Liholesie
Liholesie is a dark ambient
folk band coming from Russia, a country with a great history and tradition
in music, that has offered us during the centuries some great musicians
and pieces of pure art. Liholesie may not be a metal band, however, they
have this feeling, this aura that I am sure will attract many metal fans.
So, join them into their world...
1.HELLO! BEFORE THE OFFICIAL RELEASE OF "PRIMEVAL
ROTATION" YOU HAVE ALREADY RELEASED MOST OF THE SONGS INCLUDED HERE ON
YOUR 2002 DEMO. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE COMPOSITIONS STILL HAVE THE SAME
FRESHNESS? HAVE YOU CHANGED ANYTHING IN THESE COMPOSITIONS OR ARE THEY
AS THEY WERE ON THE DEMO?
Hail! As for the compositions’ freshness,
I never asked myself such a question. Time isn’t of great importance here.
Besides, the quantity of the demo copies was very little. The compositions
virtually weren’t changed, I just changed the sound and added a part of
pipe into a composition.
2.I READ IN THE BIO SHEET THAT YOUR LABEL SENT
ME, THAT YOU ALSO HAVE ADDED SOME NEW SONGS. CAN YOU TELL US WHICH ARE
THOSE AND HOW LONG IT TOOK YOU TO COMPOSE THEM?
Well... These are North Spring, Early Storms,
The Ways, Primeval Rotation, The Holyday, Snow Realm. I’d like to repeat
that time isn’t of great importance here and it’s difficult for me to say
how long I was composing them. Some things were done in a day, and I worked
on some others for more than a month.
3."PRIMEVAL ROTATION" IS A CONCEPT ALBUM. CAN
YOU TELL US WHICH IS THE MAIN IDEA BEHIND ITS CONCEPT? HOW EASY OR DIFFICULT
IS IT TO CREATE A CONCEPT ALBUM WITHOUT USING LYRICS AT ALL?
To my mind, the idea can be understood from
the album’s name, quantity of the compositions, their arrangement and concomitant
visual line in the design. The album is dedicated to the thing that Nietzsche
called “the eternal return”, to rotation and one of its manifestations
– year. Spring as youth, summer as maturity, autumn as old age and winter
as death and rebirth. I guess I don’t need to describe it further… If anyone
wants to know more about this topic, I would recommend to read works of
Herman Wirth. It wasn’t that difficult to create the album, it was rather
natural. Separate compositions made up a whole picture, PRIMEVAL ROTATION.
4.A BIG INFLUENCE FOR YOU MUST BR THE TRADITION
AND HISTORY OF YOUR COUNTRY. WHICH SPECIFIC ERA OF RUSSIA INTERESTS YOU
THE MOST?
It’s difficult to say. I was always attracted
by tradition, mythology, philosophy in general, rather than any concrete
age. I could say it’s a period before and during Russia’s christianization,
but it’s not absolutely correct. Furthermore, there are many different
views on Russian history… And I don’t believe official history much.
5.ON THE COVER ARTWORK I SEE THAT YOU USE THE
RUNES. HOW ARE THESE CONNECTED TO THE HISTORY OF YOUR COUNTRY AND THE CONCEPT
OF THE ALBUM?
Whether Slavs used runes or not is an old
issue… I suppose that Scandinavian Futhark (that was used in the design)
is a branch of some proto-Indo-European written language, while Slavic
runic alphabet is lost. Sad but true... Though Russian scholar A.
Platov tries to reconstruct it in his book “Slavic runes”. The runes on
the cover are laid out into a circle of initiation, and further comments
are unnecessary…
6.STYGIAN CRYPT IS YOUR LABEL AND THEY SAY THIS
IS THE FIRST NON METAL ALBUM THEY'VE RELEASED. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT?
I WANT YOU TO TELL ME IF THERE ARE, IN YOUR OPINION, SOME COMMON ELEMENTS
BETWEEN YOUR MUSIC AND METAL.
I’m fully satisfied with STYGIAN CRYPT’s work.
After all, my first album is out, and without their support it wouldn’t
be possible. It’s difficult to say anything about common elements between
my music and metal. Perhaps, some common harmonies, atmosphere, if one
compares it with dark metal, epic black metal and folk metal.
7.HOW EASY DO YOU THINK IS FOR YOU TO REPRODUCE
YOUR MUSIC LIVE? WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?
I’m not going to do that soon. My individual
performance with synthesizer wouldn’t be of interest neither for me nor
for audience. Perhaps it makes sense to make up a band and perform music
on live instruments, but I haven’t thought about it seriously yet. So Liholesie
is merely a studio project for the time being.
8.DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY OTHER METAL OR NON
METAL BANDS? IF YES, CAN YOU GIVE US SOME INFO ABOUT THEM?
Besides Liholesie, I experiment with electronic
music. I have some material and many ideas, but can’t say what I’ll make
of it. A couple of mp3s can be find here: http://www.liholesie.com/svyatobor
9.DO YOU LIKE METAL MUSIC? CAN YOU TELL US SOME
OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS AND ALBUMS?
Yes, one can say I have grown up on metal
music, and Iron Maiden were the idols of my childhood. I don’t listen
to metal much now. Amongst metal bands I listen to, I can mention Burzum,
Isengard, Katatonia, Thy Repentance, Arcturus, old Hypocrisy, old Emperor…
But mostly I listen to neofolk and electronic/industrial music.
10.SINCE YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC AS AMBIENT, I'D
LIKE YOU TO TELL ME YOUR INFLUENCES. WILL YOU CONTINUE RELEASING SUCH ALBUMS
OR IS "PRIMEVAL ROTATION" THE FIRST AND LAST FOR YOU IN THIS GENRE?
I can mention late Burzum, Wongraven, Empyrium.
But everything I hear, read, and see can influence/inspire me, and all
this cannot be traced. My next album (it’s almost ready) will have slightly
another style, it’ll be more complicated and experimental a bit. There
will be live instruments, samples from movies, richer percussion, and a
bit distortion. But it ‘s the same Liholesie full of folklore motives and
mysterious natural atmosphere.
11.AFTER THE FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION, RUSSIA
SEEMS TO US AS A COUNTRY THAT TRIES TO RESTORE ITS FAME AS A BIG POWER
IN THE WORLD. WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT AND HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN COMMUNISM
COLLAPSED?
I was too young when the Soviet Union collapsed
to understand all the global consequences of this event. Today's Russia
is a state between capitalism and postcommunism’s remains. Each of these
systems isn’t healthy and natural, and their mixing isn’t better. I’m not
a patriot of the state I live in; in Russia which we can see today, such
values as blood, soil and spirit sink into oblivion. Perhaps, one day a
healthy national state will arise from modern Russia, but so far the state
is sick: foreign capital and absurd political correctness prevails, but
not the indigenous people’s interests. The same one can say about most
of European states.
12.I BELIEVE THAT AFTER SIGNING TO STYGIAN CRYPT
YOUR ALBUM WAS ALSO RELEASED ABROAD. WHICH WERE THE REACTIONS OF THE LISTENERS,
AND ZINES FROM ABROAD? ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK YOU RECEIVED?
So far I haven’t got many reviews from abroad,
and virtually all of them were positive. Well, it’s pleasing when your
creative work is valued and understood. But I don’t attach much importance
to reviews. The main criterion for me is my personal taste.
13.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT
BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Emotions are external manifestations of inner
feelings. So I’d rather speak about feelings, not emotions here. It would
be fascination, fascination by greatness of Nature. Don’t know about paintings…
perhaps, pictures dedicated to mythology or landscapes with thick forests,
wide fields and crystal-clear lakes…
14.WHICH IS, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHICH
THE WORST ELEMENT IN YOUR MUSIC? WHICH IS YOUR TRADEMARK?
The only thing that I’m not fully satisfied
with is the album’s sound. As for trademark, I’m not a businessman to think
about such things.
15.WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN COMPOSING A MOVIE
SOUNDTRACK? IF YES, WHAT MOVIE OR WHICH KIND OF MOVIE WOULD YOU SELECT?
Yes, perhaps, I would. But it’s difficult
to say what exactly movie I would choose… Something that I would like and
which ideas and atmosphere I would be filled with.
16.WHICH WORDS DO YOU THINK DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC
IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY?
Nature, Quest, Tradition.
17.THANK YOU! LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE TO THE READERS...
Kill ‘modern man’ in yourself!
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
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