” interview with Anna and Chrigel, which was done during the album listening session for the press at the Nuclear Blast headquarters.
So... nothing more to say than: ENJOY!
Cheers
Eluveitie
1. sacrapos - at first glance
ANNA: I wrote the melody for Sacrapos ages ago, it was actually part of the first material we had for Evocation. When we decided to use it as the Intro of the CD we came up with the idea to use it as an Outro too, making the intro minimalistic and dark and the outro bombastic (30'000 violin tracks and such ;-)). It's a good introduction to the CD because of it's dark, cheerless atmosphere, which was one of the main concepts concerning the sound and vibe of Evocation.
In search of a title for it I came across the ancient gaulish word "Sacrapos", which appealed to me merely because of it's sound and turned out to be the perfect word due to it's meaning: “Evil glance appearing to be holy”
Not only does it fit to the song, but is the word itself very interesting. It describes a feature of human behaviour in one word which doesn't exist in an other language even though this decisive attitude is in no way a rarity.
So once I had found such a fitting title I really wanted to write lyrics to it, something like a story describing Sacrapos. Initially there was no intention of actually recording any vocals for it, but when Alan Nemtheanga from Primordial had given his definite "yes" to contribute to “Evocation I” it seemed like a good idea to have him speak the text.
2. brictom
CHRIGEL: Lyrically this track is the first one of diverse songs in the same line - it’s an ancient gaulish text of magic, actually a cursing.
Well, this particular one is a bit special, since the text is a “bnanom brictom” - a female magical curse.
It’s probably noteworthy that the lyrics consist of an original ancient gaulish text. Same like all others on this album (except for “Sacrapos”, “Omnos” and “Voveso in mori”) - which is part of the concept behind “Evocation”. So, these texts are between 1600 - 2100 years old! They were discovered through diverse archaeological excavations during the last two centuries. Such texts were usually inscribed in small zinc plates, pottery (such as plates, disks or bowls) or tiles.
But back to the topic of cursing: This song here contains a so called “bnanom brictom”, which simply means “the magic of women”... which doesn’t mean that kind of female “magic” that sometimes turns our men’s heads, of course, but more a “magic/spelling practised by women”.
Interestingly “bnanom brictom” became a fixed expression in the celtic languages and survived until the middle ages. In it’s old-irish version (“brichtu ban”) it appears again, for example, in the famous poem dating from the 8th century AD: “St. Patricks breastplate”.
Musically this song is rooted in the fashion of traditional breton folkmusic - even if the song is actually not a traditional, but written by Jonathan Shorland (a welsh bagpipe player), Anna and myself. The music reflects the lyrics well, I think - not because it’s kinda “murky” (for it’s not ;)), but because of its archly character, which is typical for traditional breton dancing music.
3. a girls oath
CHRIGEL: Musically as well as lyrically this track pursues the “female spell” of “brictom”. Together the lyrics of both tracks give one coherent text.
Remarkable is Anna’s performance here, I think. Gaulish is actually a dead language, which died out in the middle ages. All we have today are scientifical reconstructions of it, which means that we’re doing pretty well in written Gaulish, but science is still in the dark about many aspects of the pronunciation of the gaulish language.
Anna invested a lot in a pronunciation as realistic as possible and also worked together with diverse scientists (celtologues/language academic).
4. the arcane dominion
ANNA: A basic traditional tune, actually the first song we created for Evocation. It's somehow mystical/dark, but also shows a quite indifferent attitude. It seems easy to listen to at first, but there's a lot of "not so obvious" timbres and voices to be discovered making the song quite interesting in my opinion.
CHRIGEL: I totally agree with Anna. The melody is a traditional breton tune again, by the way - an “an dro” (a particular form of breton dancing tune). So it again has this typical repetitive, almost meditative and ruminant magical character. The short lyrics are again taken from an ancient Gaulish inscription and are again of mythological and magical nature.
In particular I’d like to mention our second guest musician on this album: Oli S. Tyr from the well-known german medieval/folk band Faun. He contributed a beautiful and enchanting line on the long-necked lute to this track.
5. within the grove
CHRIGEL: Again a celtic traditional tune - one of my favourites. Here again we had two fine guest musicians on board: Mina The Fiddler, formerly playing with the experimental folk band Branâ Keternâ, contributing 5-stringed viola in this song. And Fredy Schnyder from the genius experimental black metal/avant-garde act Nucleus Torn (Prophecies Productions), playing the hammered dulcimer in this track.
6. the cauldron of renascence
CHRIGEL: A pretty aggressive whistle tune in a way. I wrote this tune closely to the fashion of traditional irish reels. Really love the speed and harsh ribaldry of that kind of tunes.
This is - besides a short, spoken text (from the same inscription as the lyrics in “The arcane dominion” are taken of) - an instrumental track again. But conceptionally it takes up a topic of Celtic mythology: The cauldron of renascence. This is a mythological image appearing in diverse Celtic cultures all over the once Celtic areas. Probably the most known example is the illustration of it at the “Gundestrup cauldron”, found in todays Denmark.
The “cauldron of renascence” is an immense kettle into which men that fell (or got injured) on a battlefield were thrown by a huge, mythological creature. After being “cooked” in that magical cauldron, those men recovered and got back to life again.
7. nata
CHRIGEL: Again the lyrics consist of an original ancient gaulish text - kind of a spell again. But this time this is not a curse, but more something like a desperate “love-song”. The author of the text was obviously in love with a young and pretty gaulish girl... which was unfortunately already engaged. Shit happened already back in the early days of ancient world! ;)
In this song we again have the honour and pleasure of having an illustrious guest musician: Again Alan Nemtheanga from Primordial performs his vocal art here. I kinda sing this song in a duet with Alan. The song is kept closely to the Irish tradition of “Sean-nós”; a particular celtic singing tradition which roots in bardic singing/story-telling.
Yet, the vocals might sound pretty “rough” in this song. The aim wasn’t to perform clean and perfectly neat vocals, but to express the desperation and the strong emotions these ancient gaulish lyrics emit.
8. omnos
ANNA: This was probably the song I could relate to most (apart from “Voveso in mori”) because we have an exact translation of the lyrics. It took a long time until it felt right and I knew what way to sing since the topic is of rather cruel nature. It's about a girl and a wolf... the girl wanting to sing songs and pick flowers with him and the wolf on the other hand wanting to play "bad wolf games" and "hunt the flower of her youth". I think it's quite obvious what one would interpret out of these words...
It was one of the last songs Chrigel wrote and I was quite surprised when he sent it to me at about 3 o’clock in the morning (two days before starting recording sessions in the studio :)). He wasn't even sure if he was going to come up with another song, but there it was... ironically one of the best songs on “Evocation I” when not even the best, in my opinion.
9. carnutian forest
CHRIGEL: Again a set of celtic tunes, the first one of being a traditional Irish tune, the second one being written by myself. Both tunes aren’t too dark or melancholic, but they create a nice mystical atmosphere, as it fits to the title of the track.
The “carnutian forest” doesn’t only exist in the famous “Asterix & Obelix” comics, but it was a real existing forest in the territory of the gaulish tribe of the Carnutes (which was located in todays France / Bourgogne). The carnutian forest was an important one since the druids of all gaulish tribes held a meeting once a year within that forest. Those meetings were mostly of socio political nature.
10. dessumiis luge
ANNA: This is what we call a weird song. The music is really adjusted to the lyrical concept, which is basically a really dark curse. The lyrics date from the time of the gaulish war and directs against Roman leaders. In the speaking parts you hear many Roman names, being the "victims" of the curse. Maybe not exactly a song you could listen to all the time, but made for saving it up for special moments...
CHRIGEL: Yes, agree with Anna! When I first heard the song (written by Anna & Meri), I though: “Damn, this is strange as hell!” But I was also really cool. To me this is really a “musical incarnation” of a curse!
11. gobanno
CHRIGEL: Again a (more or less) instrumental set uf traditional celtic tunes. I love this tune, this track for it’s mystical charisma.
Conceptionally/lyrically this track is also presenting an ancient gaulish text - found in Berne/Switzerland. This time not a magical or cursing text, but simply the introduction of a (eventually mythological) person: The smith of Berne.
In this track, we had again the pleasure of two guest musicians joining in: Again Fredy Schnyder (Nucleus Torn) on the hammered dulcimer, Mina The Fiddler on the 5-stringed viola and last but not least Sarah Wauquiez on the Zugerörgeli (Helvetic accordion): Our former Hurdy-gurdy (and whatever) player and Anna’s predecessor, now playing in the swiss folk/medieval band Schellmerÿ.
12. voveso in mori
ANNA: The concept of this song is sorrow and dark emotions, which should explain the slow depressed atmosphere of the music. I especially tried to work on underlining the sad musical features with my vocals, which I think worked out very well. What I learnt recording this CD is, that creating the perfect feeling with your voice is much harder than singing "good or bad", meaning in tune, powerful, etc.
The instrumentation is very minimal (compared to most other songs), it's basically a guitar song and it was my idea from the beginning on to keep the folk instruments in the background and only accent the guitars, nothing more.
13. memento
CHRIGEL: A set of tunes - rooting in the scottish and galician piping tradition on one hand, yet also coquetting a bit with typical medieval dancing music. The tunes were written by our new bagpipe player Päde (who is a great bagpipe player with long years of experience in traditional scottish piping); one part of the tune was written by the famous folk musician Efren Lopez (L’Ham de foc). I really love the song for its energy! Looking forward to play that one live!
14. ne regv na
CHRIGEL: The last song of the album - and a very melancholic, emotional song. In the verses the music is pretty simple (not many instruments playing) and “silent”, to focus on expressive and emotional vocals of Anna.
The lyrics - again an ancient gaulish text - are of magical and mythological nature. The title, a line of the lyrics by the way, means: “Not hunger I do offer you”
15. sacrapos - the disparaging last gaze
CHRIGEL: Well, as Anna already mentioned, the reprise of “Sacrapos”, serving as the outro of the album. The same idea behind the song, “the disparaging last gaze” gets by without any lyrics, having just the music expressing this dark aspect of the human character.
And so this track turned out very dark indeed. The music unfurls into an dramatic orchestration until it suddenly interrupts at it’s climax.
I really like it a lot. This track was written by Anna and Meri and I think, they did really well in setting the meaning of “sacrapos” into music and creating it’s dark atmosphere.
2 comentarii:
Great!! at last, a good interview! Thank you so much for posting this. I learned a lot of this amazing band. :)
Your blog is really good :)
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