INTERVIEW: Archana

Rites, 2020

When I think of Archana, I think of the embracing and overwhelming effect of green and golden panorama’s after one crawls outside of a dark and dim-lit dungeon. Its minimalist yet spacious and melodic use of atmosphere speaks to me in a way that’s very different from its contemporaries. In order to find out more about the depth of Archana’s musical landscapes, I sad down with its originator E. to discuss his latest release, Dungeon Synth, and ecology.

First off, congratulations on your latest record Rites. Your Bandcamp page describes the record as a journey through which the listener discovers new lands, drenched with memories of old battles and ancient legends. Everything about Archana seems to be so very landscape-driven, which makes me wonder about the way you approach your world-building. What - for you as a maker - needs to be conjured throughout the music?

Hey, thanks a lot, it's been a fairly huge honour releasing this music lately. Archana happened after a lot of years of meditation and research. I used to hike any time I had the chance. Something about the lack of societal expectation in the wilderness helped me envision progressive song-writing more clearly and prompted me to include that kind of isolation in most of the art I've created. Man vs. Nature is such a primordial form of storytelling. It seems unbeatable at times, other times we're able to endure by simply looking into ourselves and believing in the victory.

It’s interesting that you speak of man as separate from nature, with nature being something to be overcome or - at least - survive. To me, this always causes interesting friction with other popular stories about the symbiosis of man and nature, in which humanity is intertwined in a bigger ecosystem. Is this friction part of your storytelling as well? How do man and nature relate to the sound and world of Archana?

That's a really great question. Inclimate weather helps make a cool, multi-faceted story, in my opinion. I live in "Tornado Alley" here in the U.S. and just about once or twice a year I'll drive around and see a neighborhood that's been completely leveled. It's stuck with me a long time; I feel for catastrophe victims around the world.

We're definitely a part of the greater ecosystem, though many homo sapiens would claim we are above it. The magi in my lore harness the torrential elements to conduct powerful spells. These are obviously tall tales, but I can't help but see a correlation to the modern-day gain-of-function research. We can think we are above it, but I feel like we're totally subject to it. What's above 10 on the Richter scale, you know?

As a side note: a friend of mine and I were recently talking about Antarctica; that it's illegal to go there and how we're discovering ancient tropical vegetation there from the last global warming. He shared with me that he's more concerned with the ancient bacteria we're excavating there than with any alleged man-made or genetically-engineered virus we could currently concoct in a lab. Makes a lot of sense now why Jurassic Park spoke so deeply to our subconscious back in 1994-1995. Haha.

Wooded landscape with a lake, George Barrett, Unknown date 

Haha, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” I’m fascinated by the way you use this concept of magi using torrential elements. It’s a great way of telling stories about pushing boundaries to reach greater ideals - and its potentially catastrophic consequences. What strikes me, is that its adventurous character feels slightly in contrast with Rites’ music, which is so very calm and soothing. Where in your overall story is the album positioned? Is this the calm before the storm, or its aftermath?

The Rites series focuses predominantly on the political struggles and repercussions of the lore, this release has both the calm and the aftermath. "Partisans Divide" is a good example. The first three-quarters of the song is building ambient layers, kind of like a coup or militia forged slowly. It takes time, sometimes longer than the actual conflict itself. That kind of thing is situational, but the song is meant to portray a building unrest over time, which eventually snaps at some point, resulting in a very different-- often war-like-- struggle. The ending section has a bit of an essence of rebellion and turmoil, but it is largely invigorating in spirit.

Invigorating might just be the word to describe Rites as a whole, as it contains a sound that I find to be rather unique within Dungeon Synth, without it moving away from the atmospherical redline that makes up the genre. What invigorates you when it comes to Dungeon Synth, as a fan, listener, and musician?

Man, there's so much great Dungeon Synth out there. I spin a lot of stuff with rich atmosphere and vision, but the records don't have to make any substantial unique statements, I'm a huge fan of neo-medieval. Realms of Oblivion by Torchlight is 10/10 from me. All three releases from Ulk (Netherlands) are so well-done, very relaxing. ASKII (Germany) Hegelburg and Hegelburg at Dusk have recently garnered about 500 spins from me, they're perfect for writing and study. Strange Divinity by Cowl (British Columbia) is really far out, solid first release. I'm totally enthralled with the current state of Dungeon Synth, I find a lot of good energy and excitement in what I've heard the past five or six years.

The Upper Nepean, William Piguenit, 1889

Rumor has it though that, as a musician, you also participate outside of the realms of Dungeon Synth. Would you like to tell us a bit more about some of your other projects?

Yeah, I'd love to. Abhasa saw its first release last year, atmospheric black metal with a Sanskrit aura. It's fairly crushing at times, but still easy on the ears. Co-founder J.E. (Alloch Nathir) and I do all writing and most of the instrumentation. We have an esoteric metal record in post-production we're really excited about under the project name Forlorn Aspect, rough ETA late 2020.

Brian Fullenkamp does all of our session drumming. He and I have also performed as Architecture Aviva since 2010, a heavy psych power-trio with bassist Nick Carpenter. We're hoping to take our live show internationally as soon as it's feasible.

Is your work with Archana some sort of counter-weight to your other, more abrasive musical outputs? Or can it be seen as an extension of what you’re already doing?

Archana is very contrasting to most of the music I've released. I started out composing Math-Rock, crazy time signatures with other warm layers, a generally organized chaos. Found cool acts like Pele from Wisconsin (surf element), Volta Do Mar from Chicago, and Do Make Say Think from Canada. These acts kind of shaped our perceptions on Psych and Post, and the further we looked and the more we studied, it all ended up at metal. The more etheric and surreal elements I wanted in the music, the more it became Black Metal and World / Traditional.

Because of its often brooding nature and subject matter, Dungeon Synth seems more metal to me than some of the heavier music. It's also very cinematic and epic at times, so much aesthetic. When I finally set out to compose for Archana, I quickly found that the basic scoring technique wasn't easy. I'm super stoked to explore even larger-scale projects in the genre.

Does your excitement for future plans include Archana? What can we expect from the project, both in the near future as potentially in the long run?

Since teaming up with Mystic Timbre, we've really been able to solidify a lot of ideas I may have previously thought out of reach, so it's safe to say Archana has plans ahead in multiple spheres and in ranging scope. A lore-based release is being prepared for late this year or early next. Those records will be signified by a golden dragon logo or by a similarly specialized logo. Thanks again for having me, and thanks to the listeners.

Archana on Bandcamp

INTERVIEW: Mystic Timbre

With its first release being Seikai’s To Sanzuwu on the 19th of April last year and it’s 40th release being Archana’s Rites - which is expected to surface on the 23rd of June - it’s safe to say Mystic Timbre is a rather productive label. Ranging from cosmic ambient to modern takes on Dungeon Synth, its main focus seems to be the distribution of strongly atmospheric projects. Over the course of a few days, I communicated back and forth with the label’s driving-force Anthony to discuss Mystic Timbre’s ambitions, future visions and love for all that’s mesmerizing.

It would be an understatement to say that there is a lot to discover within your roster. Could you describe the label for those who are yet unfamiliar with what Mystic Timbre is and does?

Distributor of strongly atmospheric projects is a great start, though that maybe leaves out our punk and yacht rock releases, haha. I had been planning the label for a couple of years before it launched, so I was able to save up the money to produce our first 21 tapes all at once, which were comprised of mostly older material created throughout the decade, with a few newer albums like How the Garden Grows at the tail end. That got us off to a fast start in 2019; for 2020, I endeavored to release 2 albums every 3 weeks for the entire year - as it stands, we've already got enough releases ready/near completion to fulfill that pace. Ceaseless and varied productivity is, I hope, the defining attribute of Mystic Timbre.

The breadth and diversity of sounds and styles represented on the label are simply reflective of my own interests, which are about as expansive as can be. I was a pretty strictly metalhead kid, and got really into folk/viking metal when I was 14/15. It was always the atmosphere of that music that intrigued me: the epic, fantasy keyboards. The fact that Dungeon Synth now makes up one of the larger genre-specific slices of the Mystic Timbre pie is therefore not surprising. Ulver's Bergtatt was a favorite, and it may be simplifying and a little cheesy, and probably not exactly 100% accurate, but my own tastes and ideas about what 'atmosphere' in music could be opened up as I delved into the Norwegian duo's electronic releases, specifically Perdition City. Back in 2005 it was actually a relatively new album still; crazy to think it's celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Atmosphere didn't have to be lofty, epic keyboards - it was in all effective and profound music. There are so many places beyond Valhalla and pre-Christian Europe that music can transport us, haha.

I focus on the ability to transport, and not the destination. All destinations are valid, so long as the music is an effective vehicle to get there.

The temptation to hyperfocus on a specific genre or sound is always there - it would make promotion much easier, and would make it easier to attract followers of that particular style. Ultimately, I can never bring myself to shut the door on a style I might want to indulge in the future. Doing so would, for me, be disingenuous; to focus on a single sound would be a business decision, not a creative one. I'll just have to work that much harder and be that much more productive for the label to be successful.

Żywopłoty, Jacek Yerka, 2004

With Ulver’s Perdition City being one of my all-time favorite albums, this interview is already off to a good start. When you reflect on possible destinations for your musical outlets to transport the listener to, which ones have not been reached yet but would be very fitting within Mystic Timbre’s discography?

The goal is for there to be no destination that doesn't fit into the Mystic Timbre discography. More than any specific answer to the question, I would just like for Mystic Timbre releases to continue finding unique means of transportation, and destinations that are just a little bit off the well-worn path.

I just finished designing and editing the first issue of Salient Zine, a regular promotional e-zine we're going to be releasing that features selections of label releases, a mix curated from those releases, and download codes for those featured albums. The first issue was loosely themed on the concept of 'outer space'. What I find compelling is that, despite all the releases featured in that issue having something to do with 'outer space,' none of them are just static meditations on the cosmos. They all have concepts which involve outer space, but focus on more unique and intriguing aspects. I won't name any names, but there are countless ambient, space ambient, and progressive electronic artists who use 'outer space' as the founding concept for their works, and then go no further with it than that. In their discographies, you will find album after album about nebulae and black holes, with cosmic NASA photography artwork showing the aforementioned phenomena; but that's it - there is no story, no interesting way of presenting these concepts. That music will transport you to space, certainly; but good luck finding anything to do when you get there.

The first track on the Space Is the Place Salient Zine mix is Phantoms vs Fire's The Botanist, from the Superbloom II album released last month. Superbloom II is a concept album that reimagines the Yucca desert in southwest America as a lush, alien landscape, with a narrative arc that climaxes with the titular botanist character merging with the cosmic energy of this exotic landscape. The Wyndham Research Institute's Interim Report no. 57: Io Transmitter Sub-Committee uses dark ambient and experimental field recordings to create an album that relays, in the form of found audio logs, the catastrophic systems failures of a space shuttle terminus station orbiting Jupiter's moon, Io. Seikai's first album, To Sanzuwu, charts the odyssey of a satellite launched from Earth toward the center of the sun in an attempt to gather and transmit as much information as possible before burning away in the intense heat. Seikai's follow-ups find even more novel ways to celebrate the sun's power and majesty. The second album, 17 September 1770, uses natural field recordings and new age ambient to chronicle the titular date, when an enormous geomagnetic storm caused deep red aurorae to appear over the Pacific Ocean, visible and detailed in contemporary accounts all the way from northern China and Japan to the western Australian coast, where crewmembers aboard Captain Cook's Endeavour observed the phenomenon. The third album, III: Sunrise & Sunset, follows the course of the sun across a Japanese New Year's Day, beginning with its first rays of light in a kite-filled sky, through the first sunrise of the new year, hatsuhinode, and on through the sunset and into the first dream of the new year, hatsuyume.

For me, these are far more interesting ways of engaging with the concept of space and the celestial bodies that exist beyond our planet. These albums don't simply show you the destination - space, or Io, or the sun - and then soundtrack that location. Instead, these albums tell stories that either take place in space or heavily involve the use of celestial bodies in space, and then soundtrack those stories. They take the listener to the destination, instead of dropping them into it. Both methods can be equally transportive; however, I find the former to be more engaging, more human.

More than any specific destinations that I want Mystic Timbre releases to take listeners, my focus is on ensuring the journey is a unique and engaging one. Personally, I am excited to see what stories and journeys our artists will create in the future, and where they will take us - and it's a testament to our artists' creativity that those stories and journeys will be surprises to me when they appear in my inbox for the first time.

Timechild, Jesse Treece, 2014

To give a carte blanche to all possible interpretative destinations feels refreshing and rather daring. With the label strongly distinguishes between merely being somewhere and truly being emerged in an environment, I wonder how you’d describe the surroundings and events that are build by your two latest releases, being Archana’s Rites and Alloch Nathir’s The Emerald Grotto.

Those two are great examples of what we're talking about, actually. Both Archana and Alloch Nathir are heavily focused on worldbuilding and escapism, though each goes about them in their own way.

Alloch Nathir focuses on conjuring a specific place - in this case, the eponymous Emerald Grotto. But The Emerald Grotto, as an album, isn't just one of those "2 hours of woodland swamp ambience" videos with a static picture on youtube - it's an aural journey through the namesake grotto, with stops at various locations and mysterious encounters along the way. The music, while always remaining generally under the 'Dungeon Synth' umbrella, shifts shape to match the narrative passage, touching upon many of the various styles and subgenres of DS. The first 3 tracks are idyllic forest synth, a calming, tranquil beginning to the journey. The midway point of the album switches to a more traditional dungeon synth sound, dark keyboard woodwinds and tambourine percussion, signaling a turn down a darker path of the woods, and an encounter with some of its witchier denizens. The B Side sees the timbre change again to the moody twinkle of classic ambient music, as danger has passed and deep, ethereal mysteries are revealed. The fun of this style of storytelling, by giving the listener the location and the journey, but not the plot details, is that that plot can be left to interpretation and creativity: The Emerald Grotto could just as easily be the setting and conceptual thrust for a fantasy D&D campaign as it could a Victorian horror story or a modern, Goonies-style atmospheric adventure.

Archana's albums are more about the writing of a general world lore, rather than a focus on any one environment within that world (though individual tracks can serve as an aural representation of a specific location - I'm thinking of The Hyetal Shore from Archana's Tales B Side). Archana's music, so misty and drenched in atmosphere, is like the specters of ancient battles, each track a ghostly visage of some fight or struggle from centuries past. These conflicts were of such dire importance their marks were left on this mythic land like scars, and the souls of those who perished remain as phantoms. Listening to an Archana song is like stepping on to one of these old battlefields, seeing the spirits, hearing the call of these struggles which shaped the world. To listen all the way through an Archana album is to have been a fog slowly rolling over this land, intermingling with the phantom spirits and echoes from the past as you passed over them, as if they still existed corporeally today. Legends never die. Neither do Goonies.

Dancing Fairies, August Malmström, 1866

I’m starting to suspect you write for a living, haha. As much as I enjoy your tales of spatial exploration, I’d love to shift our focus to another fundamental thread, being time, both present and future. I expect you’ve been in quarantine because of COVID-19 for a while now. How are you holding up? How does this affect the label? And what can we, as fellow hermits, expect of Mystic Timbre in 2020?

I definitely spend my life writing; yet to find someone willing to pay me for it though, hah.

I almost feel bad about the good fortune in my circumstances regarding COVID, relative to the tens of millions who've lost their jobs and are otherwise struggling to get through the pandemic, not to mention those people and their loved ones suffering from the sickness itself. My personal situation allows for me to complete my current semester of school online and work from home. As far as the quarantine is concerned, I was forged in self-isolation, haha, so a few weeks or even months without extended social contact is really not so terrifying. As I said, I'm not overly fond of glorifying my good fortune in a crisis, but the extra time I've been given to work on the label has been invaluable.

As such, the Mystic Timbre train will continue rolling full steam ahead through the pandemic, all the way through 2020. Having planned the label and set money aside for it for years before launch has enabled us to be in a position where all the funds for everything we have planned through the end of the year are all accounted for, and our release schedule of 2 albums every 3 weeks will continue unimpeded. The only snag might be in the release of the tapes for our 35th and 36th releases: TAKAHIRO MUKAI's Fusty Stuffy and The Wyndham Research Institute's Interim Report, which are scheduled to release in mid-May, but due to a 30-day closure of our cassette manufacture could be delayed by what should be a minimal amount of time. I fully expect every other tape to be ready not only by their planned release dates, but even a bit earlier. The Rites and Emerald Grotto tapes, scheduled for late June, ought to be ready to ship out pre-orders several weeks in advance of those dates.

We're going to be unveiling a couple of excellent ambient albums over the coming weeks, one from label-regular SELVEDGE and another from newcomer Manuka out of Scotland. We've got several noise, often bordering on the harsh end of the spectrum, tentatively planned to be announced late summer/early autumn; a few more Dungeon Synth albums in the fall; and I actually just received an email this morning about a new esoteric black metal project from the members of Abhasa, which promises to be absolutely mesmerizing. And that's really just the tip of the iceberg!

Mystic Timbre on Bandcamp

Apoxupon - How The Garden Grows

Mystic Timbre, 2019

“Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily.
"I'm youth, I'm joy,
I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”

How The Garden Grows + Influences / Inspirations is a Spotify playlist that - as the name already explains quite clearly - contains said record and Apoxupon’s musical inspirations. I was delighted to find Vali’s Forlatt in there; an intensively beautiful album that managed to drag me through my angsty teenage years. Markus Stock’s Empyrium is also included, together with the rather unexpected Ben Frost, whove’s all-consuming liveset still holds a special place in my heart.

Knowing his peers, Apoxupon sets out to find a balance between the more introverted, nocturnal and melancholic tunes from his influences, and a sound that could be described as brave, hopeful and sunny. Throughout approximately 45 minutes we roam in the greenest, overgrown gardens, accompanied by soft harp melodies, meandering flutes and the occasional, upbeat-pounding percussion instruments. From time to time I feel as if Koji Kondo has taken the steering wheel - which strongly underlines how catchy and accessible this entire effort is.

In its core, How The Garden Grows aims to make the listener at ease through its engaging melodies, smooth pacing and playful nature samples. Mixing this with the post-impressionist painting The Snake Charmer by Henri Rousseau, makes for an incredible package that is as mysterious as it is alluring. Consider this snake charmed.

TL;DR: A bright, green light.

Refreshing Forest Synth that craftily avoids worn-down aesthetics.

Apoxupon on Bandcamp | Mystic Timbre on Bandcamp