Sunn O))) - Stephen O'Malley - The black priests of drone

An Introduction to Stephen O'Malley and Sunn O)))

by Francesco Farabegoli

The figure of Stephen O'Malley becomes central to discussions of "rock" music, in a very broad sense, from the early 2000s onward. Stephen had already long been a notable metal musician, involved in projects of great stature and considerable critical success; but it's with the explosion of the Sunn O))) project that things begin to change. Sunn O))) is a two-man outfit (the other founding member, Greg Anderson, who runs Southern Lord, is often unjustly forgotten), wide open to outside collaborations and born under the banner of a calligraphic restaging of Earth's most luminous moment, namely the now-legendary (so to speak) "Earth2" from 1991.
From "White1" onward, the Sunn O))) project reveals itself in all its facets, aiming to build an imagery of extremity from scratch, drawing elements more or less at random from doom and black metal and reshaping them into an essentially inward-looking version, stripped of any trace of emotion.
They pull it off, largely thanks to O'Malley's graphic design work, which digs up twenty years of black metal and strips it of every ornament, bringing it back to an imagined starting point where everything is still pristine. From here on, Stephen O'Malley becomes a figure of avant music, placing himself loudly and critically at the center of the contemporary scene, within that tradition which unites experimental music and rock extremism. With the key difference that while John Zorn injects heavy-metal elements into a jazz/experimental context, O'Malley starts from extreme metal and never strays from it.
Stephen matters today above all for having created a genuine network of artists operating like a wheel with spokes, with him at the hub and figures like Oren Ambarchi and Nico Vascellari, Pita and Attila Csihar orbiting around him, in a black hole where imagery becomes image and sound implodes into countless variations on the same idea, producing records whose objective worth will most likely be scaled back by historical hindsight, yet which remain an unquestionable rock manifesto of the 2000s.
We met and interviewed him at the Uovo Performing Arts Festival, where he contributed to Gisèle Vienne's performance of "Kindertotenlieder" (Songs on the Death of Children).

Interview with Stephen O'Malley

by Livia Fagnocchi

Milan. They're a fantastic pair, Gisèle Vienne and Stephen O'Malley. Both smiling, kind, courteous, the sort of people you immediately feel at ease with. The sort of people, though, from whom you wouldn't expect such a dark aesthetic and such a controversial artistic side (see Gisèle's in "Kindertotenlieder", and O'Malley's in Sunn O))) and his various projects).
She arrives in Milan on Thursday evening, he lands Friday morning. They meet up in the main hall of Superstudio Più on Via Tortona, home to the "Uovo – Performing Arts Festival". Gisèle has the honor of closing a sixth edition that has sold out every night; and her 220 seats for the premiere of "Kindertotenlieder" have already all been claimed. On stage, alongside the dancers-performers and the robotic dolls, are Stephen O'Malley and Peter Rehberg, i.e. the project KTL. The setting of "Kindertotenlieder" is dark, mystical and elegant: it's night, there's snow, fog, two young people with murderous instincts, a young woman with a suicidal instinct, there are resurrected dead and acts of violence that sublimate only more violence. In this context, the music of KTL acts as an amplifier of conflicting emotions. While at first they lull the audience with the romantic melody of "The Sinking Belle" (Boris and O'Malley), they then give themselves over to at least 20 unbroken minutes of doom-drone-metal.
We spoke with Stephen O'Malley about this and about his artistic work.

Just to warm up, can I ask you some basic information about your life?
I'd rather not talk about my personal life, but about my music.

I'd just like to know where you grew up, what was the first album you fell in love with, that sort of thing. Is that okay?
Sure, so, I grew up in Seattle and as a kid I listened to a lot of my dad's records, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Brian Eno, and plenty of others. I didn't know what it meant to buy a record — meaning, I just didn't care — until I was about 11 or 12, the age at which my friend and I became heavily obsessed with Led Zeppelin, which was followed by a Metallica phase. Then my interest shifted toward Dead Brain Cells and more hardcore bands. We also stumbled onto more underground music by chance, but there were so many bands that I won't even try to list them.

I'd love to know the ideas underlying your artistic work, what the common threads are across all the projects you pursue in different fields (in this case, with theater). In short: what are you searching for through your way of making art?
Understanding: when I play guitar I try to grasp the geometry of the ways that exist to build chords, notation and scales. I also try to properly understand the electronic aspects of amplifiers, feedback, the principles of acoustics. I'm completely self-taught in this field, because I never studied physics or engineering, but when I play guitar I think the instrument is well suited to gaining a good understanding of musical dynamics. The more I study, the more expert I become, and the more openings toward understanding develop. One of these days, though, I'll really start studying composition properly. It's interesting because I consider it one of the many keys to interpreting the language of music.
Recently I've worked with a few composers and realized that it really is a language that expresses different worlds through music. What's more, if you know composition theory well you can say anything you want, even things you couldn't express with instruments you're not an expert musician on. In fact, rather than learning to play other instruments, I feel the need to direct people to play my music. Lately I've started a few projects working this way, but now, with the new material, I should always hire excellent musicians to play the parts of my compositions.
My problem would really be playing the music I write myself! The result would be minimal. I would actually like to learn to play other things, like piano and keyboards (multi-instrumentalists like David Bowie and Prince are geniuses!), but, knowing my limits, I prefer to explore the tones and sounds of different instruments: the best approach is to write, direct, and stay hidden.

While you were talking about the geometry of sound, I was reminded of the ancient Greek theories on the correspondences between musical proportions and astral ones, which attributed sacred powers to music: are you interested in that sort of thing?
Yes, to a limited extent I know the Pythagorean theories, and I see them as the mathematical approach that set in motion the founding of European musical structure. There are also many mystical aspects tied to physical structure that I'm not familiar with, though. I know a book called "The Music of the Spheres" that expands a great deal on these ideas, it's interesting, but I've never really delved into the subject. For me it's more, you know, having a frequency that corresponds to this number, then another frequency to another number, and it sounds this way. It's more an exercise in mathematics and a matter of style. But it's interesting to see how many ways there are to interpret the structure of music.

In your guitar playing you can hear the influence of repetitive, almost hypnotic rhythmic/melodic structures, drones, elements characteristic of North African ritual practices believed capable of creating a bond between the faithful and the divine. How do you relate to drone music? How much "ritual" is there in your music?
I think drone music is just an idea that can help us analyze a certain way of playing guitar or modern black music. A drone is certainly music, but it's not a type of music, it's a sound. There's always a drone somewhere, even in this air conditioner, can you hear it? Rather, repetitive structure is what defines the way my thoughts unfold. That's also an interesting aspect of the musical context, because you can always use your own sensibility, you can take a rhythm and follow it, or open it up and slip away from it.

Is the idea of the drone a source of inspiration?
Oh, yes, it's a state of mind. I've come across different kinds of music for that sort of thing: I like music built on simple, basic forms and on a violent sound that represents the melody of nature. In that sense the drone is like a steady bell that you can listen to, or not.

Do you tie your music to a contemporary form of ritual?
Not directly, but it certainly inspires me. I find inspiration in different kinds of rituals, in anything capable of carrying your mind far away from reality through music, dance and the manipulation of objects.

If you were asked to put together a "Stephen O'Malley Experience", a singular performance for an audience of yours, what would you do?
I would organize an expedition to Antarctica with very few people, to be completely cut off from everyday contact and to have a living experience of nature, which in Antarctica I imagine reflects the idea of nature found in many places.

Have you ever been there?
Not yet, but I love traveling and I'll get there sooner or later.

You live in Paris now, would you move elsewhere?
No, not right now, I'm always on the move and I'm looking for a bit of stability. But I don't dream of finding the place that makes you feel settled, the spirit remains nomadic.

If you had to translate your music into words, or into a novel, a poem, what would it be?
I hate linking my music to someone else's work, especially to writing. It's a completely different thought process. That's the main reason my music is purely instrumental. My theory, in composition, is not to follow a linear process: playing and listening to music are individual processes, where everyone takes their own time to follow the music and trace their own temporal paths.
Certainly some writers haven't followed linear paths, and yes, I am inspired by literature, but I don't want to compare my music to it and end up saying that the final emotion is the result of an atmosphere, a stylistic structure, or my favorite writer. Sure, I have favorite writers and directors, but I'd say that the work of any creative person is, in some way, the result of their whole lived world, filtered through the individual's body and mind.

When did you begin your artistic collaboration with Gisèle?
In 2006. We met thanks to our mutual friend Peter Rehberg.

And how did you discover you had common artistic ground on which to build a collaboration?
Actually, I think we come from completely different backgrounds, but through her enormous personality and a lot of conversations together, we got excited about the idea of working together. For several months I asked myself what my artistic involvement actually was, whether it was appropriate. It took me quite a while to be able to say "yes, now I understand the connection with my mindset": it's Gisèle's work with time and structure. I find the way she has technical command over the temporality of the performance really interesting. That's very important in my music too. Then it almost becomes a method rather than a style or an aesthetic movement.

Is that what links your two approaches?
I think so, at least in this piece.

Will you keep working together?
Yes, we're working on another show. I'd say my music can be, from my point of view, either a pure overall atmosphere, or, two, it can be a direct detail that comes into play, when a band plays songs in front of an audience and the space between the audience and the stage gets very close. It's beautiful because the focus shifts away from us and expands toward the audience, and it has nothing to do with practice/narrative but purely with the emotional side.

Your upcoming projects?
I'm working on the new Sunn O))) album. I don't know yet when it will come out, but I think early next year.

Thank you so much, Stephen.
It's been a pleasure. Can you put my website at the bottom?

Of course! www.ideologic.org

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