Schwarzblut: I think that the subjects of freedom, identity and the celebration of diversity that go through the album are a reflection of the time in which we live.

Four years after 'Gebeyn Aller Verdammten', Schwarzblut returns with 'Idisi'. The group does not repeat itself but chooses to explore new ways with the new record. The depth of meaning and composition, however, remain constant. We witnessed that in our conversation with front man Zeon Schwarzblut.

Your new CD is called 'Idisi', a reference to the Germanic goddess of vegetation. Why this title and how does it relate to the total concept of the album?

 

The word 'Idisi' comes from the 9 / 10th century "Merseburger spells" (German: the Merseburger Zaubersprüche), written in Old High German. The first of these two spells is a "Lösesegen" (spell for release). It describes how warriors captured during the battle are freed from their fetters by "Idisi". We use this text for "Eiris sazun idisi", the opening track of our album. The "Idisi" mentioned in this text are supposed to be Valkyrie-like goddesses, possibly related to Norse mythology, where a dís ("lady", plural dísir) is seen as a spirit or feminine deity associated with fate. The Merseburger spells are the only known texts of the Germanic pagan faith that have been preserved in Old High German. We chose "Idisi" as the title for the album because of the reference to the eternal desire for freedom and as a tribute to the power of women in the past and the present.

'Gebeyn aller Verdammten' dates back to 2014 and was rightly considered as your best work to date. It took four years to come up with a successor. Why so long?

Our 2014 album received a good reception indeed. And because we never repeat ourselves, we opted for new ways for the next album. We decided early in the writing process to concentrate on the roots of the Germanic and Frankish languages. This of course requires study time and we have taken that time. In our search we found beautiful texts from the 13th, 9th and even 6th century. These texts have a sound and rhythm that are very inspiring to me. They immediately invited to compose music. The old languages and texts have an abstraction that works very well with the dark, vocal and rhythmic music on our new album.

We have noriced a great evolution since your last work. Where you used to choose hard beats, you have become much calmer on 'Idisi'. A conscious choice?

Idisi is an album that has been created in a very organic and intuitive way. With the arrival of Gijs van Ouwerkerk, we had three vocalists who could contribute this time. And that really invited us to use a lot of harmony and chant vocals in the songs. By putting the tempo’s a little lower, there was more room to let the voices 'speak'. We have experimented a lot in the studio with community singing and free improvisation. That has produced beautiful pieces such as "Eiris sazun idisi", "Die Zeit geht nicht" and “Vogala”. More than before we have also recorded organic instruments for the album such as violin, nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy and percussion.

Until now you mainly used German texts. The new album is much broader linguistically. We hear Latin several times, the first written (Old) Dutch sentence on 'Vogala', fragments of Turkish and Romanian, but especially a lot of Medieval-German. Why this diversity?

I believe that an artist is always influenced by his or her contemporary environment. And we as well. I think that the subjects of freedom, identity and the celebration of diversity that go through the album are a reflection of the time in which we live. Fear, polarization and propaganda are just as much part of the past as part of our present. Polarization always comes from fear, from not understanding the value of diversity. Lack of understanding stems from a lack of communication and connection. Music is about communication. Our music is our way of communicating and learning about other cultures and customs. For this album, Hannah Wagner helped us with the pronunciation of the Middle High German texts, the Romanian singer / actress Teodora Ionescu helped us with the Romanian parts and our Iranian colleague and friend Reza helped us with the Farsi / Persian parts. This process of sharing and learning was an enriching experience. I believe that having strong cultural roots and a sense of belonging to your own culture is a solid starting point to meet and explore other cultures. And because suffering and suffering is also a given in the world, we were not afraid to record a number of cruel texts about war and persecution.

The album comprises the 'Palästinalied', a song from the time of the crusades that has often been covered. What has driven you to make your own interpretation of the song?

On the album, this song connects the Western and Middle Eastern worlds, in the form of a 13th century text written at the time of the 5th Crusade. We have really made our own version of it by adding vocal harmonies, spoken lyrics in Latin and very intense percussion. The song also contains the majestic game by our German friend Georg Börner (Sangre De Muerdago) on the nyckelharpa. His medieval stringed instrument gives the song a mysterious and Eastern character. Hannah Wagner (Saeldes Sanc / Helium Vola) and Angelika sing these songs as a duet, which really gives the song a fighting and melodic character.

'Lied der Freiheit' seems to fit very well with the Schwarzblut concept. Can you tell something more about that song?

The text of this song is a poem by the 19th century Swiss poet Gottfried Keller. In this poem he formulates the concepts of time, truth and history in a surprising, new way. It was logical for me to put this text on music because it gives an interesting conceptual context to the old texts we use on the album.

To round off the album you use a poem by the Persian Sufi poet Rumi, after the German translation of Friedrich Rückert. The music also sounds very oriental. What did you want to achieve?

In a world where polarization and populism in the media form the issues of the day, we choose a different course. I do not own TV and use online media in moderation. As I said, I believe that an artist is always influenced by his or her contemporary environment. And that having strong cultural roots and a sense of belonging to your own culture forms a solid starting point for meeting other cultures. This song is such a meeting. The text of 'Ghaselen des Dschelal-eddin Rumi' consists of the German translation of works by the Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273). Rumi was the leading figure of the Sufi movement in medieval Konya. He philosophized about the benefits of tolerance. The meaning of his words inspired me to give this song a deep, Oriental sound. Partly through the use of Arabic singing by Hammam Al Sayid. The Rumi text we use is a translation by Friedrich Rückert from 1819. We already used texts from Rückert on our albums Das Mausoleum (2010) and Gebeyn Aller Verdammten (2014).

The collaboration with Hannah Wagner of Saeldes Sanc is in the spotlight. You already worked together on the single 'Virginis Memoriae' in 2015 and in 2017 with the EP 'Wildes Herz'. How did you get to know Saeldes Sanc and how did you decide to work together?

In 2015, we first released a split single with Hannah. She is a great talent and a very nice person. So while working on "Idisi", the idea arose to make a mini-album with her. After a meeting with Hannah at the Wave Gotik Treffen in her home town of Leipzig (D), she came to Deventer (NL) a few months later to work with us in the studio. When we were together, an inspiring work atmosphere arose in the studio. We exchanged ideas and suggestions to take the best of each other. I worked on the compositions and recordings of both Saeldes Sanc's and our own songs. I look back on this with great pleasure. Although you can send music files all over the world via the Internet at lightning speed, the musical result is so much better and more personal when you actually work together in one studio. And you can hear that on "Wildes Herz".

Do you already have any idea what the next step for Schwarzblut will be?

We have had two release parties in the Netherlands behind us. In the fall we go back to Germany for performances. Of course new musical ideas are bubbling up again. So they will also find a way to a next release. There is also a video clip for the song Vogala in the making. Keep an eye on our website and sign up for our newsletter. That is how you first hear what is coming on.

Interview: Xavier Kruth

Pictures: Xavier Marquis