What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.
Den Sorte Død is the culmination of our two separate solo projects Angst and Offermose. We have always been trading underground black metal / early 70´s electronic music recommendations back and forth and going to obscure concerts. One late night we decided it was time to do something together. The whole concept was to create the most true and grim black metal intros using only old wooden synths. So we came up with a ritual that we still perform today. We pack the car full with old gear and travel to a small cabin in the dark forest and spend a weekend of experimenting and recording. Whatever is on those tapes when we come home is what we release. So each release is recorded in two to three days and is completely improvised.
Provide us with some info about your latest release…
The latest album is a journey through the cold harsh forests. The bottomless lakes where darkness grows and the peace of cosmic loneliness embrace you. The deeper you go the closer you are to the stars and you realize that the universe is endless and all enveloping. It’s a looping dream diving deeper into the true and pure darkness of your inner self.
Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?
There is of course countless sources of inspiration for Den Sorte død. To name a few:
Theodor Kittelsen, Carl Th. Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Tarkovsky, Jodorowsky, Anna Själv Tredje, Bo Hansson, Klaus Schulze, The Black Plague.
In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?
It’s often long one takes drenched in phasers, tape delays, distortion, fuzz and reverb so there is no way to cut or try to rearrange the song afterwards. We simply just add more to the glory and play from the start repeatedly until we have nothing more to give on that session. No sound stays the same throughout the songs. its all evolving and dying just as the world around us. There is no way of going back and try to make it perfect. Our music embrace the imperfections and the limits we set to our self by recording this way. Our wooden synths are the stars and we let their true potential shine with all their glory and crazy frequencies, noise, distortions.
Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…
Whenever we seek solitude we will always seek out the Forrest. But if we are not recording we might listen to Aghast – Hexerei Im Zwielicht Der Finsternis or watch Angst by Gerald Kargl or Come and See by Elem Klimov. we could also be reading, The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. Or just share another six pack and take it from there…
Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?
Only a few lucky ones have seen us live – we hope to change that in the not too distant future and do more shows.
We don’t have the use for a studio we prefer our tiny cabin. Surrounded by the vast nature and eerie forest. These weekends are truly something special – starting from nothing we build the next record during long music sessions, hanging out and just enjoying the sounds. We thrive on each others energy and some of this supercharge ends up on the record – the rest is just for us when we play, experiment and constantly pushing the boundaries of our music. It´s like a force spreading – unstoppable – Intet Kan Stoppe Den Sorte Død (Nothing Can Stop The Black Plague).
Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?
Even though we are a quite unknown band, we did have a fan that would reach out to us frequently, sending extremely dark, almost suicidal rants. It intensified around the release of Bundløse Søer. But then it stopped. hope he is feeling better.
Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?
Our favorite track right now is from our new unreleased material, we feel we have found a really dark baroque sound that we look forward to sharing.
From the released material we are most proud of the title track to Bundløse Søer it captures well our signature ice cold sound and creeping hopelessness.
Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?
We just finished mixing our next album so hopefully it will be available sometime in 2019.
We are of course also planning another trip to the Forrest for our next recording session.
Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…
Thank you for taking interest in us and we hope you all enjoy the music.
– Offermose + Angst = Den Sorte Død
Photo credits: Jonathan Hjorth
Curated by: Christos Doukakis
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