DORDEDUH (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with DORDEDUH?
Hello everyone! Things are very fine with Dordeduh, we just finished our European tour next to Secrets of the Moon and Bethlehem and a Romanian tour next to our second project, Sunset in the 12th House and some local bands.
– First off, could you please tell us briefly how did the band get together after the NEGURA BUNGET’s «segregation»?
Right after we heard from the internet that Negru was not going to honor our deal of disbanding Negura Bunget (we found out that Negura Bunget goes on from the newsletter, he did not inform us directly), and after we had to clear things with our labels, I started contacting a couple of people in order to invite them to join a new project. First I contacted Sergio Ponti, a drummer we met in a UK tour while he was still playing with Ephel Duath. After a short time Flavius Misaras joined on bass and after about a half of year Ovidiu Mihaita on drums as Sergio was very busy and we needed a drummer on a daily basis. Meanwhile we had our first show where Thelemnar (on drums and percussions) and AR (on keyboards) from Secrets of the Moon joined our band. They were guest musicians at that moment. In 2010 Gallalin joined in order to play all the traditional instruments for live appearances.
In 2009 we signed a deal with Prophecy Production and we played at a few festivals and concerts in Europe and we had a European tour and two Romanian tours.
In September 2010 we released our first discographic material, an 7” EP on limited edition vinyl format, called “Valea Omului”
A month ago Prophecy released also our first full length album called «Dar de Duh».
– What prompted you forming DORDEDUH? What were your goals? I mean, do you want to explore different musical aspects? To create a new scape route?
Dordeduh was created to give a continuity to our musical expression that started with Negura Bunget. So it was not necessarily something that I wanted to change intentionally. Of course, our musical work found different layers of expression and we followed a
different path than what we did with Negura Bunget. But this aspect is normal mostly because we never planned to repeat the same recipe that was successful with Negura Bunget. I am proud of what I achieved with that band, but Dordeduh is a different entity that manifests in a different moment in my life and I think things should be seen differently.
– You have already released your debut album, «Dar De Duh». What are your expectations on this release?
We don’t really project any expectations. We’ll take things as they are and that’s probably the healthiest way to react in such moments.
– What’s the main concept behind this effort?
The concept is centered around the number seven and is a mixture of different aspects from traditional cultures and esoteric teachings. There are also many links with our Romanian traditional culture from where we extracted different characteristics or personifications like the days of the week.
Each song has a central symbolism that is found in the traditional astrology as following: the first song is ruled by Saturn and it represents the day of Saturday, the second by the Sun and it represents the day of Sunday, then the Moon – Monday, Mars – Tuesday, Mercury – Wednesday, Jupiter – Thursday, Venus – Friday and the eigth song gets back to Saturn and it closes the circle thus opening a new one.
Despite the great work I invested in creating a solid conceptual background for the album, I would not like to invite people to focus too much on this aspect. The album should be listened with the heart and not to become an intellectual entertainment for the mind.
– And what does the cover artwork represent?
The artwork consists of a collection of handmade drawings made by Sanziana Omota. The artwork arrangements ware made by Costin Chioreany and it was specially conceived to represent a complement to the music and to the lyrical aspects. There’s a special graphic for each individual song which gives a different perspective and completes the entire message of the album.
– The first thing that caught my attention off this record is the pun between DORDEDUH and the album’s title. What do both things mean?
All these words seem to be similar but they mean completely different things. “Dor” means longing, yearning for something unreachable; missing something. “Duh” means the immaterial essence of the spirit, the airy substance of the spirit. So Dordeduh means “an undefined longing for spirit”, a yearning for something long forgotten into the depths of the spiritual human structures. “Dar” means gift, an unconditional offering. So, “dar de duh” means an unconditional offer from the spirit, or even much simpler, a heartfelt gift made with spirit.
– On this record there is epicness, progressiveness, aggressiveness, Folk, Black Metal, acoustic passajes, superb atmospheres, darkness, etc. Where are the band’s limits?
Every band has its own limits in terms of imagination and of musical vision, but also of musical expression. We have plenty of these limits in each mentioned regard.
But besides these limits, Dordeduh is a band that likes to explore and experiment a lot with unconventional instruments and unconventional musical approach. For me progression makes music worthy to be played.
– In fact is one of the most well-cared and elaborated albums I have ever heard, with a lot of details that need to be listened carefully. Do you think this opus reflects 100% your musical personality?
I think the album reflected at least a significant part of our musical personality at the moment we wrote the album. Now we are focusing already on the next release and there’s a new horizon of possibilities and expression.
– It’s indeed a quite complex and delicated music so, was the songwriting process harder?
It is true. To do the music we do it needsa a a lot of dedication and a lot of time and energy invested into the band. The songwriting was
done, as it always was, by Sol Faur and myself but through a long process of maturation. With Dordeduh we can’t deliver songs one after each other. There’s time needed for each part to alchemize. This is the way we write music.
– And what could you say to those fans of NEGURA BUNGET that may expect DORDEDUH to be a continuation of that band?
I could say that at least as a musical path, Dordeduh follows the same inspiration and the same call from the unknown. For us the process never stoped.
– Anyway I think both bands evoke the musical beauty behind nature and its landscapes. Where do you draw inspiration from to create such beautiful picture? And how much Romanian influence does this have?
Well, this is the question I never really knew how to answer to because I can’t point any concrete influence. The influence is always a sum of things that touch ones perception.. So there are many things that can influence but at the same time they change all the time.
For me, nature is something that gives me energy and recharges me all the time.
Regarding the country I live in, Romania, of course it has it’s part in terms of influence, both good and bad… it’s the same in regards to tradition: some things can inspire me to get back to my human roots, others should be left aside and maybe renew them.
– Still about inspirations, I would like to know what bands serve you as an example to create such soundscapes.
I work as a sound engineer in my daily life. So I’m all the time surrounded by music. Sometimes this aspect becomes hard to deal with and then the only thing I yearn for is to get out into the nature to recharge. So I don’t find too much inspiration in music itself lately. I actually never really followed any band for a certain inspiration.
– And all this about «Dar De Duh» being said; how could you descirbe it in just 3 words?
Yes: it’s not possible! : )
– You have even done a video for the track «Dojana»; how did the shooting go?
Logistically it was a difficult process. To organize an off-road trip to get all those percussions and instruments on the top of a mountain turned out to be a real challenge. Once arrived there, the shooting process was quite smooth and fast. Everything was planned before and the only thing we had to do was to find the best spots for shooting and to combine spontaneous ideas that arose there, inspired by the landscapes.
For me it was not necessarily a pleasant story because I had a serious fever the day before, at Dark Boombastic Evening, and I’d say I was far from being in my best shape. But it is how it was supposed to happen so I accepted my condition…
– Romania is not a really prolific country into Metal so, is it difficult to be an extreme Metal band in Romania?
I would say that the Romanian metal scene has the same problems as most of the Western countries have. There are many metal bands but they are not really known to the vast audience. Otherwise things went more and more professional and better venues appeared, better equipped. The main problems are the same as in most of the countries: the money invested in the metal scene is very small. And the public choose only a couple of shows that they want to attent because of financial limitation and from here on, things are inter-related and not too much development can come out of this.
– And what other bands from your country could you suggest?
In the post rock, psychedelic field a few nice bands came up like The :Egocentrics, Nomega, Methadone Skies, The Thirteen Sun. In death metal field there’s this band called Code Red which is pretty good. And there are some old bands like Grimegod, Psycho Symphony, Indian Fall, Gothic that gained a lot of maturity. And even though is not metal music I like Thy Veils very much, especially the old stuff, Trei Parale and many other bands…
– Finally, what are your near-future plans?
We now take a sort of a vacation. We still have one show announced this year for the 2nd of December in Belgrade / Serbia. We started slowly to compose for the next material, but now the main focus is turned to finishing the first album for our second project called Sunset in the 12th House.
For the next year in spring we prepare another European tour and we have a couple of festivals in the summer.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Many thanks for your support!!!
