OSCULUM PACIS – STRATUZ
Art: Eugenia Bathoriya
Lyrics are generally associated with the emotional, spiritual and social environment of the human being who searches for answers to so many questions, as well as the need to express rebellion; we mainly seek to shake the mind of any person and awaken curiosity to seek their truth and not be one more sheep in the flock.
Creative rituals? Four ounces of bread chewed by a dying man, two breaths of life after last rites, which should be caught in an airtight glass container, three 0.5-inch hairs, if he is bald, then they should be plucked from the ear or nose. A clove of garlic chopped with a silver knife and ivory handle should be mixed with 10ml of brandy, then he should inhale the two breaths and drink the concoction before midnight (lol). If there is a ritual, it is an abstraction, disconnecting from the external world as much as possible and entering into a meditative and reflective process, going on an internal journey where sometimes battles are generated or emptying the mind of any thoughts to enter into a collective sense to visualise events better. Human beings have become predictable!
I have a philosophical fixation on life in general, and the lyrics and compositions are a reflection of them; the escape valve is what I write, and the most complex thing is to summarise them to be able to insert them in a song and give them the right sense on an instrumental level, the same happens with the other members of the band, we try to project something we want. It goes beyond making good riffs or compositions that could be interpreted as eclectic; we want our songs to be descriptive, and they can speak for themselves.
I could say that the need to make music started from a very early age, at about 09 years old. Still, I formed my first band in 1982 called ‘Sacerdotes Malditos’, later I formed another band in 1984 called ‘Krýstallo Mávros’ which was raw at the concept level, maybe like Hellhammer and quite demonic for that time; from that project, many urban legends were born and for the year ’86 I joined ‘Stratuz’ which was already formed since ’84 but with a much more mature concept which was where I was aiming for. The first band that moved my heartstrings was undoubtedly Black Sabbath and then Witchfynde; after them, many other bands came to my ears, but I felt uneasy with what I was listening to, and I needed to express somehow my world, the most challenging thing was to find people who were in the same stream as me until I met Stratuz which has been wonderful.
The impotence of seeing so many calamities, so many injustices, and so much regression stimulate my creative process; seeing the world become socially parasitic communes without a clear north, but at the same time seeing small lights making every effort to evolve, sensitises the pen of any writer. We live in duality. However, the scales of human nature persist in tipping to an extreme that leads us to self-destruction; let’s hope everything changes.
We don’t aspire to be like anyone else, but it is difficult to escape comparisons as this has become so commonplace; few people are willing to enjoy music without making comparisons; I find extraordinary what Ulver does, I feel that their creativity is very exquisite and they have the potential to surprise us whenever they want to.
Music is a universal language that goes beyond borders; it is food for the soul, a vehicle for emotions, and at the same time, it is an exciter of the senses that can generate significant changes. Music is the mathematics of our emotions converted into vibrations that can induce, seduce and excite the purposes of any mortal.
I love classical music and opera, and I could recommend many composers, like Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, or Krzysztof Penderecki. Still, I would recommend the works of a great friend who has extraordinary concepts and hundreds of publications, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, a brilliant composer and descendant of the Bathory family and creator of the opera in his honour Erzsébet. He recently published ‘O Magnum Mysterium’, a wonderful piece I invite you to enjoy on the networks.
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