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When In Luft Geritzt reached us in 2008, we stared at the carve in the air on the cover artwork while listening to the interaction between strings, acoustics and Eviga’s vocals. The album itself was an extraordinary piece of art driven by personal poetry, an intimidate atmosphere and melancholy. To understand the ideas behind this passionate music Corazine had the opportunity to interview Dornenreich’s mastermind, Jochen Stock aka Eviga.
 
Dornenreich was founded in the summer of 1996 by two young musicians and since then the Austrian band already recorded 6 albums. Nevertheless Eviga expressed “it should not be a purpose to live on music. To live on music a lot of compromises have to made”. Dornenreich sounds indeed very artistic and is working completely independent. It was the opening of conversation on music, nature and mankind.
 
The acoustic side
 
While hovering in the atmosphere of In Luft Geritzt it becomes apparent the band likes to express their emotions in acoustic instruments. Eviga confirms, talking on his passion for the acoustic guitar: “I always create and record my songs on an acoustic guitar because it is more real, authentic and organic” and for the strings: “the violin for example is very lyrical, passionate and there are a lot of dynamics . It is very lively and exciting.” As we could hear, for Dornenreich the acoustic instruments are the fundament to build on. Nevertheless he was also convinced of the values of wild metal shows: while the former has a very intimate and fragile atmosphere, there is “a more physical side in the latter, together with ecstatic and fierce power” he explained. This is not surprising as Eviga continued: “to express both sides is interesting as life is full of contrasting elements and contradictory powers.” Talking on the musical of side Dornenreich seemed to be a talk on the philosophical side of life as well.
 
The other side
 
These two sides of Dornenreich are also to be discovered on the upcoming DVD “Nachtreisen”. The band played a metal show at the Summer Breeze festival in 2006 and an acoustic one during the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig. “An ideal opportunity to see both sides of the band, despite the stress and hastiness typical for a festival”, Eviga said, “the Summerbreeze-show was the perfect opportunity to introduce Dornenreich to thousands of metal fans and to celebrate the first 10 years”. Another upcoming release for Dornenreich will be a next studio album. In contrast to the acoustic In Luft Geritzt Dornenreich will grab again to a more tragic and rhythmic heaviness. “Melodies and rhythmic structures are already written”, the calm and charismatic frontman revealed, “but for the lyrics I want to take my time, because of the importance of new experiences.” As the authenticity and personal life have always been important for the lyrics, Eviga wants to take his time on writing lyrics. Besides his love for acoustic music, while talking about his musical inspiration, Eviga is still enthusiastic about the old Ulver, Kvist, Gehenna and The 3rd and the Mortal. “I think black metal offers spiritual qualities even though its appearance is extremely physical at times. Actually, it combines all the important contrasting elements of life and, thus, it depicts the cycles nature relies on .”
 
 
Carved in air
 
“Wounds tent to open a human being even on a spiritual level.” Peacefully – but still passionately - he explained “the whole metaphor [in the artwork] is based on the attempt to carve something into air. Musical expression, is such a strong thing, actually just something invisible - like airwaves - but it really touches human beings and gives goose bumps. It is a symbol for a transcendental, invisible world. It felt we were like carving into the air when we made the music because it should get across some kind of pictorial expression of emotion, because you can not carve into air actually.” An inspiring explanation to remember.
 
Lyrical power and inspiration
 
Eviga also revealed some interesting words on the lyrical strength of Dornenreich which is in the first place a reflection of his personal experiences. “I don’t think about the later reception of an album because actually it is a very personal thing. There are topics that I want to get across, for myself to be honest. He did not forget the passionate Dornenreich-listeners: “of course it is great when people find something of themselves in the lyrics and music that I write.”
 
Authenticity and pureness are always returning elements in Eviga’s thoughts. Expressing his love for German language he admitted “the authentic vibes are the most important thing in the music. I always appreciate bands who sing in Norwegian for exmaple, we do not understand the lyrics word by word but to me the emotion is still there.” Another sign of the frontman’s poetic lyrics is his deep interest in German literature and philosophy.
 
Many musicians – a lot of (black) metal included - are inspired by the power of nature. Eviga confirmed the importance of the recording of In Luft Geritzt in an ancient house in the middle of Tyrol. Eviga talked on the inspirational side of the atmosphere in Tyrol: “first of all we wanted to rent a room that offered us good acoustics, a well sounding room because we did live recordings. Second, the Tyrolean landscape is very important because of nature and it is a bit like Scandinavia with mountains, woods and rivers. In nature we can find all big cycles of our life which determine our lives. For example nature shows that one has to let some things go now and then, for example in autumn, the trees have to say good bye to their leaves. It is like the fundament of life.” Instructive words from a wise musician to end this authentic story.
 
A few hours after the profound talk with Dornenreich’s Eviga Corazine formed part of a passionate black metal show. The review of this show, together with Agalloch’s performance, can be viewed on the next link.

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AUTHOR: Messy Ass