INTERVIEW WITH PREDOMINANCE

After your moscowian set,you seemed to be satisfied by the performance,but
as i could anticipate first of all something was meslead...On the concert was
presented your new project "The Machine Language",and meanwhile i'd like to
ask:What means the Machine Language for you?is there a continuation of
previous sound searches or its a step to something unexpectedly new?and if
its so,what do you wait from it,what language, vision forms the machine ought to teach you?

I was invited to do a Predominance performance. So I played some highlights of Predominance on that gig. But I am actually working also on a new side-project called Machine Language and I thought it was a good idea to present some of this new material by Machine Language exclusive and unexpected at the festival. Machine Language is more abstract and noisier than Predominance. I integrate the Machine Language material at the end of the Predominance concert as a kind of  climax. Out of the atmospheres of the Predominance sound into cold, lifeless sampled processed data-files. It was only an introduction into the sound of that new project to get some reactions. I expected nothing but I think the most visitors of the concert had enjoyed it. Machine Language is totally different from Predominance. Here I work only with computers. No regular instruments like synthesizers, samplers or vocals are used. The sound sources are data itself. I transform raw data into sound and destroy and process them into "listenable" pieces. There are often abstract structures and strange frequencies. In one track I use several very high frequencies. The effect is that they erase each other and built an unwant phaser-effect. I`m sure you can here it on the recording of the festival. I think it has something to do with interferences of those sound waves. Other sounds are clicks and cuts or pure noise which I use but all made out of processed data. That`s the concept for that project: sounds made out of data. A machine like a computer works with that data. It is the language that a machine does understand. The whole process is a very difficult one and very complex. At the end everything is reduced to two signals: 1 or 0 and their constellations. The language of (computer)machines. So I take a bunch of that endless ciphers and transforming them back into sound and make them listenable. I think it has nothing to do with music. It is more a research in sound and put some interesting results together in "musical" structures.                

On the Moscow festival was gethered together some differing from each other
 individuals,and by the way,as i heard the Predominance concerts are too rare,
and thats why as you can understand,natural question:was LAND(shaft)
interesting for you and why,could you tell me a little about some
important sound-compositioning concet moments,what was remarked by you.  

  Predominance concerts are always rare. There exists only a little scene that organize such things like the LAND(schaft) festival. Such festivals are born from the individualism of the organizers. Without them every Predominance live appearance would be impossible. I have a great respect to such people who spend a lot of time and money into a festival like that. I want to thank again Timour, Mikhail and his girlfriend (sorry forgot her name) for everything they have done for us. Russia was a great experience for everyone of us. In my opinion life is much harder than in social saved Germany. I saw the very big difference between rich and poor and the documents of a dying great culture. Western capitalism does not stop behind the iron curtain. To the concert itself: I think the festival was a very good one. All bands / projects done very good performances. The audience was also very enthusiastic. I recognized one person in front of the stage who sings the whole lyrics of "Aurora Borealis" during I performed that song. I think it was a fulfilled dream for him to here that song live on stage. INADE was also a revelation for one or another including myself although I saw them live quite often.          

  Sound is the ancientest form of Universe language.We tought this theme with
Massimo from Bad Sector and now i'd like to ask you :what is sound as it is
for you personally and what in its structure you prefer -emotional elements
and constructioning possibilities ?    

Sound itself is a waveform which can lead into higher spheres or in darkest abysses. It is up to you which way you want to go. With Predominance I want to create a kind of sound-pictures to the themes I work with. But it depends on the theme. In the earlier days (on "White Ashes" MC and "Obliteration" LP) I handle with the darkest side of humanity. These were soundtracks for genocides, nuclear winters and satanic affairs by humantity. The results are inhumanity, misanthropy, self-hatred and depressions. All that attributes are good for a dying world and bring lies, harm and destruction. With later releases I turned out a more emotional side of myself. The "Hindenburg" MLP was the first work on which I include some more melodic and emotional material. I think it is more difficult to create emotional moods and atmospheres than some simple power-noise tracks. What I do with Machine Language is totally different. I have mentioned it before. It is also constructive but in a different way.                 

  In continuation of aboveremained theme,bond between creative activity and
ideology,strict art conceptualism-is it of great importance for you,and
afterwards couls you say a bit about ideology of your creative activity,how
did this conception change during development from one project to another?In
 Moscow you said that from the beginning of Machine Language project you
logically finished The Predominance ,as Wolverine earlier according to the
reason of full-blooded project realization    

Here is a little misunderstanding. I did not finished Predominance for Machine Language. Some years ago I stopped Wolverine for some different reasons and found Predominance shortly after. That was a logical step for me. Predominance still exists with myself. Machine Language is a side project apart from Predominance to go some ways in other directions. It has its own concept. Predominances handles with different concepts from release to release. I do not spread ideololgies. I want to be creative as an artist. Nothing else. I do what I want and do not hang my project on trends. I don`t have any commercial background. I enjoy it if a release is selling good but that is not the main reason to produce an album. If you handle with the thought of making money your art is dying. I make my projects for myself and if I get good reactions and resonances from someone else who like it too then I enjoy it. That is why I need and spend a lot of time for a new release. I think it is useless to produce one middle-class album in a year. It is better to release a very good work in 2 or 3 years. Same like Inade - they needed around 5 years for their new CD and in my eyes the result is absolutely outstanding. I hope I can set higher standards for Predominance from release to release, too.          

Your projects are an artifacts,circulating around a person,his world vision
and his selfidentification,arent so?and what in this world create a spring
of thoughts,images,emotions,what does inspire you and what does threat?    

The sources of inspiration were and be always quite different. A mood of endtime was present on the first two releases "White Ashes" and "Obliteration". Together with "Unconscious Ruins" it was pure darkness. Those creations were built out of merciless loneliness. Remember the last lines from the track "Unconscious Ruins" : "... and then we will find ourselves in unconscious ruins...". The climax of years of endless depressions. I think, yes you are right, Predominance is involved in the process of selfindentification. "Hindenburg" was a experiment for itself. It combines to myths together : 1. the myth of the old big flying Zeppelin airships and 2. the greatest rock band Led Zeppelin. I mixed everything together : some authentical documents of the legendary "Hindenburg" catastrophe in 1937 and some links to the band Led Zeppelin. Both legends had their times in light and shade. So it is not only a sound document to Zeppelin airships. The MLP is full of links to Led Zeppelin. I thought that combination was interesting enough to produce the MLP. Now I have the feeling I could have done it better. The "Hindenburg" mini-album was very successful and opened some doors for Predominance. The best work I have ever done was the very cosmic influenced CD "Nocturnal Gates Of Incidence". In my opinion that`s my best work up to date.                   

Returning to your works,i'd like to ask you more about Wolverine
appearence and history of its development.  

  Wolverine existed only a little more than a half year from 1993 to 1994. It was my first project that experimented with brutal power electronic sound. But it was conceptional very limited and very evil-minded so I stopped everything in mid `94. After a phase of quietness and collection of my forces I found Predominance out of the ashes of Wolverine in December 1994. The Wolverine tape on LOKI-Foundation was released posthum because they thought some tracks were interesting enough for a release on tape. With Wolverine I made only one but a very strong live appearance. The live version of "Jesus Slaves" was recorded at that gig.    

What was a start force for your
musical activity?did any events precede it-inner or outside-in your life?

  I`m interested in listening intensively to music since my time as a teenager. Over the years I was interested in so many different genres of music and all have left their influences on me. My musical carrier began as a drummer of the German Death Metal / Grindcore band Enslaved in 1989. Enslaved were highly influenced by early Napalm Death, Carcass or Terrorizer. It was a lot fun to play such an extreme music at that time. But in the early nineties the so called Death Metal boom began to rise and I lost the interest in that now commercial orientated scene. I had new interests and left the band in 1991 and form a new own project called Dogmatized Machinery. This new project was me and two other persons who wanted to integrate some new electronic influences in the metal scene. We experimented with heavy guitars,drum-machines and tape samples in the style of Godflesh. The band was very succesful in the local areas but split in 1993 because personal differences. Together with one remaining member of Dogmatized Machinery I formed another new project called Death Is the Mother Of Beauty. Again another short living project. At the end I stand alone with my musical escapades and Wolverine was invinted to break into the Industrial scene. All in all it was development from one extreme into another. After all those affairs Predominance rose up like guiding light.   

The real sound is considered to be born exactly there- through
gloomy,depressing music,deep mental philosophy,images of the past,archeology
of thoughts and emotions.Confess,Volverine seemed to me to have  similar
to Dagda Mor concept,especially in their "This Sun for Europe" work.  

Yes the sound of Wolverine was similar to Dagda Mor or the early LOKI tapes. But the early works of Dagda Mor or Inade stand conceptionally in the northern mysteries and traditions. Wolverine was based on historical facts.   

And, at last could you tell me a little about your history in Loki,is
there  creative relationship,interaction,influence between musicians?  

The contact to LOKI started in the Wolverine period. I sent them my tapes and organized the one and only live performance of Wolverine together with Iron Will. From that moment on a very friendly relationship began to grow. I found very good  and true friends in the both main characters of Inade and the LOKI label. I owe them a lot. Predominance today would not have been Predominance without all their encouragement. To make music and release records is one thing, but to find a label that works so disciplined is another to me very important fact. I think they are brilliant. Their records are some of the best in the current Industrial scene. Especially Inade is one of my all time favourite acts. Listen to their new album and you will know what I mean.    

 
The Predominance albums "Hindenburg" and "Nocturnal Gates of Incidence"
are full of historical and dramatic,esotherical and philosophial images.
Of what importance is the leading image for you?    

As I said in an answer before Predominance work and worked with different themes. A release has to be a unit of sound, images and its contents. When I produce an album I have a concept in mind that I want to realize as perfect as possible. I think especially the "Nocturnal Gates Of Incidence" CD reflects the actual standard of Predominance very good. Everything works together perfectly.         

  And some words in the end,what you would like to say to your music listeners
and those,who are awaited by the dephts of your creative musical world.    

I can only thank everyone who supported my project over the years. I hope I can set higher and higher standards for Predominance in the future. I think the active listener of my work knows what he want. If you are able to imagine the pictures to my music in your mind I have reached my aim. Thank you and all the best.