‘Froxeanne’ and Diego Merletto are involved with The Frozen Autumn since 1996 although the band was set up in 1993. They became one of the most famous and internationally recognized new-wave/gothic formation from Italy. They define their sound as ‘frozen wave’ and has recently unleashed their newest opus “The Fellow Traveller” on Echozone (for Europe) and Metropolis (for the US). The new work is a well-crafted composition carried by melancholic atmospheres and poppy melody lines. I’d a chat with the band.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: The Frozen Autumn is not exactly releasing new albums on a regular basis so how do you feel about the new work “The Fellow Traveller” and what kind of album is it all about?

The Frozen Autumn: Well, it depends on what you mean by saying ‘at a regular basis’; if that means every year, well no, we don’t. We’ve never stopped making music with The Frozen Autumn since 1993, but we don’t feel the urge to follow a release-schedule shaped on a mainstream model for which musicians should issue something as frequently as possible just to please the market, even if, artistically speaking, they have nothing new to say, or they are not ready to say it.

Moreover, nowadays in our scene, new and old bands sometimes get glorified (rightly or wrongly) after having released just a couple of 45 inches vinyls altogether, so the concept of releasing albums on a regular basis, if not releasing albums tout-court, now has just a very relative meaning, especially when defining an alternative artist’s activity and value.

We absolutely love “The Fellow Traveller”, needless to say. What kind of album is it? The kind of album you spend years to work on, so that no detail gets neglected.

Q: Your music has been always characterized by melancholia although your sound remains hard to define. It all feels like the emotional content is much more important that the music style! How does it feel for you and what are the main themes running through “The Fellow Traveller”?

The Frozen Autumn: We’re original, that’s for sure. We’ve worked hard and we were able to develop our own style through the years, so that our sound is totally recognizable, though versatile so that’s why you cannot really label it. We love to call it ‘frozen wave’ btw, so feel free to use that term too. We don’t know whether the emotional content takes over the music, we just know that we do what we like to do, the way we know best, with honesty. The main theme is the ‘travel’: in space, in time, through non-lieux, through dimensions, through life, through galaxies, in dreams, a metaphysical travel too. And having worked and toured together for more than 2 decades now, we can well define ourselves ‘fellow travellers’.

Q: It took you a few years to write and accomplish this new album. What have been the main difficulties you encountered during the entire process?

The Frozen Autumn: Rome wasn’t built in a day. We released the EP “Lie In Wait” in December 2014 and we finished “The Fellow Traveller” at the end of 2016. Then we had to prepare the graphics and technical details and finally the release was delayed to November 2017 to be worldwide synchronized, since we licensed it to 2 labels, Echozone/Soulfood and Metropolis Records. We personally don’t think 2 years is a huge period to come up with a 60 min running time of good songs and sounds. There are both artistic and technical times, that can hardly be skipped if you want to do things properly.

Q: What happened with Calembour Records, which was your own label? What have been your experiences as ‘label’ and did it change your vision upon the music scene & business?

The Frozen Autumn: Calembour Records is in stand-by because of lack of time. The trademark still exists and so does the website etc. etc., however, so we can’t exclude to release something in the future. It surely helped us getting a better insight about what happens behind the scenes and it was a very enriching experience from the human point of view.

Q: You’re working together since 1993 so what makes the chemistry between both of you and do you notice some changes and/or evolution in the song writing and global production process?

The Frozen Autumn: The band exists since 1993, but we’ve been working together since 1996 ‘only’. The chemistry between us is due to a profound mutual knowledge and much in common as for the music taste. We’re tied by the great passion for experimenting with synthesizers and for new-wave music, among other topics. We’ve evolved together artistically and we are each others’ best friends… What else can we say? We’ve been lucky in this sense, and we feel grateful for that.

Q: What will be the next step and further plans for The Frozen Autumn and how do you see yourself evolving as musicians?

The Frozen Autumn: Good question. Keeping on experimenting on sounds and keeping on working together, depicting new acoustic landscapes. Maybe focusing more on the work in studio, rather than on the live activity. We’ve got many ideas on our minds, that are just waiting for us to give them the right music shape. And that’s what we’ll try to do.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Genre/Influences: Dark electro-wave, dark-pop.

Background/Info: The Frozen Autumn is one of the most famous and world-wide recognized Italian underground band dealing with dark electro-wave. Diego Merletto and Froxeanne are back on track releasing their first new opus since the “Chirality”-album (2011) while their last production was the “Lie In Wait”-EP (2014).

Content: Time doesn’t really affect the sound and influence of The Frozen Autumn. The band is active since the early 90s, but remains inspired by good-old 80s influences, which can be easily linked to some 4AD bands. The songs are supported with melancholia, but I also noticed a few more ‘poppy’ cuts. A few other cuts are more into reverie, getting closer to a cinematographic composition.

Diego and Froxeanne are alternating the songs on which they’re singing. They both have this typical ‘sterile’ timbre of voice, which is once more evoking good-old souvenirs from the new-wave decade.

+ + + : The Frozen Autumn hasn’t changed their successful sound formula and that’s just fine as they remain one of the few bands at the top of this dark and melancholic wave-pop music. The melancholic atmospheres have something evasive and perfectly matching with both protagonists timbre of voice. The song “Grey Metal Wings” is a very efficient track illustrating the writing skills of this band. But the opus also has a few nice surprises such as “Your Touch (Album Version)”, which is a poppy orientated cut carried by a great melody line reminding me of Alpha Ville.

– – – : “The Fellow Traveller” is a fully enjoyable album, but maybe missing one or two cuts, which would get the album immortal. Three from the four songs originally released at their last EP from 2014 have been released as ‘album versions’, which is not that strange, but maybe not the most original part of this work.

Conclusion: It took some time to The Frozen Autumn to achieve a new opus, but the least I can say is that they haven’t lost their initial magic to compose great songs.

Best songs: “Grey Metal Wings”, “Your Touch (Album Version)”, “Tomorrow’s Life”, “We’ll Fly Away (Album Version)”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.thefrozenautumn.com / www.facebook.com/TheFrozenAutumn

Label: www.echozone.de / www.facebook.com/EchozoneMusic

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Frank M Spinath (Seabound/Ghost & Writer), Froxeanne (The Frozen Autumn), Tom Shear (Assemblage 23) and Julianne Regan (All About Eve) are just a few of the 13 singers which have collaborated on the exquisite new album by Belgian electronic music pioneer Jean-Marc Lederman. The album is available as a digipak, a free app with a videogame and a virtual jukebox. Add to that a dedicated website with all parts of a sonic idea spread over several platforms (IOS/Android/PC/MAc) for different experiences.

The track list is as follows:

1. Schau Mit Liebe with Frank M. Spinath
2. DJ Kling Klang intervention with Bertrand Burgalat
3. So Long with Jay P. Aston
4. The Last Love Song with Anna Domino
5. Never Take Fire by Ghost & Writer
6. The Reassuring Undertone with Dark Poem
7. L’amour c’est la mort with Jacques Duvall
8. Funky Town
9. Intervention from Matt Johnson (The The)
10. The Killing Woods
11. The Last Phone Call by The Weathermen
12. Yumemite Aino (I Was Dreaming Of You) with Takeko Akamatsu
13. No Regrets with Froxeanne
14. Into My Arms with Jenna F.
15. Wolves by Mari & The Ghost
16. I Love You, Sandy with Tom Shear
17. Good Night with Sam Devos
18. Dreams Are All Faded Away with Julianne Regan
19. …

Below you can enjoy the album trailer. The release is out on the Belgian OFF label.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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