Hybryds

	"They are addressed to the lovers of esoterica, who can understand the essence of the ritual trance music. The work of Hybryds one need to listen on maximum volume, beforehand having redeem the light and having switch off the telephone, only then it's possible to feel the powerful aura of the material. The group works without samplers, limitedly uses drummachines, synthesizers and human voice, the majority of sounds has an acoustic nature. The trancey, hypnotic effect is created by varied drumming: wooden african percussion, different sounding installations, usual gasoline barrels and gongs. The usage of digital delay, endless repetitions of looped rhythmic patterns, texts of Aleyster Crowly and Thomas Elliott, create the magical mystic atmosphere of sacral ritual. If you distrust in stability of your own psyche, it's better to handle with care with such music, for it is capable to arouse the dreaming primitive instincts and an energy of dark depths of subconsciousness." ("Exotica", №2, 1995).

To start with, could you tell me about the Hybryds chronological history and your involvment with the project? Do you have a philosophy behind the group? Would you care to comment about your general releases (like a sort of main steps of devotion and progress)? What is the Hybryds for Magthea and Yasnaia?

HYBRYDS : since the mid 80-ties working in the ritual - mythical and magical music scene. This band is known for its mind expanding sound. Primitive ethnical and contemporary industrial influences are blended to create an unique style that has influenced many who were looking for spiritual dimensions. In the beginning of the 80 -ties , Magthea, the male side of the HYBRYDS was involved in THE KLINIK,in the mid 80 -ties he worked on his own personnel music style. Based on ancient influences and modern technology, the first tape demo:” Mythical music from the 21 st century “ did not get any reaction in the music scene. “Octahedron “a limited 7 inch followed but again no one was interested.At the start of the 90-ties Yasnaia joined the HYBRYDS concept adding her clear vocals and acoustic instruments . They released the first CD :” The ritual should be kept alive part 1 “.An ethnic styled trance piece.Suddenly the music scene discovered the original, eclectic and powerful HYBRYDS sound .Many CD releases followed,each release covering an aspect of the path Magthea and Yasnaia were walking . “The ritual should be kept alive part 2”, contained collaborations with other musicians and remixes of the first demo tape.In “Music for rituals (ARTWARE)” the pure magical sound of HYBRYDS became reality, a struggle between female and male energies gave birth to one of the most original releases. “ Soundtrack for the Aquaria of the Antwerp Zoo” mysterious deep ambient music.” The ritual of the rave” their answer on the commercial rave scene , “The atavistic Fetisj” an industrial mini CD were the next steps in their evolution. Each release different from style,yet it is HYBRYDS. “Dreamscapes from a dark side”, their most dark and deep ambient masterpiece,was the reflection of 5 years studio work. A CD so strong and intense,a trip in your personnel subconsciousness.Although many think “ Cortex Stimulation” their latest release is a break with their musical past, all the elements which makes HYBRYDS so different, are still there. Sound that crawls into the brain and brings the listener in alternated states, this time not with ethnical techniques but with LO-TEK technology.Each release being accompanied by spare live performances,Cortex Stimulation gave birth to their new live project: MISTRUST AUTHORITY- PROMOTE DECENTRALISATION, dedicated to all LO-TEKS (and William Gibson) ,in their fight against political and religious suppression.A project dealing with the media,virtual reality and the future of the human race.This time they take the meaning of industrial a step forward.If you have never seen HYBRYDS live , you have to be warned. This project balances on the edge of tolerance. Extreme, structured sound, frequencies that goes straight to the brain.Blended with the mystical and emotional vocals from Yasnaia, the noise evokes trance. Trance evokes spiritual dimensions.

Do you remember the years of your early childhood? What was the start for your individual interest to aural form of expressing yourself and the personal way to your own vision, your first inspirations from any historical, cultural, art, ideology moments? How did you find a form of the Hybryds like a sound-ideology of ancient ritual mythical roots for using in the post-industrial genre? What do you consider the major influence on you in these ways? What sort of music did you listen to that years?

From my early child year’s , I remember I often had to stay with my grandparents because my parents were always travelling in the world. I remember when I was older ( 6 years) my parents took me with them on their travels to Turkey, Greece, the Balkan, I remember the heat of those countries as a tapestry covering my mind and body, warmth, like being in a womb. I got interested in Science Fiction and when I was 12 years I started to read books of Von Daniken, Charroux, Peter Kolosimo , They contained certain science fiction elements but their was a big connection in these books with the myths of the human race, many of these books I did not understand fully and I re- read them when I was 14. They sure were the basics for my interest in religion and Myths.

When I was 16 I was invited in Africa by my parents who were on that moment living there and they took me to a virtillity ritual in a small village. I had seen things like this on television but this time I could feel the heat of the country, I could smell the people, the monotonous ritual music took me by surprise, I only recently had discovered the existence of music when I was 14.

I was raised by my grandparents and they never put on a radio, and when there was music on television they put it out, it was at school I discovered the existence of pop music,and I automatically felt in love with bands as David Bowie, the Stones, the Beatles, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep. But all this music was nothing compared to real and live played ethnical ritual music.

I started to look for different music after buying the soundtrack of 2001 a Space Odyssey, the famous Kubrik movie, I discovered Frip and Eno, Edgar Varesse, and other obscure electronic groups which were difficult to find in the record shops.

Ritual and religion are very close to each other and have many similar moments, I think. What about your personal interest towards religion, what is your vision of religion? What do you love and what do you hate in religious aspects? Please, maybe a few words about any of your deep, occult, spiritual, tribal influences?

Being raised by my grandparents also mend that until my 12 th year I was going to a Catholic school, I remember the Catholic religion they teach and I remember the questions I ask about this religion to the teacher, I never got satisfied answers, I felt there was something wrong with the things they told me. lucky enough my parents decided to put me on a government school when I was 13 , so there was no religion anymore to learn about. On the age of 14 I declared myself being atheistic. No Gods would rule my life, no religion would tell my what to do.

Discovering in the books there were so many religions, claiming all they were the only real religion gave me again the idea there was something wrong. Islam, Catholic and Jewish religion are the same religion, yet they all 3 claimed to be the real one., there false hypocrite moral is very often the well of all the problems in the world. This monotheistic religion destroyed the ancient Gods of mankind. And placed a disformed image of religion on the world. I am very sure that the ancient religions were more used as a symbolic key to life on earth. for me the ancient mother goddess religion was in fact no religion at all, it was a complex system of moral laws and based on different realities : Magic, this is a system based on different physical laws, based on a way of thinking that includes the universe in the complete relationship with mankind.

I also want to include that almost all the information one can find about the Mutter Goddess is written by the contemporary woman liberation movement. Their view on the mother goddess is very limited and disformed, reading archeologic books, one can easily find out that in the times of the Mother goddess,she was married to the equal male God with the Penis, there were no times on earth the Mother Goddess ruled by herself, she always ruled in harmony with her male mate . Do not believe the stories written by those frustrated woman liberation females, they disform reality on the same way the monotheistic religion does.

And in the end I feel relgion as beeing invented by mankind to coope with the immense nothingness around us. Religion gives hope to some, but for me it is not needed in the way it excist now. Religion creates taboos and other things which give power to leaders. Everyone is his own God and should except nobody above him, therefore relgion should be a personnel and atheistic spiritual moral, I think this was in ancient times also. We live in an world dominated by the poison of thousands years of monotheistic thinking. We have to look for new ways of thinking, maybe in our scientific world there should be more space for the information of our Dyonistic past, more magic in science...

Please, could you tell me more about your ideas for starting 3RIO ART and you activity in this direction?

In the beginning of the 80 ties I discovered the world wide tape network, born out of the punk movement it was suddenly possible to find the most strange music on cassette, bands like Throbbing Gristle, SPK open finally the world of music I was looking for, during years I runned a small tape label :3RIOTAPES, this became later the official 3RIOART label, our personnel label, mend to release interesting music and art, but more than 2 CD’s and a vinyl record we never released. We could not cope with the financial pressure. When HYBRYDS got famous in the 90 -ties it turned out to be easier for us to release on other labels.

What is the underground scene for you personally and why it’s so important for you and your own independence?

When I discovered the so called industrial underground it was immediately clear to me that this world contained the primitive , ritual aspects of the Western world. The music although made with electronic devices was based on the same principles as ethnic primitive music. The repetive elements and the raw and dark power of existence, I can find all these things in the industrial movement.

What do you think about the influence of music on human brains, about any sorts of manipulation of mass-consciousness like mass-media, e.g.?

When I attained the virtillity ritual in Africa, I discovered the influence of music on the human brain. Even I was taken by the ritual drumming , more than I ever got from pop music, it is very clear for me that music has an influence on people. Everywhere in the world, Shaman made their connection with the higher world of spirits by music, even on pop festivals you can see the collective trance of the people and sure in the rave house scene, music is stripped down to his essence, the beat to put you in trance.

Well, and what about the physical aspects of your music; any sexual moments? What demands if any does the Hybryds music make on the listeners?

We only had one live experience ( Leipzig- May 97) which was purely magic, we felt so much energy of the audience that they pushed us over the borderline. Me and Yasnaia were in a complete trance state on stage, and the audience of 600 people who pushed us in that state followed us to the other side of the world. I never had this experience again. I do not have the slightest idea why this not happens every time. It is clear that magic not always works, but when it happens it is pure extasy.

How do you create your music? What kinds of instruments, equipment do you use? What about any sort of cinematic, visual images, forms, any spiritual magic symbols of archaic cultures; what about the organisation of your creative process? Also, what about the usage of drugs, any stimulants on these creative ways?

In the 80 ties we only had a small 4 track cassette recorder and 2 microphones and a cheap sample-delay and reverb device and almost no gear, the first music of the HYBRYDS was created in a very primitive technologic way, we mostly recorded acoustic sounds which we manipulated with the cheap delay and reverb. Later we could buy second hand gear but the way of creating stayed the same, basically we started from loops,which we mould and give a direction with live elements as voice, cello, flute... Now we work on an analogue 8 track, with a very good Behringer mixing desk, because we work with sound, it turned out to be that the mixing desk is the most important music instrument we use. It is only now we bought an Atari computer and we are now going to learn to use the midi applications, making music by the computer, we do not know which direction it will take us, it seems it will take some time to learn all these new material and working with a computer means that HYBRYDS will sound different than before.

As we always start with one simple loop or rhythm track the basic of our music is SOUND, however this gives us indeed mostly a visual aspect afterwards, which we use to create the title and the feeling of the song. And yes marihuana is the most important aspect of our creativity, I have been stoned since 20 years, we do not consider these things as drugs, all these plants are presents of the GODS, all natural grown hallucinating plants are completely harmless and are on this planet to be used by humans. What I consider dangerous and wrong are the drugs made by the official pharmacies, the pills to sleep , to awake , for depressions, for pains,all the stuff you can find in the drugstore is dangerous. But opium, marihuana, cocaine, peyote, psilocybine ,... everything is perfectly harmless if you know how to use it. And can give great insights in your mind.

When you have started, your music was based on more ethnic repetitive and trance-ritual instrumental sounds. Modern sounds and the style is like cyberpunk-electro, harsh, noise rhythmical trance elements, techno rhythms…, that last time I’ve found on your releases, like any sort of universal language of sound realisation and self-expression, what is it for you and your personal search, what is it for you, what does it give for your idea?

The cyberpunk music started as a pure solo project by myself, the male side of HYBRYDS, it deals with my fasination of virtual reality, computer technology, the millenium, the media, the digital future...it is very harsh, aggressive music and Yasnaia did not like it in the beginning, it was only after we started to bring this music live she discovered the beauty in it, and this music has only unfolded his real power when she put her musical input on it, the harsh noise mixed with hear clear voice made it stand out of all the other noise releases. This is pure essence, electronic noise, filtered on such way that the frequencies can give birth to trance in the minds of the audience. We very often notice that even on live festivals with strange music bands that people find it weird what we bring on stage. It is also important for us we have our own mixing man to perform live, very often the limitations of the installation we have to perform on and the mixing people who only like rock music,destroy all our sound.

By the way for me personal there is no difference between the ethnic ritual music and the noise we make, it comes out of our minds and it is HYBRYDS.

In your past answers you told about next the Hybryds sound development, progress and metamorphoses. Could you tell me more detail about these changes?What will be next sound aethetic for the Hybryds in your opinion? What do your think self about the Hybryds personal changes and evolution from time to time with your releases and life?

You are an immense curious person, or maybe just a good journalist. We just bought a second hand Atari computer to make music with, but we still have no program to make music with. Hans promised to look for this.... I think when we learn to make music with a computer it will sound different than our previous music. Personal I want to make more danceble music. It is normal their are changes in our music, as we get older, and more experienced in life and in the recording studio.

What is the goal of these changes, except your own inner development and progress? For example, how did you get the idea for use of sea-animals voices like any sort of sea ritual, natural material for your mixage on the Antwerpen Zoo release? What is the general Magic for you - natural or technologic powers, nevertheless? Didn't you have any ideas about Atlantis theme maybe yet?

I worked for 8 years in the Zoo of Antwerpen, and there was the 150 th anniversary of the Zoo with lots of festivities. So we presented a soundtrack for the aquaria as part of the festivities, the Zoo released the CD and we performed two times life in the aquaria. We recorded some digital sounds of the dolphins in the Zoo and the sound of the water pumps backstage of the aquaria, and we got some ultra sonic sounds provided by a professor,doing research to the dolphins-communication. These sounds has to speed down otherwise you can not hear them. Than we finished the tracks in the studio. Atlantis sounds good but it was just a release as part of the Zoo festivities.

What do you think about the Hybryds releases graphic art design, how are important this side of your creation for you and your products? Also what about your lyric and poetic images? Would you say that in your music you intend to express a sense of poetry?

I have got an education as graphical designer so the artwork I make is an important part of the music. Lyrics we do not use much, Yasnaia very often uses a self made language, just words which sounds nice, or we used some poetry from the Dead Sea rolls ( 2000 year old ) or from Crawley. I did write all the song text for the cyber project, but I do not feel being a poet. I think a good poet is like a shaman, using words which brings other realities to life. Poetry is a magical language.

There is a slight tendency in music for groups being male-female duos (Dead Can Dance, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud, Chris and Cosey, etc.) and Hybryds are such a formation too. What do you think about this tendency? Is it a matter of philosophy (Yin-Yan; the myth of the reunion of two halves of what some time was a whole, splitted by ancient gods), a matter of sexual harmony that effects the creativity or is it something else for you?

Being a couple and creating things together is very satisfactory. Probably Yin- Yan sex and marihuana is a good combination to be creative, but very often we are lazy too and very often I only work at my graphical computer making visuals instead of music.

Your split-collaborations with The Moon Lay Hidden..., Nebulon... could you like to continue of work with these or any others (who with?) artists/bands in future? What was your idea for "Madhr" release? And on the topic of The Moon Lay Hidden - you are good friends of them and you participated in the live shows with them, and even made a split 10". How did you get acquainted with them? Is there anything in common in Hybryds and The Moon Lay Hidden concepts? Would there be more collaborative work in future?

We met Albin from Moon hidden in Prague, he was with Lina ( Deutsch Nepal) and we had some nice drinking times. I always find it interesting to get some new inputs, thats why we often work with others. The moon hidden /Hybryds split : Moon finished some basic track we send by mail and we finished their basic tracks. Moon Hidden is labelled as a Gothic group but I find them rather experimental and spherical. There is always a possibility in more collaborations.

We have a small recording studio with lots of second hand effect devices and a simple sampler, just smoke a joint , sample something and listen to the weird things that come out of the machines...

I do not think we explicit use SM elements, we are interested in the ritual and fetish elements in SM as I see the leather, rubber , masks as a contemporary reflection of ancient religious fetishism, objects loaded with supernatural powers. SM is a strange, captivating world, as it deals with power between people fully aware and accepting what they do, in real SM there is no suppression Top (master) and button (slave) are fully aware of the consequences of the role they play.And it is sometime hard to say if the top or the button dictates the rules. SM is dealing with borderlines and taboos, creating new elements in our understanding of each other.

Shamanism of ethnic music: after your "Totem" track I got an idea that maybe the early Swans activity can be near to you; as you probably knows, long time Michael Gira had this influence and feeling of sound like a shaman ritual. Did you had any sort of influence from Swans?

I have never liked bands with electric guitars. It was only 2 months ago we heard something from Swans at Hans' place, it was nice but I do not like the guitar sound.

Performance is one of the most important parts of Hybryds live presentation - does it have it any connections with theatre as an artistic genre? Are you into theatre? Do you plan to make any music for the theatre performances, for the plays written and played by your friends, acquaintances? Also what about the Hybryds live gigs and the mystical/mythical sides of it? Some differences between studio and live works for you as well as Yasnaia solo activity?

We actually do not like to perform, we rather work in our studio. Yasnaia considers performing as an act of confrontation with life, I find it mostly very boring, driving 1000 km to have a gig and have cold food and a bad music sound system to perform on, I have never felt the fun of being on the road ... on the other hand it is nice to see different countries, meet new people and it is good promotion for our releases. I only saw two theatre plays in my life, both I felt asleep . Magisch Theater is a metaphor, an expression to tell that everything is possible. we do not have any connections with theatre... but it would be interesting to make music for a piece, Yasnaia live gigs are more ambient, ethnical, softer than the Hybryds cyberpunk which are rough and harsh sounding.

What do the Hybryds mean for you personally? What do you understanding under this name? How would you define the term "experimental" in the context of your music?

Hybryds is a name under which I can expand my creativity, for me there are many aspect in Hybryds but everyone has to get out what he want, I do not want to be a guru. Experimental means for me: no conventions, no borderlines in structure and sound.

Belgian modern society and environment, what is it for your life and creative inspiration, ideas and works?

Belgian modern society ? Pfff what can I say? I think Belgium is not so bad, there are worst places to live on this planet.. It is a place with relative freedom of speech, corruption in the politics,very expensive to live in, upcoming fascism and racism, if you got money you can buy everything: drugs, sex, cars, houses...we have a king to shake hands to world leaders,so I guess this is modern life ? i think the most immense change will be the influence of the net, communication and information around the world in an instance. Of course you have to pay for this, we are not connected because we can not pay the telephone bill for this. But I have a good hope that the digital techniques will make everything cheaper.

What is your feeling of Millenium? What is Millenium for you and Yasnaia - the end of the World or start of something new and next? Do you have some prophets/forecast to Millenium and future? How do you feel about what will be happening? Confrontation between modern technological distruction world and ancient essoteric systems (like a feeling inner Equilibrium...)?

Millennium: end of the year, nothing special, nice figures, magical feeling and everything is possible... I have the fear that some terrible things can happen, big natural disasters, we have tortured Mother Earth too long, religious and destructive wars, and on the other hand it also could not happen... I am not a Nostradamus, I only have the strong feeling that if we survive, the future will be much brighter than now.

Within a few weeks our web side will be updated and there will be an art gallery included, so check it out. We have contact with people from Moon far away in Russia, (they have a very good CD release) but communication is difficult, we have no email and fax and postal mail is very difficult with your country, very often mail disappears in Russia, so we hope to be on the net in the future. This is want I mean with the big change in a near future, as soon as more people are connected to the web, their will be a new form of world wide communication which will have a mental change in our thinking, as distance and time will disappear and become something new.

Pics taken from: Maldoror magazin (Spain), Sequencias De Lo Culto (Spain) and from Hybryds' CD's.

Contact: 3RIO ART, MAGISCH THEATER, JULIAANDILLENSTR. 22, 2018 ANTWERP, BELGIUM

Send mail to mzr93@mail.ru with questions or comments about this web site. Achtung Baby! contact: mzr93@mail.ru Copyright © 1997 Achtung Baby! Last modified: Март 23, 1999

Send mail to mzr93@mail.ru with questions or comments about this web site.
Achtung Baby! contact: mzr93@mail.ru
Copyright © 1997 Achtung Baby!
Last modified: Март 23, 1999