Ain Soph - The Bards of Kali Yuga

The term Ain Soph means "one of the three forms of nothingness, of non-being, of the formless, the original undifferentiated state." This is no random choice, as it immediately makes the group's intentions clear. Ain Soph use magic creatively, as a "science of the self". The lineup has gone through several changes over the years (aside from a core nucleus), both in the studio and live. The first members were Foraenovis and Atrocity Histerics. All the members of Ain Soph hide behind magical names, and for a long time the group was shrouded in an aura of mystery. Their art can only be fully understood if one has a certain affinity with traditionalist thought and with authors such as Oswald Spengler, Julius Evola, René Guenon and Ernst Jünger, as well as with magical thought in general. It's no coincidence that they've been called "the bards of the Kali Yuga". Nevertheless, their compositions have such force and evocative power that they can easily be appreciated even by the uninitiated and by those with no interest in these subjects. They began their activity by recording a series of tapes not intended for release, but conceived as genuine "magical" rituals. They formed in Rome in the early '80s after a concert by Rosen + Kreutz at the Piper Club, at the time one of the key bands on the Roman gothic scene. Rosen + Kreutz featured Crucifige and Spectre, future members of Ain Soph. Approached by Thx and Foranevis, Crucifige immediately embraced the project with enthusiasm (he would appear as a guest on the first tape and later join the project proper), while Spectre would come on board later.

The magical trilogy and Ars regia

Their debut album, titled I, released on cassette, remains to this day a work steeped in timeless esoteric fascination, capturing all the energy of that legendary period. Imagine being inside a deconsecrated church during a black mass: that's the feeling you get listening to these esoteric compositions, built with extremely simple means and electronic manipulations: the result is nonetheless guaranteed to transport you to another dimension entirely.

On the cover (in the 1992 vinyl edition) we find the symbol of the Roman eagle clutching two daggers in its talons. There's an immediately apparent link to tradition and to the solar symbolism explored in depth by Julius Evola in "Revolt Against the Modern World." In truth, the great guiding spirit behind this work is the infamous magician Aleister Crowley, writer, occultist, poet, painter and mountaineer: we are undoubtedly dealing with a strong, well-rounded personality. His best-known text is the famous "Magick," and it is precisely from this esoteric work that Ain Soph drew to celebrate their magical rituals. The approach is extremely naive, but it has an evocative power and a genuine, unique feeling.

The album is divided into 2 parts and contains 4 tracks: the first is a long, endless, monotonous loop in which we can also hear tolling bells, percussion and unsettling noises. The piece was composed and inspired by the aforementioned "Magick" by Aleister Crowley and by "The Kabbalah Unveiled" by S.L. MacGregor Mathers. The liner notes read as follows: "The piece was composed after reading the Ritual 'of Silence and Secrecy: and of the barbarous names of evocation' (Magick) and studying the work 'The Kabbalah Unveiled' by S. L. MacGregor Mathers. It constitutes a basis for facilitating the search for the exact vibration (pronunciation) of the barbarous names. The predominant vibratory cycle in the piece, if absorbed by the listener, induces a physical and mental state conducive to such a search."

I is divided into 2 parts and contains 4 tracks; the first is highly meditative: it's a long, endless, monotonous loop in which we can also hear tolling bells, percussion and unsettling noises. The piece was composed and inspired by the aforementioned "Magick" by Aleister Crowley and by "The Kabbalah Unveiled" by S.L. MacGregor Mathers. The second part is decidedly more interesting and varied. The first section is worthy of a horror film soundtrack and is likewise inspired by reading Crowley (described in the booklet as "the recording of a real involvement"), while the next one, inspired by a text by Paul Huson, has a genuinely mystical atmosphere that will carry you into a dark dimension in search of a hidden reality.

The final section is a dark, murky esoteric ritual, in which formulas describing the duties of the adept are recited, taken from Aleister Crowley's "Liber Cheth." One inevitably thinks of what the early Current 93, standard-bearers of esoteric-industrial, were doing at the time (we're in 1984). However, compared to what the Current produced, there's a more naive approach here, and at the same time a more mystical and sacred one, which makes them unique. Quite simply, as they themselves have stated regarding comparisons with David Tibet's group and with Psychic Tv, "probably, like us, they had picked up on the same vibrations stirring in the air."

In Italy, on the other hand, the experience closest to that of Ain Soph was, in some ways, that of Sigillum S, an industrial group that, in works such as "Bardo Thos Grol," explored related sonic and mystical universes (it's no coincidence that the two groups also shared a tape released by Cthulhu). However, despite the evident rawness of the sound material, the fact that this was an experience going beyond mere musical discourse made - and in some way still makes - these experiments unique.

In this first incarnation, Ain Soph were Foraenovis and Atrocity. Of course, to fully appreciate this kind of music it certainly helps to have some interest in "esoteric" themes, but it isn't strictly necessary: if you have a taste for the esoteric avant-garde of early Current 93 and for certain dark-industrial sounds, you'll find plenty to sink your teeth into here.

The following album, II, saw the lineup expand: Claudedi, Crucifige, Emma and Katia joined. The cover is yellow and replicates the artwork of the first cassette. As they themselves have stated, "the drawing depicts the Tablet of Union (as set out in the system of Enoch), or of Spirit, and is the synthesis of the tablets relating to the four fundamental elements: water, air, earth and fire."

Musically, the coordinates remain the same, though the sounds become more layered. The atmosphere is still that of an occult ritual, and the whole thing sounds like a kind of satanic mass. One might think of a comparison with the records of Jacula (the legendary Italian dark-prog group led by the late Antonio Bartoccetti) and with certain works by Paul Chain, but only in terms of feel, since Ain Soph have a recognizable sound all their own. This is a work of over 70 minutes divided into three lengthy compositions. There's a noticeably greater care in the manipulation of the sounds: the effect is even more powerful than on their already excellent debut, and the atmosphere created resembles a genuine "concert of horrors." The first track, titled "Prima Chiave," contains explicit references to the "Enochian" language. Legend has it that this tongue was revealed by an angel to John Dee and Sir Edward Kelly. A possessed voice recites esoteric texts, accompanied by dark rumbling and sick, occult sounds. The other tracks are characterized by settings not far removed from dark-ambient and industrial.

On the aesthetic front, II is probably the best album of the trilogy.

In III, on the other hand, Crucifige takes centre stage so completely that it would be more accurate to call it a solo record. Yet from an ethical and aesthetic standpoint it remains, in every sense, an Ain Soph work. The record presents a heterogeneous array of material. The highlight is “Rituale OO”. As the booklet explains, the piece is conceived purely as “a basis for a Bhakti Yoga rite, and can also be used as a basis for ritual concentration”. Clearly, formal and aesthetic concerns are set aside here in favour of the philosophical and esoteric dimension. Unfortunately, that is the limit of these experiments, which ultimately come across as long-winded and tedious to anyone without a particular interest in such themes. Still, approached in the right spirit, the meditative, hypnotic power of this music is undeniable.

Side B, meanwhile, contains 3 pieces that hew closer to what we already heard on I and II. The first movement, evocatively titled “Il fallimento di Gesù”, is an ambitious experiment by Crucifige in the vein of Current 93's “Nature Unveiled”. Crucifige handles everything himself, and manages to conjure a genuinely esoteric, quasi-religious atmosphere. Still, we're a long way from the heights reached by Current 93, not least because of the dreadful recording quality, worse even than that of Ain Soph's own earliest recordings. Even so, there's a dark, apocalyptic tension at work here that's not without merit.

The second movement, “Oscurità visibile”, is built around minimal keyboard sounds over which Crucifige's booming voice is layered. The track feels thin and, frankly, an end in itself. The album closes with the final movement, “L'immondizia, la città, e la morte”: an endless loop of electronic manipulations over which a voice recites incomprehensible litanies. Here Crucifige returns to the territory of the previous two albums, though with less success. Still, whatever their limitations, there's an undeniable streak of originality running through these compositions. Particularly notable is the harsh critique of the modern world and Western civilization. The sound of these tapes is wrapped in an esoteric, mystical atmosphere, a fitting soundtrack to a book by Julius Evola or an occult novel by Gustav Meyrink.

Fortunately, the value of these recordings would not go unnoticed, and Misty Circles would take an interest in them. This label released the first 3 Ain Soph works on cassette, which together form a genuine trilogy of magical thought. The trilogy would later be reissued on CD by the ever-deserving Old Europa Cafe.

With Ars Regia, released on cassette by Nekrophile Records in 1986, Ain Soph produced their masterpiece of ceremonial magic. The album was later reissued on CD by Nekrophile itself in 1992 and by the French label Athanor in 2003 (with 2 different coloured covers, to be precise: 900 copies in green and 100 in red). As Marco Deplano writes in the liner notes, Ars Regia is probably “one of the most complete works ever produced by the Roman esoteric circle Ain Soph, which transcends the very concept of a band by devoting every instant of its Art to something higher, something beyond the reach of those who lose themselves in the spiral created by modernity's implosive vortex”.

This is a dark work steeped in alchemical concepts. The Ars Regia was specifically addressed by Julius Evola in “La tradizione ermetica”. For Evola, the Ars Regia is one of the Western initiatory paths toward a higher spiritual status. Ain Soph have never been as dark and occult as on this record, a truly shadowy casket laden with meaning.

Musically, here Ain Soph fuse meditative, dark-ambient music with a liturgical breath. The result is deeply compelling and, in my view, surpasses even the trilogy itself. After the opening track “V.I.T.R.I.O.L.”, a majestic ceremonial mantra, comes “Credo (G. Kremmerz)”. It's a long, hypnotic loop that gives the vivid sensation of standing in an underground crypt during the celebration of an ancient rite. Ain Soph have never been as intense and evocative as on this piece, best listened to in the dark, in reverent silence. “Lapis Niger” is marked by liquid, dark-ambient textures. On “Honorii Ponteficis Evocatio”, a sumptuous pipe organ gleams, creating a dark, sacral atmosphere.

On side B, “Gradalis” is a long, meditative electronic invocation, macabre and hermetic. The closing “Apanathismos” continues the ritual in a lugubrious vein: as Aldo Chimenti writes in “Rumori sacri”: It's the final stage of the ritual in which the elements recombine into a purer form, the opus of the red (Rubedo) that promises the attainment of the philosopher's stone (gold). I'm not entirely impartial here, as this is my favourite Ain Soph record, even though the following album, from 1988, surpasses it on a formal level.

Kshatriya: the way of action

Kshatriya is a Sanskrit term denoting “the warrior caste”. This is a hugely important work in the “Ain Sophian” career, in that, for the first time, strictly liturgical-ritual music is set aside in favour of something different: an ethical model drawing on the ancient teachings of Tradition, with the Kshatriya warrior seen as a symbol of action in a contemporary world of ruins. Behind this concept lie thinkers such as Oswald Spengler, author of “The Decline of the West”, René Guénon, and once again Evola, with his “Revolt Against the Modern World”.

This is their first record pressed on vinyl, its cover featuring a striking image of a sculpture of Ares by Lysippos. But beyond these references – important as they are for understanding Ain Soph's cultural context – the record itself is stunning. The primordial music of the trilogy, made of dark circular loops, gives way here to a much greater degree of formal structure. The seeds of this approach had already been sown, in any case, on Ars Regia. For this recording, the group's members were Clau-D.E.D.I., Crucifige, Eliana, Forenovis, Stavrogin and Corrado (Circus Joy).

The opening track, “Decimus Gradus”, is built around a piano loop accompanied by the gorgeous voice of Eliana, a singer with the Coro dell'Opera di Roma. The following “Monsalvat” is wrapped in a sulphurous aura: it opens in a way that recalls the band's early ritual experiments, then the altered sound of a violin run through guitar distortion pedals, together with a pipe organ, lend the overall atmosphere a sacral, pagan quality: the lyrics are drawn from Crowley's “Book Of Thoth”. With “I.A.O.” the tone turns satanic and occult: dark rumbles carry us into an increasingly sacred, mystical dimension, while a voice that seems to rise from some ancient catacomb recites, in a trance, a Latin text (“In Deus Nascimur, in Jesu morimur, per Spiritu Sanctum reviviscium”). The title track embodies the spirit of the Kshatriya through a text recited by Corrado Mancini of Circus Joy, while the music is a kind of organized chaos in which distorted guitar, piano and bass forge a telluric magma of rare power. This extraordinary album closes with the 14-minute-long “Stella Maris”, an elegiac, dark composition in which a celestial female vocal leads us into ritual atmospheres where a spectral voice recites a cryptic Latin text.

With Kshatriya, Ain Soph place themselves on a par with early Current 93 (while still retaining their own recognizable language), creating a work that, even today, is regarded as a true cornerstone of the esoteric ritual genre.

In 1989 a cassette came out on Chulhu: an untitled split with the legendary Sigillum S, unofficially known as Simulacra. The 3 tracks on it show esoteric Ain Soph at their very best: “Rex Tremendae” conjures a black-mass atmosphere in which Crucifige's voice echoes Gregorian chant, while the music shifts between calm passages and more Luciferian ones. The following “Estey” is a delicate medieval ballad that hints at the “singer-songwriter” turn the group would later take, but it's immediately followed by the explosive “Katabasis”.

The last track, however, is a 12th-century lied written by Jacques De Cambrai with French lyrics that form an ode to the Virgin Mary: an authentic, sincere sense of the sacred emerges – underscored by the organ's imposing liturgical sonorities – which would later lead Crucifige to become a priest.

The album was reissued on CD in 2016 by Old Europa Cafe.

In 1990 Ain Soph instead came out with a different record, presented with a beautiful cover depicting a lovely blond child surrounded by soap bubbles. Ain Soph was released by Dutch label Staalplaat on cassette and later on CD. There would also be a CD edition on Elfenblut.

Even the unusual artwork hints at a desire to set themselves apart from the whole cauldron of esoteric industrial from that period, full of grim, pseudo-religious imagery. In fact, the opening track, titled "V Chiave di Enoch", ties thematically back to the ritual magic they had already explored in the past, although the music (still minimal) is here airier, more ecclesiastical and less dark. The following "Giahilya" is a brief instrumental for piano and tablas.

With "Azazel" we find Crucifige inspired vocally, in what amounts to a kind of heartfelt hymn to this deity of the Jewish pantheon. Also notable is "Hand In Hand", built on lyrics from The Magic Flute. "La Route" features French lyrics by Roger Arnaud Rivière, while "Chorale I" and "Chorale II" are two lieder sung in German. But perhaps the most intense moment on the whole record is "Datemi pace", which sets to music the words of Francesco Petrarca.

The album is solid, but it's clear something has changed: the music still carries its own magnetic force, helped by Crucifige's great delivery, but this is a transitional work – as they themselves admitted. It's the prelude to what would become their "ethical" turn, which would come with the following album.

From magic to ethics and lthe forces of anti-tradition

On Aurora they move to the song format and an approach that foregrounds ethics. This is undoubtedly a turning point in their career. Branded on the cover with a portrait of Julius Evola, it's a work that evokes the fall of the world of tradition at the hands of democracy and liberalism. As the liner notes state: "Every finished work – and this one is no exception – should first and foremost explain itself: with its merits and flaws, which each listener perceives and judges in their own way. These notes are therefore addressed above all to those listeners who have long followed our work, and who will certainly notice a change: from noise to music, from magic to ethics".

It's a kind of concept album inspired by the memoirs of a Fascist Republic loyalist in the aftermath of 8 September 1943, and it also owes something to a book like Ernst von Salomon's "Die Geächteten" (The Outlaws), a cult text for a certain radical right (it tells the epic of the German Freikorps) but which is, regardless, a powerful and highly evocative masterpiece.

Musically, the album had the Taliban-like devotees of esoteric industrial crying betrayal. Yet, even in this new philosophical and artistic phase, there remains a recognizable language that belongs only to Ain Soph and follows its own clear through-line. Musically, the group moves toward a kind of retro-flavored singer-songwriter style somewhere between Paolo Conte and Jacques Brel, while the figure of Evola looms over the whole work. The sound is far removed from the contemporary neofolk of Current 93 and Death In June, drawing instead on the tradition of Italian song.

There's no shortage of imperfections: Crucifige's singing isn't always flawless, even if his delivery and charisma are beyond question. Technically the style is very naive, and the compositions (marked by acoustic guitars and piano) come across as too simple. But despite these limits, Aurora would enjoy a certain underground success, to the point of being adored by Albin Julius of Der Blutharsch and influencing many names in the martial-industrial scene, as well as bands like Ballo delle Castagne, Egida Aurea, Ianva and L'Amara.

Among the songs worth remembering are the lively, symbolic opener "Tutti a casa" (which recounts the events following 8 September 1943) and the disillusioned, aching "Gli amanti tristi". But personally I was especially taken with the tracks sung in French ("Ramayana", "Liberté ou mort", "Vent"), which seem to come from some cabaret on the eve of the Apocalypse, while "Le Départ" uses a text by the great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. "Tempi duri", on the other hand, is a delightful combat-song, very explicit in its lyrics. Alongside Crucifige on vocals, the line-up features ClauD.E.D.I. on bass, Von Sebottendorff on keyboards and Spectre on guitars.

Originally released by Chulhu in 1992, Aurora was later reissued by Old Europa Cafè in a standard edition as well as in a special limited, numbered edition.

It would take until 2002 (ten years later) for the new album to appear, titled Ottobre. As the liner notes put it, "Ottobre is the natural conceptual continuation of Aurora; but whereas that record confronted the world of tradition, here we are plunged into the most virulent manifestation of the forces of anti-tradition, namely communism". Here too there's a concept, this time centered on the point of view of a young Russian grappling with the collapse of communism. It's a work built around the dichotomy of tradition versus anti-tradition. Their outlook, however, comes across as a bit too schematic, tending to judge communism simplistically as absolute evil.

Musically, the album is less bare-bones than its predecessor, with airier, more electrified compositions. The sound moves in places toward a dark, gothic psychedelia (the band are big fans of Velvet Underground). Electric guitar is very much present, shaping the sound of almost every track. The weak point, though, is the vocals, which come across as limited, even if the delivery isn't without merit.

Although it has a more intricate sound than Aurora, Ottobre doesn't quite have its charm. Definitely worth remembering is the lengthy "Le nevi eterne" (which brings to mind Evola's "Meditazioni delle vette"), the standout track of the album. "Falce, Svastica e Martello", on the other hand, evokes the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact.

Over time a certain weariness creeps in, but the Ain Soph trademark remains instantly recognizable. On this record the band is made up of Spectrae (guitar and rhythm programming), who replaced Crucifige after he became, as mentioned, a priest, along with Frater Vitriol on bass and Ezov on keyboards.

The ritual continues

Old Europa Cafè also released Rituals (produced by Rodolfo Protti himself, the label's boss), a legendary "live" recording dating back to 1985, from Ain Soph's first and legendary period. As the booklet states, it's a private live concert recorded "in the attic of an elegant 19th-century building near Piazza Venezia". For the occasion, Ain Soph were Thx/Crucifige/Foraenovis/ClauDEDI.

On Rituals we can hear a few tracks taken from I and II. The music is dark, almost a symphony of horror and a worthy soundtrack for a film about magic. An essential recording for anyone who loved their first trilogy.

Also worth mentioning is the single "Baltikum", certainly one of their most beloved tracks: a sweeping electric punk anthem inspired by the aforementioned book by Ernst Von Salomon, "I proscritti" ("The Outlaws").

After a long absence, Ain Soph finally returned in 2018 with an album in which their style remains clearly recognizable, namely Finis Gloriæ Mundi. The title refers to a book attributed to the alchemist Fulcanelli, author of "Il mistero delle cattedrali" ("The Mystery of the Cathedrals"). Taking that text as a starting point, the band focuses on the moral and material abyss into which civilizations have fallen in today's world: what emerges is an apocalyptic, pessimistic vision of reality, in which there seems to be room for nothing but darkness.

The opening track "Vanità" is a gripping, Eastern-tinged psychedelic rock mantra that surely owes something to the Velvet Underground. The following "Ombre nel silenzio" begins experimentally before turning into a classic folk ballad featuring a recited text by Pasolini. "Figli di nessuno" is a kind of apocalyptic cabaret number that could be played in some smoke-filled venue in a decadent near future.

On "Gos At Home", meanwhile, we find Blood Axis's Annabel Moynihan as a guest vocalist, reciting a text by Meister Eckhart, the famous German theologian and religious figure, while "Screams From The Abyss" is a futuristic electronic dance track built around the obsessive refrain "Nothing Is True, Only Roxy Music in Ipad". The closing "L'Angelo sterminatore" is something of a return to the ritual music of their origins, referencing Buñuel and drawing on Christian tradition and the Holy Bible. There's also room for a chilling ghost-track that sounds as if it had come straight out of one of the band's earliest works.

Finis Gloriæ Mundi is another fundamental piece of the Ain Soph saga, confirming the band as one of the most incisive forces on the Italian dark music scene.

In 2021, Live at Paper Club 1986 was reissued and remastered, the recording of their very first concert, dating back to the Eighties. The album was released on CD digipack, limited to 616 copies. This is a truly unique document. Playing this kind of music in the temple of the Beat scene, in that Anglo-American rock culture which Italians had always assimilated so diligently, was a revolutionary act. From desecrating to re-consecrating: ultimately, we could call it an alchemical sonic experiment. From base metal to gold, in an attempt to rise above the banality of rock hedonism, while in the background people shouted "enough!" (and other insults). Others — a select few, of course — would applaud and appreciate it. Certain rituals aren't for everyone.

(Contributions by Marco De Baptistis on Finis Gloriæ Mundi and Live at Paper Club 1986)

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