Mithraic Magazine

Man, do I enjoy Erang. His music always gets me in a way that other dungeon synth artists just don’t. Other DS artists can be great in plenty of ways, but there’s something about Erang’s music I find unique among the genre. From originating the revival of Dungeon Synth, through to releasing some truly underrated Synthwave gems, Erang always finds a way to stay fresh with his releases and his latest release is no exception.

As if consistently releasing good music wasn’t enough, to top it off, he’s also a stellar human being too. In short, when I discovered Erang was releasing his new album, TOME ZERO (released today – October 2nd – via Erang’s Bandcamp), I had to catch up with him before it’s release and ask him about the process as, in my opinion, TOME ZERO is some of Erang’s best work to date.

Erang, I love that tone as the first track starts, so let’s start with the sound on this album as I feel it’s a clear evolution to your previous work. There is much more experimentation with traditional piano, guitar, and bass sounds on this release which I think give this album a deeper sound that is often missing from albums in the genre. Certain songs also almost flow like a classic rock ballad as it unravels and takes you on its journey. I know we’ve seen bits of this before, but I feel this album takes it to another level from start to finish. What would you say has changed in your approach to composition and production on this album? 

I really wanted a raw and dusty sound for this album, demo-like. After the very produced collaborative effort of the previous album “The Kingdom is Ours”, I really needed that. To go back to my cave, all alone, back to that deep solitary feeling I had when I was composing my very first album TOME ONE. I really went with the flow with this one, very rough on the edges, without restricting myself. Mentally, I was in dark places, heavily affected by the way our world and life go… Sad minimal melodies… Musically, I was inspired by different things here and there like, for example, the electronic producer LORN. I love his tracks ANVIL or SEGA SUNSET… You can also find influences from ULVER or Oneohtrix Point Never. When I say “influences” it’s very subtle of course, just some little things that probably make sense only for me, but I know they are here… So maybe, this is why you feel there is a new approach to composition and production on this album.

This album takes you on a journey with what feels (at least to me) like a clear start, middle, and ending that all feel different from each other but sit and fit perfectly together. I feel although it starts melancholic and cold during the first couple of tracks (Feelings While The World Ends and Godless Behaviour), by the time it gets to the more experimental tracks like Three Candles In The Castle, Specter of the Iron Path, and La Mort d’un Parent it almost carries an avant garde like quality before the album concludes with what feels a bleak and sombre exit through the final tracks of When Your Life Is A Jail The Key Is Your Mind and The Last Child On Earth. It is a very emotive album, but I wanted to ask, was it just a coincidence it feels this way, or is the album trying to tell a story from start to finish? 

Not a coincidence at all and you’re perfectly right: this album definitely tells a story. And a bleak story. Each track leads to the other, and I think it really is an album that needs to be listened to from front to end, to really feel what it’s all about. The track’s titles respond one to another: it starts with “Feelings while the World Ends” and finishes with “The Last Children on Earth”… I guess the mood I was in when composing it is pretty self explanatory. It’s an album about the end of things, of everything. The world as we know it, the life of close people, our societies… but still, really, I hope it’ll bring something else to the listener in the end. Something positive, paradoxically. As a friend told me after listening to it, he said it felt cathartic to him: facing the darkness and overcoming it somehow.

Can I ask about La Mort d’un Parent? Clearly a deeply personal song, that is unlike anything I’ve ever heard from you before. Is that you singing? If so, is that the first time you’ve done so? (Excluding songs like Les Sentiments Puissants and All The Beauty We’ve Lost) 

Yes it’s me singing and it’s the first time I’m doing it with a clear French voice like here… I won’t go into personal details because I want to leave room for everyone to feel connected with this one. You know, this one is a really strange case when the magic happens despite your will, without you controlling or choosing anything. When a song just “comes” to you and you’re just some kind of vessel channeling it from the ethereal world of art to the “real” world. What I mean is that I was playing with a piano melody and suddenly I took a paper and a pen and wrote the text in a few minutes. Then I turned the speaker with the piano melody louder, and plugged an old german tape recorder (from 1970) from my grandfather (a SABA 320 G) and I sang the text acapella over the music coming out from the speakers, improvising the melody. So there is only one take of it, with the piano and the voice mixed together in direct. It needed to happen like this, that’s all.

I suppose I can guess what spurred La Mort d’un Parent’s creation. But, what I found most interesting musically was the transition near the end, where the entire tone of the song changes in sudden, radical way. Can I ask you about this moment in the song specifically, what does this transition and the ending passage of the song represent or mean to you? It feels to oddly specific and too extreme a juxtaposition to just be random, and on a song that sounds too personal to be chance. 

This last part, to me, is what you would call in French “le tourbillon de la vie”… the whirlwind of life, you know. That fucking non stop maelstrom we’re dropped into right when we were born, without understanding anything that’s happening to us, and the days float around us, some good, some bad, some full of beauty that pulls out tears of joy, others horribly cruel and unfair… and it goes on and on and on, until it stops, without any reason at all. This is what this last part means.

It also leads nicely into the penultimate and final tracks of this album, When Your Life Is A Jail The Key Is Your Mind. I want to ask about your philosophy on the meaning behind this one. I believe if you can control your mind then there is no cell that can hold you, which I believe is the sentiment you’re expressing as well? We may not be in control of everything around us, but the one thing we can have some control over is our thoughts. Or have I totally missed the mark? 

Yes it’s the same idea behind “Within the Land of my Imagination I am the only God” or even “King of Nothing, Slave to No One”… Yes, as long as you’re not suffering from mental illness that could deprive you even from that small control, then yes, this is the meaning of this track. 

I genuinely think the opening sounds of Feelings While The World Ends are some of the most pleasing tones released on a dungeon synth record. Which is not to take away from or forget excellent tracks like The Last Child On Earth, with its ethereal and delightfully dream-like qualities as well. Have you been utilising any new VSTs recently to create these new sounds? 

No. This album was a return to an old source but, hopefully, to find new water. So I just used what I had under my hand. Honestly, I haven’t been downloading a new VST for a very long time… The neverending quest of VSTs stopped a long time ago for me now. I’m glad you’re mentioning The Last Child on Earth since it’s one of my favorite tracks on this new album…For some reason, the piano part on this track reminds me of a movie I haven’t watched yet: “INK” by Jamin Winans, and its soundtrack. I only saw glimpses of that movie so I don’t have a real opinion about it, but still its production story rings a bell in me: this movie is a labor of love by passionate people outside the industry, who managed to make their dream come true. It’s inspiring.

You’ve talked about struggling with negative emotions and being in a dark place, which is a fair reaction to the direction in which the world is turning. It does only seem to be progressing in a way that leaves most sane people rightfully concerned. That said, is there anything recently in which you have found hope? Has there been anything that provides a brief ray of sunshine? Or, maybe better asked, what have you taken comfort in to get through these darker times?

The answer may sound basic but I just drown myself even more into creativity and music. I just mindlessly keep on working on my stuff, like a craftsman works on his wooden chair. Everyday I do it, to keep me sane and because I can’t do anything else. It’s just who I am and what I’m made of. 

A long time ago, I used to feel kind of bad to create art while other people were suffering from war and disaster. That it was maybe something selfish, or too self absorbed… but I completely changed my mind after receiving few messages along the years from people living in foreign countries with war going on, or living under dictatorship, etc. and they were specifically writing to tell me that to listen to my music gave them a drop of joy within their trouble. Same from people suffering from mental disorders or hurted by their parents or at school… They sometimes send me a message to say that for a few minutes, this music helped them a little bit: just a brief and very short ray of sunshine in their life… that’s what brings, in return, a big ray of sunshine into mine. 

Lastly, where should people go to pick up a copy of TOME ZERO? 

Since 2012, the best way to support my work has always been digitally, on my Bandcamp. It’s always the most direct way to support me, and the encouragement and feedback from people who leave a message on my Bandcamp album page truly mean the world to me: https://erang.bandcamp.com/album/tome-zero

Concerning tapes, there will be a great physical edition (and possibly other stuff) with Dungeons Deep Records around the end of October. It will be announced on Instagram, etc.

Appreciate it, Erang!

Thank you & the deepest thanks to the people who appreciate what I do!

TOME ZERO is out NOW.

Personally, I think this is some of Erang’s finest work so far, and if you’re at all familiar with his work then I do not doubt you will enjoy this offering as well. TOME ZERO feels like an evolution and a throwback at the same time. Feelings As The World Ends, Frumenty, Spoken Bones, and The Last Child On Earth all make it into various playlists of mine. Sombre, melancholic, beautiful.

As always: If you like it and can afford to do so, you should definitely go and buy it.

And, if you’ve not read our first interview with Erang, I recommend giving that a read next while you listen to TOME ZERO.

HTBLOF

Links:
Bandcamp