Could you talk about your relation with Poe’s work? Is he the poet that left the most powerful mark on you? I feel that your entire work is touched by the shadow of Poe, and that Poe’s poetry is a way for you to tell the depths of your soul…
Anna-Varney Cantodea: It's funny that you ask - well, maybe not funny, but interesting - because only a few days ago I was reminded of my very first encounter with the works of Poe. It was in third or fourth grade, so I must have been either eight or nine, and we were reading "The tell-tale Heart", in a German translation, of course, or maybe it was read to us, I cannot quite remember, I don't even know if we were actually told the name of the author... well, we probably were, but, if so, that information obviously went straight into one ear and out of the other, because even back then I had no interest in people. However, I only mention this, because, even though I didn't care who the author was, the story itself, or rather, the images that it created in my head left a deep impression on me. I was strangely attracted to the story - I felt there was an enormous power behind it - but, since I was so young, I didn't really understand the connection. I didn't know, why I felt the way I felt. The images, however, that were conjured up that day, they never left me. I still remember them.
So, flash forward a few years... at the age of twelve, when my depression started to become heavier, and I thought of suicide as an option for the first time... I gradually drew the cloak of darkness around me, if you wish, and slowly descended down into the world of shadows, and in the course of that I tried to find solace in the world of classical phantastic literature. You cannot imagine my relief, that sense of destiny, if you wish, when I discovered that someone, I had already encountered, had actually been waiting for me there all the time.
Would Poe be the perfect reflection of your soul?
AVC: You know, this may be an embarrassing thing to admit, but... honestly... you have no idea how right you are. When I began to work on Poetica, I approached the poems from the outside, if you know what I mean. I met them like old friends or acquaintances, ghosts, I had already encountered in the past but when the album was completed and that's actually the embarrassing part... I had completely forgotten that those words had originally been written by a different person. I felt like they were my own, as I had made them my own. In fact, they felt more like Sopor than Sopor did, if that makes any sense to you. I didn't just adapt them to music - I adapted them to
myself
There is a sound, a sort of funeral whistling, that comes often in your music, especially since "Children of the Corn" (for instance on "Dreamland" or the wonderful "The Haunted Palace")… it makes me think of old horror movies. Are those movies getting a growing influence in your work?
AVC: Umm... I know what you mean. That's the old theremin. The sound is almost synonymous with old black & white science-fiction and horror movies, yes... it's the sort of instrument you literally expect to hear when you think of these films, and I cannot deny that I am actually very fond of it. I have always been. It just suits me perfectly. Aside from the eerie atmosphere it creates, it's also a lovely bridge between the coldness of the synthesizer and the warmth of the violins. It combines, it balances the extremes, and that's what I am all about.
Do you like the movie "The Oblong Box" with Vincent Price and Christopher Lee? That’s the only Poe story that you interpret and which is not a poem but a short story…
AVC:To be honest, I cannot remember it. I know that I have watched it, but it obviously didn't leave any impression on me. Otherwise I would remember it. Unlike Roger Corman's adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher, also with a divine Vincent Price... in dark velvet and bleached hair... and generally divine and beautiful... and breath-taking. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is my favourite Poe adaptation. That one definitely has left a lasting impression on me... until this very day.
Was it hard to choose the poems that you would put to music?
AVC: No, and yes and No. Where shall I begin? Hmm, OK... when you listen to "Harvest Moon", which is the last track on Children of the Corn, you can hear that there is a distinct Dead Lovers’ Sarabande vibe in the string section. Well, maybe you cannot hear it, because it's rather short, and there is a lot of other stuff going on, but it IS there... take my word for it. Or, actually, I can play it for you. Wait a second... [plays fabulous music] so, this is the kind of mood I was in when the album closed. When I finished it.
After I had finished Children of the Corn I had this feeling that I really needed to go and clean up my house... as in to revisit old recordings that I had never been happy with, those that still carried an importance, that were still relevant to me, those I still felt a connection with. And, naturally, the first thing that came to mind were the Poe adaptations. Most of all "Alone", from that unlistenable piece of shit Spiral Traveller album. God, I hate that thing, but that's public knowledge. I'm allowed to say that. I did it.
You see, my initial idea was to do a mere 12" single with "The Sleeper" on side one, maybe, and "Alone" and "Dreamland" on the other. But then suddenly "Alone" had a twin brother, and on top of that my label suggested that I should do at least a 7 track mini-album instead of just a 12" single, so... pfff... I thought 'what the hell', and re-did all of my Poe tracks.
When you are still in the early stages of an album, things tend to be vague, and you're not always sure, in what direction the albums wants to go. You're not quite certain of its purpose. But as you work on it, things always become clearer, gradually... and so, after a while, I realised that Poetica in fact wanted to be an album, and for this I needed more material. So, initially, on a conscious level, that was the only reason why I was looking for further poems to put to music, but, naturally, I couldn't just pick anything at random. There had to be a connection.
"A Dream within a Dream", of course, was an obvious choice, and the only other two poems I could think of doing were "The Haunted Palace" and "The City in the Sea". The funny thing about "The City in the Sea" was, that I had never really read it before. I mean, yes... I had read it once or twice, but only cursory, and as a consequence, I had never really understood it. Also because, in my memory, it had blended together with Jacques Tourneur's film "The City under the Sea" - also with Vincent Price - which, I guess, is why I always believed that poem describes some sort of ghostly submarine habitat. What a joke.
With "The Haunted Palace" it was similar. Even though it is actually part of my all time favourite Poe story - the masterpiece which is The Fall of the House of Usher - I was never really aware of it. Again, yes, I had read it a few times on it own, but, because of my careless reading, I actually believed that the poem was about a haunted building. I mean, how ridiculous is that?! Can you believe it?! However, when the album was finished, "The Haunted Palace" turned out to be the one songs that actually makes me shiver - it still does - and when I listen to the album in one sitting, the very moment this song ends and the first notes of the last song begin, I start to cry. Every time. When I began working on Poetica, the poems and I were merely like friends or acquaintances, but when it was finished... we had become one.
From: https://www.soporaeternus.de/Interview_OBSKURE.html
