04-10-2019
STORMWIND FANZINE
ALGIZ DAWN INTERVIEW
STORMWIND FANZINE
ALGIZ DAWN INTERVIEW
SW: All right, let’s start mate. First of all, thank you for accepting our interview. So we have two albums and one split. They are all released as CD and Cassette. What was the reaction of the Dungeon Synth scene all around the world?
AD: At the start it was fairly slow, I shared it among friends and online, people began to pay attention when I put it on bandcamp and started sending physical copies. Out of Season approached me and released ‘Askeladden’ with the b-side ‘Astral Monastery’ – once those sold out I re-issued it under Skaventhrone. A musician from Indiana who I’d been in correspondence with had some great tracks I really enjoyed, we decided to co-release the Ash Nazg / Algiz Dawn split ‘From the Isle of Mist’ – some of these songs I’d written as early as 1999, it was good to get them out there. Lastly, ‘Purple Clouds in Kingdom Sky’ was a collection of darker, more focused material which I release in September last year.
SW: When did you start to make Dungeon Synth music and what was the inspiration for going on path of this genre?
AD: I began composing music in the mid-90’s, I wanted to create ambient music that had a ‘medieval’ sound to it, combining celtic reels and ‘new age’ synth sounds, similar to fantasy soundtracks such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and computer games like Zork, Myst, and Riven. I was 15 when I composed the first Taur Nu Fuin material under the name ‘Nightenland’. Algiz Dawn was a continuation of the ambient material I’d been writing with a lighter theme, less ‘darkness’ and more nature inspired. I wanted to create a sound that feels like you’re floating in space, ‘Asleep, Being Carried By The Wind’ is the closest I can think of that has this feel to it. ‘Lightships Over Bifrost’ was inspired by my vision of extraterrestrial life – but let’s not get into that 😉
SW: Please tell us about the first album and second album. What are the stories behind those beautiful melodies? It will be our pleasure to hear all the details so that will help us understanding your art better.
AD: I’ll get into more detail about the debut – but will explain the second album, and the e.p. ‘From the Isle of Mist’ were three seafaring journeys, I’d composed some of them a long time ago, with a vision of maritime travel in the dark ages. It’s as close as I got to composing ‘celtic reels’, I was going for some kinda Clannad/Secret Garden/Deep Forest type production for this.
‘Purple Clouds in Kingdom Sky’ – this is a tale I’ve been working on for quite some time, the track titles were based on a vague back story :
‘Purple Clouds in Kingdom Sky’ – this is a tale I’ve been working on for quite some time, the track titles were based on a vague back story :
The Purple Clouds - are like 'The Nothing' in the Neverending Story, a mysterious evil that is taking over the land. A decaying forest, and twisted looking castle, similar to the one in Dark Crystal. The purple fog, acts as an omen of the kingdom's end.
There are characters too, a dying King, whose presence helped the land survive, but he's weakening and his people are abandoning him. A mischevious 'Cluricaune' who has done a deal with a cloaked enemy to bring down the kingdom, and reclaim the land for an unknown evil force. The Cluricaune has been promised a land of his own once this evil force has claimed victory.
A Goblin who is trying to defend his home and the forest from the evil overtaking it. The goblin is friends with giant ravens who help him and his kind flee when the evil becomes too strong. A stinky toad that belches and excretes purple mist, the toad represents greed.
A goddess of the forest who is dwelling below the ground, waiting for the evil to be vanquished and she'll arise to reclaim the woods and destroy the castle (this happens at the end), every song kind of narrates parts of this story. ‘The Arrival’ is basically the happy ending of this tale.
A goddess of the forest who is dwelling below the ground, waiting for the evil to be vanquished and she'll arise to reclaim the woods and destroy the castle (this happens at the end), every song kind of narrates parts of this story. ‘The Arrival’ is basically the happy ending of this tale.
SW: What does the word Askeladden means? Is there a connection between the album name and the stories that you are telling in the album?
AD: ‘Askeladden’ or ‘Ashlad’ is a Norwegian folk tale that really struck a chord with me. As a child I was a bit of an escape artist, explorer, outsider, and often ‘went missing’ on various adventures. My imagination would create other worlds to explore as well, usually in the forest near my house, which is a vast nature reserve. I guess that explorative nature developed in my creative works too, the earlier Algiz Dawn compositions reflect a bit of that ‘lost child’ sentiment.
‘Perihelion’ is basically a sun-worship festival song, and ‘From Under The Soil’ is about the circle of life, I put a jazz swing at the end – I was inspired by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for some of this music. ‘Astral Monastery’ is another imagined world which I would compare to Soria Moria – also in Norwegian folklore, similar to Askeladden.
‘Perihelion’ is basically a sun-worship festival song, and ‘From Under The Soil’ is about the circle of life, I put a jazz swing at the end – I was inspired by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for some of this music. ‘Astral Monastery’ is another imagined world which I would compare to Soria Moria – also in Norwegian folklore, similar to Askeladden.
SW: I see there are two versions of the first album “Askeladden” and I was totally charmed with the first edition. Anyways the second edition has a good cover too but what was the reason for changing the cover art?
AD: I originally incorporated Theodor Kittelsen’s artwork to accompany the story, however, it had been used by too many other artists, someone pointed this out (very rudely) on a forum and had dismissed my work. So I used photography from my own explorations in Uppsala, Sweden, and redesigned everything.
SW: The second album “Purple Clouds in Kingdom Sky” has fantastic cover art. Who drew the cover art?
AD: To assist the vision and story for this record, I’d asked Silvana Massa to create two pieces of art to accompany the story, and Damien Lee to illustrate some characters. I’ll continue this story in later works. Silvana and Damien pretty much ‘complete’ the visual and storytelling nature of the album.
SW: Do you have plans of releasing the albums on LP? Neon purple LP for “Purple Clouds in Kingdom Sky” would be amazing, wouldn’t it?
AD: I really want to release alot of things on vinyl, my record label ‘Skaventhrone’ may do so at some stage, it’s just extremely expensive and not many artists have the budget for such things. We’re working towards it though. And yeah, I really do like releasing cassettes in all kinds of colours and brilliant artworks to match, so naturally we’d do the same with vinyl releases.
SW: If the cover art of “Purple Clouds in Kingdom Sky” was a real place, what would be your role in that universe?
AD: Excellent question! So if the ‘Astral Monastery’ is the good castle, a realm of retreat and meditation, spiritual awakening or ‘nirvana’ – the dark castle of the latter album, would represent corruption, decay, death, insanity, and evil. But it’s not beyond saving. In the story, the forest goddess saves the planet.
SW: What are your future plans for Algiz Dawn? Will we have new melodies soon?
AD: I’m working on something right now actually, it’s taking a bit of an interesting turn, not so much ‘Dungeon Synth’ as the previous release, there’s a dark 80’s pop element to it, with a nod to Dead Can Dance, and a larger focus on heavy bass synths, percussion, and keyboard leads. It still has the airy ethereal feel in some tracks. I guess I’m composing more ‘songlike’ music for this one. I imagine ghosts dancing in an abandoned amphitheatre at night, and try to make music for them.
SW: That’s all mate. It will be our pleasure if you have something to add.
AD: Explore your imagination, be inventive and creative, dream of new worlds, be fascinated by nature, and always strive to create peace in your own and other’s lives.
Photo by Out of Season
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