Atrium Animae - Dark-wave transcendences

Among Projekt's roster, the label's latest rising star bears the signatures of Italians Alessia Cicala and Massimiliano Picconi, aka Atrium Animae. Bold enough to land at Sam Rosenthal's major label even before their debut, last year they released their first offspring, the wonderful “Dies Irae”, which launched them as genuine new stars of the entire dark-wave scene. The duo kindly granted us a web interview, in which they recount their fortunate and still brief history, delve into the coordinates of their music, and share their perspective on today's dark scene.

Let's start from the end. Back in 2012, after just one album, did you expect to be regarded as one of the most important names in the entire gothic-dark scene?

Actually, we weren't expecting all this interest — we're not exactly the kind of people who love flattery. If anything, we're overly self-critical. Honestly, we were aware we'd done a good job, one that was long and troubled. We didn't want to settle for less, and we tried to give the record an absolutely personal edge. We're delighted with all the wonderful reviews and the recognition we've received.

That's an achievement very few Italian bands have managed before, among them Ataraxia, All My Faith Lost… and Spiritual Front. Is there one of these bands, or another act of Italian origin, whose work has had a particular impact on your style?

Alessia: I've listened to Ataraxia since their earliest days, and I have to admit I don't know their most recent work. Honestly, I don't think any of these very worthy bands has had an impact on the way we express ourselves.

Massimiliano: I agree with Alessia. The Italian scene has a few noteworthy acts, but I don't think they've influenced our music.

More generally, what are the main models that inspire your music?

We believe our music is nothing more than a synthesis of everything we've listened to, filtered through our sensibility and our way of looking at things.

Let's go back a bit now. Tell us about the main stages of your journey, from your formation to the writing and release of "Dies Irae".

We met in 2002, but it was only in 2007 that we decided to start a musical project together. Since then we kept working on the material non-stop, right up until the end of 2010. We hadn't set ourselves any time limits, and our points of view on the project, which often diverged, heavily influenced the writing, arrangement and structure of the songs. At the end of 2010 we signed with Projekt. The digital version of "Dies Irae" came out in April 2011 on the main online stores, such as iTunes and Amazon, while the digipak CD edition arrived in stores in June of the same year.

In the meantime, a deal with Projekt, perhaps the most important label in the entire dark-wave scene. How did that come about, and what influence did the work of the label's historic names have on you, particularly Black Tape For A Blue Girl and Arcana?

In 2010 we started sending demos of some tracks to a few labels in the field, and they showed interest in releasing the record. Everything came together at the end of 2010 with Projekt, the longest-running and most representative label on the international dark-wave scene, also thanks to the mediation of Darkroom Magazine (in particular Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi), who firmly believed in our musical project. Sam Rosenthal was struck after hearing a few of our tracks, and invited us to sign a deal with his label. Today he's extremely active on every aspect involved in promoting our record, and we're very happy with the quality of his work. On top of that, we had total control over every aspect of our project, which is fundamental for us: we personally took care of everything ourselves, from the music (obviously) to the images and photographs, the CD artwork, the website, the videos. Clearly we're big admirers of Black Tape For A Blue Girl and Arcana, whom we've followed since their earliest work. As a genre, we're probably closer to the latter, since we belong to the same neoclassical strand, even if the structure of our songs is different.

Beyond that, your well-known "devotion" to Dead Can Dance.

M: Obviously, Dead Can Dance were, and still are today, a reference point for many bands in the dark scene, and beyond. "Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun" is probably to be considered the manifesto of the neoclassical genre.

Among other things, I also read that Massimiliano is the founder and curator of their Italian website!

M: Yes… I created www.dead-can-dance.com in 2000; back then it was hard to find information about the band. I'm glad it's still alive 12 years on, and that it's regarded as one of the go-to sources on DCD. It's a very complex and thorough site, even though it's no longer updated frequently, and it contains information from official sources along with lyrics, commentary and translations into Italian.

Let's talk a bit about the record specifically. How much time did you spend on it, and how did you go about it?

We started working non-stop on the record in 2007, and we finished at the end of 2010. It was a very long process, essentially due to differing points of view on many aspects of the project and on how to approach the themes we were dealing with, which, despite our mutual affinities, ended up influencing the composition, structure and arrangement of the tracks. We both wanted total control over the creative process, and we hadn't set ourselves any time constraints. To this day we believe that this duality is what made the record unique. Everything was meticulously thought out. And we believe all our care and attention comes through clearly for the listener. We tend to approach the writing and composition of a track through a series of steps in which the instrumental parts, often extremely different from one another, are initially matched up with the vocal parts. From that initial idea, we move through a refining process in which the instrumental and vocal parts are continually reworked until we reach a state that satisfies us both. It really is a long process, because the songs are often made up of more than 40 different elements and extremely complex vocal parts. At that point the track is temporarily set aside, and we move on to writing a new one or listening back to other tracks that are still on hold. During this phase we also pay particular care and attention to the process of connecting the various sections within each track, and to the transitions between tracks. “Dies Irae” was conceived from the start as a concept album, and we wanted to give the whole record a sense of cohesion. In the end we can say that all the tracks reached their final form at the end of 2010, even though some had been written two or three years earlier.

To my mind, “Dies Irae”, even more than many other records, is a work steeped in references to early music. Did the decision to use Latin for the song titles stem from a desire to also convey, through the titles themselves, the arcane fascination that characterizes the tracks musically?

M: We drew on some elements typical of medieval Christian liturgical dramas, which were performed in Latin by clerics. They're rich in representative and symbolic elements, and characterized by a balance between dialogue and music used as a tool to emphasize the dramatic or scenic elements.

A: I've been singing in Latin since I was a child, with a polyphonic choir. It's such a musical, evocative language… For “Dies Irae”, singing in Latin came instinctively, very naturally: it was the right fit.

In your view, what's the relationship between suggestion/atmosphere and the ancient past, which is such a major protagonist in the concepts of many “dark” artists?

A: Human beings have always had an instinctive need to find meaning in life and death, in sorrows and joys. Gods, in all their forms, are, in my opinion, a product of that need. From my point of view, that sense of suggestion arises from not wanting to accept the concrete facts life presents us with, almost as if shifting them into another room: magic, hypnotism, healing are all examples of that kind of “shift.”

In your album, I also seem to notice another connection typical of the dark world, namely the one with spirituality. I'm thinking in particular of the two “Psalmus” tracks. That's probably down to the subject matter, the presence of sacred texts, or the use of Latin.

Actually, “Dies Irae” represents a means, and an attempt, to exorcise our own demons. We definitely don't consider it a sacred or overtly spiritual record. For instance, the two psalms (Psalmus 57 and Psalmus 87) belong to the first section of the album, which describes the miseries and contradictions of the human condition that, through torment and rage, eventually lead to a demand for vengeance for wrongs suffered, but end with the inevitable denial of any sign or work, the “Silence of God” so dear to Bergman.

Finally, among the various sonic facets, are there also echoes of the traditional music of your homeland, Sardinia?

We don't think there are any obvious echoes of traditional Sardinian music. There is, however, a connection to our own tradition: the “Signum Iudicii,” also known as “Señal del Judici” or “Canto della Sibilla,” is an ancient song in Catalan inspired by the “Dies Irae.” There are numerous musical versions of the “Cant de la Sibilla”: from the 11th-century Palma de Majorca version, right up to the more recent ones by Jordi Savall or the Ensemble Ars Musicae de Barcelona (and the later version by Dead Can Dance). Musical versions of this chant also exist in Sardinia, particularly in the town of Alghero, testament to its deep ties with Catalonia. For our own version of “Signum Iudicii” we initially thought of using text and music based on the manuscript held at the Archive Capitolare of Alghero, dated 1820, but in the end we preferred to write original music, as we did for every track on the record. For the sake of stylistic continuity, we then decided to use the Latin version of “Signum Iudicii,” taken from Book XVIII of Saint Augustine's “De Civitate Dei,” rather than the Catalan text.

Much of the criticism leveled at the dark genre is based on the argument that many of its exponents simply stick to fixed clichés without ever breaking free of them. Personally, I find the exact opposite to be true: I don't think there are any clichés, aside from that of evocative power itself. What do you think? Would you say your music comes more “from the heart” or “from the head”?

A: I can only speak for myself: it's a combination of both. Knowledge helps you avoid falling into the trap of making something that's already been “heard” before – my head immediately pushes away anything that reminds me of my own listening habits, as if a little warning light switches on. The heart takes over from there: I'm very instinctive when it comes to creating vocal lines, and I rarely listen to the music beforehand. I let myself be guided, though I couldn't say exactly by what – by lots of, too many, emotions. I record, and move straight on to the counter-melody without listening back. Sometimes that ends up becoming the main line; after that comes the work of assembling countless improvisations, choosing and discarding without hesitation. It might sound like quite a quick process, but every single track still required painstakingly complicated arrangements. It's like giving birth naturally and only then learning how to be a mother!

M: As with any other art form, in music too the process of experimentation leads to the definition of reference models, which then evolves into a later phase of mannered exaltation of those very models. So it's no surprise that some exponents of the dark genre have limited themselves to reproducing now well-known, standardized formal codes, and to repeating a kind of “proven” formal quality. Dark is a mature movement, so those formal codes are well established; the choice of whether to use them, in whole or in part, is something that concerns the artist alone. Personally, I always find it hard to describe the process that leads to the creation of a work. There's certainly a strong instinctive, emotional component, but “Dies Irae” is complex in its composition, structure and arrangement, and required a long phase of preparation and study.

But how accurate is it, really, to “confine” to the label of dark (or dark-wave) a style – and your album is itself perfect proof of this – that embodies elements of such incredible variety and historical/stylistic difference from one another? Do you recognize your own work under that label?

Unfortunately, classification is a necessary operation – not for the artist, but, generally speaking, for whoever is on the receiving end of a work, whatever form it may take. In our case, the record is often filed under neoclassical dark-wave. That said, we did manage to achieve our goal of breaking through stylistic barriers. Our music also appeals to people who wouldn't normally listen to this genre.

Try to describe your style, beyond labels and definitions, the way you perceive it and the way you'd like your listeners to perceive it.

It's certainly a dark album, probably the darkest Projekt has ever released – as some critics have suggested. It's definitely a record that gets under your skin and tears at your soul. That said, we'd like to leave every listener completely free to hear and perceive it in their own way. As a suggestion, to fully appreciate "Dies Irae" you need to listen to it in full, from start to finish, without interruptions or distractions. It's a record that needs time and attention to be appreciated in all its complexity. For the more curious listeners, we can also suggest listening while following the lyrics and their translation. The lyrics play a fundamental role in the work, which is why we decided to create a section on our website where you can read the lyrics in Latin and check the English and Italian translations.

Judging by the fate of almost every Italian band that has approached the dark-wave movement, in Italy this kind of music doesn't get the same response it seems to enjoy in, say, England, the United States or Northern Europe. What do you think about that? And if you agree, what do you think the reasons are?

When we conceived "Dies Irae" we were essentially interested in making music we liked, free of outside influences, music that we felt was valid on a global level, rather than confined to a limited geographic reality like an island or a single country. And, a year on, we're proud to say that "Dies Irae" has been warmly received by both audiences and critics worldwide. Italian audiences, generally speaking, tend to be quite unreceptive to projects that differ from what the mainstream market offers. And younger generations aren't very attentive or curious. We don't know exactly why – we've talked about it among ourselves many times – but living on an island, we can only observe the phenomenon from within a very limited "alternative" scene.

I know this question has been asked a thousand times, but in everyday life (this one's for each of you individually), what do you usually listen to?

A: I really listen to everything. I deeply love Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Tindersticks, Tim and Jeff Buckley, Mazzy Star, Ennio Morricone, Arvo Pärt, Madredeus, Hector Zazou, Portishead, Cranes, Blonde Redhead, Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead, our own Cristina Donà, a-Ha… I don't know, I just listen and fall in love with music!

M: Lately my listening has narrowed, and I've been focusing more on composers such as Arvo Pärt, Giacinto Scelsi, Alfred Schnittke or Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, just to name a few.

What are you currently working on? Is there anything new in store, either live or on record?

A: I'm writing the lyrics for my solo record, I feel a strong need to do it. I don't know yet what shape it will take and I'm not putting any pressure on myself, but it's something I've wanted to do for years. On top of that, I'll be performing live this winter, though it's probably a bit early to talk about that.

M: I'm going through a quiet phase.

To wrap up, I thought it would be nice to remember someone very dear to you and hugely important in the making of "Dies Irae", who unfortunately can't be here with you to answer today. I think you know who I mean…

A: Yes, Barbara, my sister. Thank you, my grief is constant. She's inside me, always.

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