Sopor Aeternus gothic band

Written by i j

Thursday, 26 May 2011 18:14

Some days ago I was tagged in Facebook in a video of a gothic band that I didn’t heard about before, the truth is that I loved their music so I couldn’t help bringing it to you, Enjoy it because there aren’t many jewels like this one in the world, today we talk about…

Sopor Aeternus and the ensemble of shadows

Sopor Aeternus is… strange… really strange and I’m pretty sure that’s why I love it so much, but let’s start from the beginning, in first place this is the first band I know that I think it cannot be called band or group and that’s because it has only 1 member.

We talk about Anna-Varney Cantodea, Anna is an androgenic character created as an alter ego of the man who is inside of which, in deed, we know very little, we don’t even know what his real name is although it’s known that in the past he was a man… there are moments in which is better to avoid stupid discussions and just accept reality and say that the man who was Anna disappeared long time ago and from his remains Anna was born and so will be in the future.

Disappeared… as his history did: there isn’t much information around about his last live, he says that he lived alone for decades and in his desperation he discovered the presence of supernatural voices that awaked his love for music and forced him to share with us his creations…

Those voices is what he calls “the ensemble of shadows” there are his muse and inspiration and form part of the band as much as himself.

But let’s stop a second for talking about his music, its integrated inside the darkwave movement and it has a strong emotional component as well as a dark and death ambient, in his songs we can find electro-gothic style as well as medieval music created with wind instruments, guitars, and synthesizers.

Let’s see an example:

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Without doubt this band is one of the most interesting and originals inside the European gothic music… or at least is what it seems to me both for their music than for the ambient that surrounds it… you can feel when someone perform a character and when that character is inside… and you can see it in how Anna views life… it’s certainly disturbing.

Anna says that there is no cure for depression, at least not for him, it will always form part of his essence and there is nothing he can do for changing it, that’s how things are and that’s how they will remain, the only option is to keep himself distracting by the creation of art and music, anyway happiness is overrated, let’s face is, once you get used to it, misery is perfectly an acceptable option.

That’s his creation process, he doesn’t create for his fans, nor for me or for you, in deed he doesn’t care a bit about us all, he only cares about truth and therefore create his songs based on honesty and in opening himself to the outside, if you like it, great, if not, great too and well it’s truth that his music creates several feelings and emotions on the gothic people who listen to it but that’s nothing that worry him a bit.

But I have to say that not everything on his life is pain… he gives us a ray of hope, I would bet that without pretending to do so, and it’s that there exists a moment in which pain leaves room for something different, that’s when words and music turn into one, they vibrate with the strength of truth and provokes him the feeling of what he is doing is good… it’s a beautiful moment, short and ephemeral but beautiful nevertheless.

I don’t have much more to add about Sopor Aeternus just that as you could imagine from my words it’s one of the bands that more surprised me this rear… although in deed this year has been pretty cool in music discoveries, for those of you that didn’t heard about them yet, you should visit My Friend Skeleton.

I leave you with several links:

Here is a play list of Sopor Aeternus in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDIbH99zLQg&feature=BFa&list=AVGxdCwVVULXcP0aT2Gp-lvlQlcFRBsyhP&index=1

And here is a link to his website and myspace:

http://www.soporaeternus.de/

http://www.myspace.com/soporaeternus

Enjoy.

Comments (4)

|97.83.14.xxx |2011-08-22 09:47:36 Anonymous

I checked out Sopor Aeternus. And listened, but actually heard.... My life will never be the same.
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|80.6.141.xxx |2011-09-12 16:31:59 Anonymous

wow
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|71.34.242.xxx |2012-01-08 09:06:02 Anonymous

Sopor Aeternus has many members ! Constanze Spengler-Lute & harp
Matthis Eder-Cello
Una Fallada-Violin
Gerrit Fischer- Guitar
Holger Hiller-Synths,Programming,Cello & backing vocals
Along with the ones listed above are a few others,whos names I don't know! Some artists have made hidden guest appearances!
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|82.170.129.xxx |2012-04-07 23:48:34 Iris

those are not members but guest musicians. Anna regards them somewhat as a nessecary evil because she cannot possibly play all the instruments herself. And she refers to herself als a "she" mostly so that is what will I do too.
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