Set up in early 2005 by Sathorys Elenorth, Der Blaue Reiter this year released its…
Set up in early 2005 by Sathorys Elenorth, Der Blaue Reiter this year
released its sixth full length album “United, Yet Divided”. Originally set up
as a duo, Lady Nott left the band after the fourth full length and got replaced
by Cecilia Bjärgo (Arcana, Sophia). The Catalan – Swedish duo joined hands together
with Dark Vinyl Records to unleash their most intimate, accomplished… and
political album to date. It also is an artistic fusion between different
influences such as martial, ambient, neo-folk and ‘chanson’. I got in touch
with both protagonists to get more info about this great work.
Q: Even if “United, Yet Divided” is Der Blaue Reiter’s sixth album to
date, I can imagine it always is something particular. How do you look back at
the composing process of the album and the ‘chemistry’ between Sathorys and
Cecilia?
Sathorys: Even when we are talking about the sixth album of the band,
for us, this one and in many ways means an important point in the Der Blaue
Reiter’s history because somehow we needed something new to show for this new
chapter. So for quite a long time we were focused on this music goal and
finally we are glad to show this new step impregnated with new sonorities made
with analogue synths, cinematic percussions, but also another chapter from the
human history from the point of view of the Der Blaue Reiter concept.
Of course there’s a perfect chemistry between Cecilia and me and it’s so
easy to work with her because she is in my opinion one of the most professional
musicians inside this scene and we’re glad to share this music adventure
together.
Cecilia: From the beginning on, it has been very smooth working with
Sathorys. We communicate well and we give each other ideas that will be carried
out into the process. Sathorys is a musical genius and virtuous and I couldn’t
be more proud and honored, working with him. For the process, he always use
working names for the songs, and other I use that title to spin off the lyrics.
Sometimes I have my own view and he is happy to adapt it. Even being in two
different countries, the working process always go great.
Q: Der Blaue Reiter always has liked to work around concepts and it’s
not that different for “United, Yet Divided” on, which the themes and lyrics
are essential to seize the dystopian vision of our world in between 1945 and
1990. Tell us a bit more about the concept and the different subjects you’ve
chosen? What did you try to express?
Cecilia: The thoughts of the Cold War came even before that album, so I
had ideas for lyrics a long time before. That era, the Cold War era, is
fascinating. It was the truth of Europe when I was born 50 years ago. I
experienced the fall of the Berlin wall through television. I have friends who
was there in real life. The lyrics and music is not taking a political side, we
are not looking for any discussions about what was right or wrong. All lyrics
are based upon facts and historical sources. When it comes to the subjects we
chose, as you put it: it was in a chronological order of events that made a
mark in history. From start we also planned to have lyrics for the Cuba crisis,
the independent Sweden and the fall of the Romanian leader Ceausescu. But an
album can’t be too long, hehe, and the instrumental songs need titles. So the
lyrics are saved in my computer.
Q: History never has been that present in an album of Der Blaue Reiter,
which I can imagine also reveals a real fascination for these different
historic subjects. How do you prepare these subjects and how do you finally
manage to transpose all the ideas into sound?
Sathorys: I’m agree with you, Der Blaue Reiter is not only music, for us
the concept of each album is the most important part of all the composition
process. For this reason before each new album we like to think about what we want
to communicate to our audience with each song, and how we can show it across
our music. In this last album Cecilia was the person behind the concept
inspired in the Cold War, and then I made the music following all her ideas
until finally music and concept were one and this new chapter came.
Cecilia: Being a history teacher, I am fascinated about certain times
and eras. The last album had The Great War as kind of a theme and now it was
time for another one. Since Sathorys make all the music, which he sends to me
and I can make an input on what to evolve or reduce, I will handle the lyrics.
I often write about anything, all the time. So for this album I had almost
every lyric done before the music. Of course it had to be changed a bit, in
order to be transposed into the music. I had to narrow down a bit of history,
hehe. But the concept was remained and in the end, we are both very happy with
the outcome.
Q: The song “Death To The Tyrant” has something special as it deals
about Spain and the years under the Caudillo regime. How do you (Sath) as a
Spanish (or should I say Catalonian?) citizen look back at these years of
totalitarianism and how do you see your ‘country’ today?
Sathorys: I consider myself a Catalan citizen, not for anything related
to sophisticated or radical political ideas, that is because I love my
language, my culture and my traditions. But I have family and close friends
outside of Catalonia and I also respect their ideas. That is the meaning of
democracy, right? As well as respect and freedom. But we can’t forget the sad
past of Spain during the Franco’s dictatorship where many innocent people died… For this reason we decided to add this song like a memorandum of all
this victims and their families.
And secondly, the current situation of Spain becomes every day worse, in
a supposed democracy where we lose our rights to express, or decide, our own
future and the right wing is rising in many parts of the country and conquering
an important part of the power. So we’ll see what happens. But to be honest,
I’m not enthusiastic about our near future…
Q: Back to the album, which according to me sounds as the offspring
between numerous influences. There’s an interesting duality between
epic/bombastic arrangements and refined neo-classic like passages, but still a
work that sounds more ‘intimate’ and into ‘chanson’. I don’t want to compare
you with bands such as Rome and Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, but I think there’s a
similar and interesting evolution in the global sound approach. How do you
perceive this evolution and the impact of Cecilia?
Sathorys: Of course is true that Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio or for example
Predella Avant were two of my main influences when I decided to create Der
Blaue Reiter. I respect both bands and they are part of my music heart
nowadays, but sometimes it is difficult for me to understand when some people
or zines compare their music with Der Blaue Reiter. Because in my opinion Der
Blaue Reiter have a very different sonority even when both are using spoken word
as vocal way.
After six albums Der Blaue Reiter have a very personal mixture between
cinematic ambiences and powerful atmosphere, which is very different compared
to the mentioned bands. It is not better, but sure different in many ways as
music concept, instruments we are using, different clothes, different kind of
performances…
The impact of Cecilia was so important in this natural evolution because
now the lyrics and the music speak the same language and we add different kind
of influences inside the band, something fabulous in my opinion.
Q: The album is also available as a vinyl edition. I noticed more and
more artists are getting back to the vinyl format. How do you see this ‘move
back’ and the global evolution over the years –from cassette and vinyl formats
towards CD towards streaming etc? I’m afraid the music business became a bit
dystopian as well, don’t you think?
Sathorys: In my opinion this return to the past was
something necessary to save the music business. With Spotify and the digital
era lot of labels decided to invest less in their releases because they were
losing a lot of money when an important part of the customers prefer to pay ten
euros a month to have all music with only a click on their computer or cell
phone.
The vinyl is the most romantic representation of the
music, with a special sonority and reason to pay some money to buy a copy in a
nice collector’s edition. I don’t know if that’s good or not for the music
because at the end all is pure business, but if you ask me, I prefer a vinyl
than an MP3.
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