Ain Soph - The Bards of Kali Yuga

Rome's Ain Soph are one of the most underground and atypical presences in Italian and international post-industrial music. They're regarded as international pioneers of "ritual-industrial" thanks to their seminal early-80s work, a kind of soundtrack for esoteric rituals with more or less occult references to the thought of Aleister Crowley and Julius Evola. Albums like "I", "II", "III" and "Ars Regia" ranged from the Kabbalah to neoplatonic mysticism, all the way to alchemical research.

Ain Soph came together in the Eighties as a soundtrack for esoteric rituals. Your name comes from the Hebrew Kabbalah. If I'm not mistaken, אֵין סוֹף (Ein Sof or Ayn Sof) referred to the infinite nature of creation. Can you tell us something about how you chose this name, and about the influence of Jewish and neoplatonic mysticism on your past and present work?

The name was chosen simply because it sounded good. As for Jewish mysticism, we can tell you that at the time it interested us a great deal as a foundation for the ceremonial magic rituals that some of us practiced back then. Studying the rites of the Golden Dawn or those of Aleister Crowley, it was almost impossible not to run into Hebrew names or references to the Jewish Kabbalah. Later on, we left ritual magic behind to pursue more personal paths, closer to what alchemists call the "dry way". Since these are specifically individual paths rather than group ones, each of us found our own way, our own road.

Starting in the Nineties, you built your own particular path toward "neofolk", blending singer-songwriter craft, folk music, psychedelic rock and progressive influences. You could almost call it a "Mediterranean" approach to the genre. In fact, it seems to me the whole thing is far removed from a Nordic imagery built on runes and paganism. Do you feel very distant from groups like Death In June, Blood Axis and :Of the Wand & the Moon:?

It's true, we've never felt comfortable with those labels. Even though musically we were very far removed from the groups you mentioned, at times we were close to their worldview and their thoughts on the West and its decline.

Abroad you're considered something of a legend, especially for your early work, which is perhaps your most internationally known. Ain Soph are cited, rightly or wrongly, as pioneers of ritual-industrial. Many bands on Cold Meat Industry, who emerged in the Nineties, surely owe you something. Even today, acts like Trepaneringsritualen seem to be carrying forward (at least in terms of content) a certain esoteric tradition that you've been exploring since the Eighties. Do you recognize yourselves in this role as forerunners? Do you still follow this musical strand, or does it no longer interest you?

It no longer interests us, and it's safe to say it never really interested any of us much. And anyway, if in our recent musical research we still use rituals and prayers, as in the last part of Finis Gloriæ Mundi too, the approach is conceptually different from our early work.

Your new work, "Finis Gloriæ Mundi", could be seen as the third part of a critical, pessimistic trilogy about the modern world. "Aurora" was a kind of concept album about postwar Italy, that Belpaese seen from the perspective of those who fought on the losing side of the Second World War. "Октябрь" (October) told of the Bolshevik revolution and its crimes. "Finis Gloriæ Mundi", on the other hand, delves into an apocalyptic vision of our time, perhaps also exploring the economic and spiritual crisis of neoliberal capitalism. Do you see yourselves a little as bards of the Kali Yuga? Have you embraced a tragically and irremediably apocalyptic view of the contemporary world?

We recognize ourselves in your definition of bards of the Kali Yuga. We like it. What you say is true, but we'd like to think of "Finis Gloriæ Mundi" not as the end of a hypothetical trilogy (which does actually exist, but would instead comprise the works "Kshatriya", "Aurora" and "October"), but rather as a return to the raw matter of the alchemical Magnum Opus. Over the course of our history we've moved backwards, from the highest spirituality (Rubedo – "Kshatriya") through an intermediate phase (Albedo – "Aurora") to the heaviest materiality (Nigredo – "October"). Now, with "Finis Gloriæ Mundi", we're at the origin of everything, where it all began, in the realm of unlimited potentiality. From here one can proceed in any direction: towards the illuminated peaks of the highest spirituality, or towards the hell of the shapeless, undifferentiated mass.

On your new record there's a track, "Vanità", inspired by the famous Old Testament text attributed to Qoheleth, Ecclesiastes. It's interesting how the theme of memento mori and vanitas keeps cyclically resurfacing whenever we're going through moments of crisis, in which especially the lowest, most frustrated and desperate strata of the population fall under the spell of a vision that is at once nihilistic and moralizing. Do you believe that everything is ultimately futile and empty? Paradoxically, don't you think that vanitas, especially in the world of Art, is a point of view on transience but also (surreptitiously) on worldly pleasures and its simulacra, its illusions?

We're not so sure this theme only resurfaces at certain moments, and only among the lowest strata (what are these "strata", exactly? And why would they be so desperate?). This isn't a matter of "classes" or "social" aspects... it's about higher-order intuitions that manifest in certain individuals regardless of "class" or economic conditions. Intuitions that can arise, it's true, in moments of individual crisis, but that can also manifest for other reasons. For instance, to stay within our own era, a Carlo Michelstaedter arrived at them while writing a degree thesis, and we certainly can't consider him part of the lowest strata. And what about Dostoevsky, La Rochelle, Evola…

Of course, a similar vision (everything is illusory, unreal, transient) can lead to a nihilistic, annihilating conception, but that depends on other factors. Some will turn towards faith and religion, others will immerse themselves completely in this illusory world with all its attractions, while others still will take different paths, including that of detachment and non-attachment.

Future plans? How long will we have to wait for a new Ain Soph record? Do you have any plans for upcoming live shows in Italy or abroad?

There are a few concerts we're currently preparing. So far we've only had requests from abroad, but we'll surely be playing in Italy again soon too. As for new work, we've always been free from the constraints and timelines of standard music production, so since we have no deadlines, we can't say whether or when there will be another Ain Soph album, because, as we often say, since each of us has various interests complementary to the themes we've dealt with over the years, we've carried forward other parallel projects: from Ezov's writing to Spectre's various artistic endeavours. Maybe the next Ain Soph work could be a novel, a treatise, a new album, or even a film… that we still don't know.

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