An Interview With |
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| Last Sigh: How many people are involved in creating Turbund Sturmwerk's music? TS: That differs from case to case
-- but we like to keep the disguise of anonymity for several quite simple reasons. We
don't want to distract any attention from our basic concepts and musical output and would
like to avoid any setting that might lead to a wrong perception of our work in general,
putting it in the context of a "youth culture phenomenon" or sheer
"underground stardom". Remember: That is most powerful which remains unknown! TS: The interests and activities of
Turbund members are manifold, including all forms of expression and research, but mostly
of a more dark and occult nature. However, Turbund Sturmwerk is nothing
but a specialized sound unit, experimenting with acoustic effects and sonic influence. TS: Translated into English the
German word "Sturmwerk" means "work(s) of the storm" or "work(s)
in order to generate storm". The connotations of the word "Turbund" are
manifold. It mainly refers to the Nordic God "Tyr", symbolizing "Tuer und
Tor" (door/entry) to initiation and higher knowledge based on self-discipline,
warrior ethics and the awareness of one's origin in an esoteric sense. As
"Hangatyr", i.e. "Hanging Tyr", the deity also stands for Odin's
self-sacrifice "at the cold and wind-chilled tree" described in the Eddas.
By the way, we have already alluded to that aspect on the cover of our first album, when
we used an original drawing from the trenches of World War II, showing a soldier hanging
in barbed wire. "Bund", quite simply, is the German word for
"alliance" and indicates what we feel to be a proper method of working,
discipline and self-cultivation. |
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| Last Sigh: In addition to the cover image, the first album features a series of images -- one for each track. Could you explain a little about these images and how they relate to the individual pieces of music? Also, are they reproductions or original artwork for the CD? Who made them? TS: The illustrations result mainly from copy art montages or different resources, edited with various techniques by members of the Turbund collective. They basically serve as a stimulating visual expression of each track's mental leitmotiv. In a certain sense the images describe the "accumulation-process" of "attitude" from dissolution to determination. Last Sigh: Your first album has great unity. Everything fits together, and the titles of the tracks in themselves describe a kind of development or process -- which is also reflected in the images mentioned above. Could you tell us something about the structure of the album (and, maybe explain something about the titles -- most of which will not be comprehensible to an English speaking audience)? TS: The five tracks of the original
album correspond to certain key-words (and English slogans) presented on the CD: CUPIO
DISSOLVI to "Dissolution", HAGAKURE to "Orientation", STYRMSAL to
"Commitment", LICHTSCHLAG! to "Faith" and GLORIA MUNDI to
"Determination", thus describing different stages of consciousness and
existence. SIC TRANSIT was added to the CD as bonus track and works as a less triumphant
re-version of GLORIA MUNDI, setting a framework. "SIC TRANSIT/GLORIA MUNDI" and
"CUPIO DISSOLVI" are Latin standards, however, we think all titles are
intelligible by means of association, at least when considered together with the mentioned
key-words and slogans, perhaps with the exception of "Lichtschlag!", which means
something like "Stroke of Light" in English... -- If not, stating that
"Styrmsal" is a coined word from the components "Storm", Tyr" and
"Sal" (Old Germanic for "Hail") and alludes to a sane Warrior Soul,
will probably not clear anything up... |
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| Last Sigh: What qualities should music have in your opinion, to make it of value? Could you give some examples of music that contain these qualities? TS: This question is difficult to answer because music as an artistic expression might work on quite different levels. Generally speaking we feel functional aspects important. So, we prefer music and sounds that are emotionally charged, or in any way ambiguous and evocative enough to appeal to the listener on an individual basis, thus causing some introspection, imagination and attitude against mass conformity. We would like to avoid name dropping rituals, but to mention some examples, amongst others Death in June and early Sol Invictus have this quality. Last Sigh: Your music rests on a strong ideological/philosophical foundation. I know your ideas are presented in the text accompanying the CD, but could you perhaps give an idea of the ideological/philosophical tradition that you see your music as a continuation of, and/or give a description/explanation of this ideological/philosophical foundation as pertaining to your music? TS: There is no particular tradition. Generally speaking we favor thinking and artistic expression based on the belief in a higher reality and any effort to break the domination of pseudo-rational philosophy and linear thought. We feel familiar with any similar ambition, no matter in what trappings it has been clothed. Last Sigh: For those interested in developing a better understanding of the past and cultural heritage, which you mentioned as one of your goals above. Could you advise a list of things/people to study that you have found useful in achieving this objective? TS: We recommend to study the
heretical and esoteric currents behind European history, culture and science in general
and think that the tragedy of the World Wars and particularly the years between 1933 and
1945 mark a good starting-point, with all that implies, from anthropology to quantum
theory, from the esoteric meaning of the Runes to the Cosmic Law of Polarity... |
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| Last Sigh: One of the movements on your CD is entitled "Hagakure" after the Japanese book of samurai ethics. What do you think the teachings of the "Hagakure" has to offer a present day Western audience? TS: Being aware of the fact that the West -- spewing its cultural filth over the world for maximum profit -- constitutes the avant-garde of decay, we would like to point out that this book basically teaches the significance of an honourful and worthwhile death, and thus the meaning of self-cultivation instead of contributing to a rotten corrupt system and a sickly decadent society. So -- be aware of your origin, purify your heart and prepare to fight your enemy! Last Sigh: The Japanese voices that are heard on this piece; where do they come from? TS: The track features some samples from the documentary The strange case of Yukio Mishima, but as you seem to allude to the Japanese chorus it's the Shield Society's fight song, taken from Paul Schrader movie Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters. Last Sigh: You mention in the liner notes to the CD that Geisteshaltung or "attitude" is created through the reflection by the individual upon cultural objects. If the artist according to this proclamation is the creator of sentiment in society, what ethical responsibility do you then see the artist as having? TS: None but to act in accordance
with his soul, instincts and sense of honor. The final responsibility lies always with the
individual willing to get confronted with TURBUND projections. |
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| Last Sigh: The music and imagery of your first album, as well as your ideas, are elitist and controversial, and (I think) could easily be misunderstood -- especially by individuals uninterested and unwilling in truly understanding what Turbund Sturmwerk is about. Has this been a problem for you so far? How receptive do you find your audience to be to the ideas you are trying to get across? TS: We would prefer to address our
work as intentional and orientated, not necessarily "elitist", but have to
address this question of course... Actually we are regularly confronted with absurd
accusations, threats and attacks, mostly from want-to-be left-wingers and so-called
"anti-fascists", since we formed Organization Tyr -- from which Turbund
Sturmwerk emerged -- in 1992. Most of these people never ever tried to get down to our
ideas, let alone to understand our projections, but tend to get hysteric about a form of
artistic expression they feel dangerous in any respect. So they trust in secondary
information and interpretation, offered by some disorientated journalists and
irresponsible morons that simply ignore our statements that we don't have any political
intention and hold politics a waste of time. However, we've learned to deal with that kind
of ignorance and its effects. As for our audience -- although there might be some consent
for wrong reasons now and then, we feel our work to be influential and fertile in general. |
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| Last Sigh: Do you ever perform your music live? If so, could you describe how you translate your music into the live situation? Where will one be able to see you perform in the future? TS: We can't help admitting that we don't feel ourselves as "musicians" in the first place, and as we also have no exhibitionist tendencies and prefer, as already stated, individual approaches to our projections, there seems no real necessity to perform "live". Actually we even see a danger to confront an unprepared and more or less accidental live audience with sounds and images of a certain suggestive nature that bear the danger of some misunderstanding... Last Sigh: The album Turbund Sturmwerk is a couple of years old now, are you presently at work on any new material? TS: Turbund Sturmwerk
hope to release a new album later this year, and plan to collaborate in a vinyl
compilation on German Magickal Lodge Fraternitas Saturni with our allies
at LOKI Foundation, featuring amongst others Inade, Endura
and First Law -- a befriended project that will have an
excellent MiniCD out soon on State Art Records, and maybe Blood
Axis. As for State Art -- recently this label released
an interesting 2LP compilation named NATURAL ORDER to which both Turbund Sturmwerk
and First Law contributed exclusive tracks. There will be another State
Art compilation in digital format named RESISTANCE this autumn, probably
featuring an exclusive Turbund Sturmwerk track, as well.
Finally we also contributed a pretty distracting and somehow disturbing hymn called
HINGABE ("Devotion") to the coming VAWS compilation dedicated to German artist
JOSEF THORAK. - So 1998 tends to be the year of the TURBUND offensive....See you at the
trenches! |
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