Interview with Rauhnåcht

https://wonderboxmetal.com/2014/04/03/interview-with-rauhnacht/

Rauhnåcht have recently released their latest album Urzeitgeist which is a dark treat to listen to. It was a pleasure to ask some questions to this elusive entity. So stick the album on and soak up the atmosphere from the songs while you read the responses below…

For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!

Rauhnåcht is an Alpine Black Metal band from Austria and exists since 2010. I am active in the Black Metal scene since 1992 through my other band Golden Dawn. With Rauhnåcht I try to create a pure, nature-based atmosphere with hypnotic song structures and strong focus to the myths of the Alpine region.

Give us a bit of history to Rauhnåcht.

In 2010 I met Max from the Alpine Folk band Sturmpercht. I was fascinated by the atmosphere of their music, so I created the first Rauhnåcht songs on the basis of samples out of Sturmpercht albums. I also went to a cave with some simple traditional instruments and a field recorder to record some basic tracks and background effects that can be heard on many Rauhnåcht songs. I really like the special atmosphere this process brought to the first Rauhnåcht album „Vorweltschweigen“. In 2011 and 2012 we also released an EP called „Waldeinsamkeit“ and a split-EP with Sturmpercht. Rauhnåcht have played two live gigs with session musicians so far.

What are your influences?

Basically it’s still the same music that made me start composing songs more than 20 years ago – the pioneers of the second Black Metal wave from Scandinavia, as well as the mighty Bathory. Today I don’t really get inspiration by any current bands, I am rather influenced by the mighty nature of my home country and the emotions I feel when I walk up on the mountains.

What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?

I work at my own recording studio and so I have to listen to a lot of music every day. At the moment I master some obscure old Folk records from the 70ies. When I don’t work on studio projects I am almost happy to have silence around me. I recommend all young metal heads to get in touch with the roots of this music, when records didn’t have all the same generic plastic sound as today.
What did you want to achieve with your new album?

I think it is the wrong attitude for an artist to have some kind of „achievement“ as desire when composing music. I want to transform my emotions into music and want to be satisfied with the result, that’s all. Oh yes, and I wanted to write acceptable German poems as lyrics for the first time.

Are you happy with how it turned out?

There are always details of the sound and the arrangements that you would like to alter. But there is also a point where you have to lean back and say, ok, it is good as it is. Full satisfaction with my music is never possible for me, otherwise I wouldn’t have any will to continue.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

They reflect a pure, traditional, nature-based view on life. I often use myths and descriptions of nature as metaphors for this ideal puristic lifestyle. I want to show the way back – people should think for themselves about all possible aspects of this.

Rauhnåcht PictureGive us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

Most of the time I start with a field recording, a sample of a traditional instrument or just the sound of water or wind to evoke a certain atmosphere. When this atmosphere fulfills me, I start to play guitar riffs around that. I record everything I compose immediately, sometimes I even start to mix during the songwriting process. Then I arrange all the rest. Good songs are written quite fast, at least the central ideas of them. When I struggle with the structures or with certain parts, its a sign for me to delete the song idea. That’s not always easy, especially as I am a one man band. For me the most demanding and rewarding aspect of writing music is, that it is creative and structured at the same time.

In my review I state “Rauhnåcht evoke the same feelings of mystical grandeur that bands like Emperor and Gehenna were so good at playing back in the 90′s” – what are your thoughts on this?

The first Emperor album was for sure an inspiration for me when I was young, also early Satyricon, Burzum and of course Bathory. I think I can’t deny these roots and I don’t feel ashamed for them. I think that the era between 1992 and 1997 was the strongest Black Metal era, of course mainly manifested through the Scandinavian bands. When bands like Dimmu Borgir and others became „big“ and the modern production techniques started to get easily accessible, the true spirit within Black Metal music faded.

Some of the subtle instrumentation and effects aid the songs in their formation but only become apparent on closer inspection. Was this a conscious decision?

Of course it was. As I mentioned, I usually start my songwriting with field recordings and effect sounds. Sometimes this is no longer necessary as soon as the rest of the tracks is recorded, but often I just leave that in the background to keep this subtle atmosphere. Think of a forest with its natural undergrowth and thicket.

How do you feel you fit into the Black Metal scene?

Personally I don’t feel any link to the Black Metal scene anymore. The way people create or perceive music has changed during the years, in my opinion there is much less dedication in the scene. Most people regard music as just another hobby in between drinking beer and playing computer games, bands come and go, every nerd can create „bedroom Black Metal“ with a guitar and a computer. So I have enough Black Metal around me through my works as producer and my own music, but don’t feel like belonging to any scene.

How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?

I will focus even more on a hypnotic, meditative structure and sound without losing the raw Black Metal energy.

What’s next for Rauhnåcht?

Many walks through hidden paths in the mountains for inspiration. In autumn there will be a split album with Sturmpercht called „Zur Ew’gen Ruh“ on CD and double LP (probably also in a wooden box). Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you and hails to all fans of individual Black Metal music!

Thanks!

(((O))) INTERVIEW: RAUHNÅCHT: FROM THE ALPINE PEAKS

Interview: Rauhnåcht

https://echoesanddust.com/2018/08/rauhnacht-from-the-alpine-peaks/

"Atmospheric music with inspiration from black metal and folk" would be too long, so I understand when my label "Alpine black metal" will still be used in the future. But actually Rauhnåcht contains more colours, so maybe I will be successful in bringing in the term "mountain metal".

by Guido Segers | August 12, 2018 | Interviews
The Alps are a mesmerising part of the European landscape. Inhospitable, inaccessible and full of inspiration for many artists throughout the ages. From composers to painters and writers, the mountains have a special attraction. I can tell… One of those artists is Rauhnåcht, hailing from Austria.

This band is the brainchild of Stefan Traunmüller, a restless musician with a small cohort of bands under his belt. Just a small selection contains Golden Dawn, A Portrait of Flesh and Blood, Wallachia and that’s just the start. Rauhnåcht takes a particular place in his work and feels quite distinct from most bands you might have heard before that merge folk with black metal.

Taking inspiration from the Alpine traditions, it’s a band that requires a different kind of listening. Music, that somehow emulates the eerie sounds of the peeks and embodies the myths and fears of the inhabitants. I found Stefan eager to answer some of my questions, which you can enjoy below. We spoke about the majestic feeling of the Alps I find in his music, his love for the authentic and aesthetically fitting and the collaboration on Sprukgeschichten.

E&D: Hello, how did you get started with Rauhnåcht and where does the name come from?

Stefan: The starting point was in 2010, when I met Max of Sturmpercht and was intrigued by the magic of some of these archaic Alpine folk tracks. So I took samples and loops of their music and formed black metal songs out of it. The result was the first album Vorweltschweigen. The name comes from the Rauhnächte, which are, according to old belief of the Alpine region, 12 magic nights during the change of the year. In this time, the borders between this reality and beyond dimensions are open and communication with animals and the dead is possible. Another band holding the rights on the name Rauhnacht threatened me with legal action, so it was decided to make an å out of the a. In my local dialect (and especially in Bavaria) the a is more or less spoken like the Scandinavian å, so this makes sense.

E&D: You’ve been involved with various projects, I’m interested to ask you how they connect to each other. Particularly, of course, the project Sturmpercht and Rauhnåcht?

Stefan: My initial project was Golden Dawn with three albums between 1996 and 2010. Yes, I am involved in quite a lot of projects in one way or another, too many to mention them. I work as a producer and engineer in my own recording studio and sometimes I am asked to play as a studio musician or to contribute something to existing arrangements. There are even projects where I am “ghost writer” for singers that cannot play an instrument but want to have a band. Sturmpercht is such a case, the members of the first albums more or less disappeared and the main man asked me to carry on for him on the basis of numerous riffs, snippets, samples and field recordings from different musicians. The work for the split Zur Ew’gen Ruh was very interesting because I developed all songs in two different directions for two different bands.

E&D: What inspired you to explore Alpine heathenism and mysteries in your music, after having been active in various other thematic avenues? Are there any bands you see as examples for what you’ve done with Rauhnåcht?

Stefan: The early Sturmpercht albums were the conceptual template for the first Rauhnåcht album. I have never heard such a fitting musical transformation of all the eerie and strange Alpine myths and rites. Of course, I know a lot of bands that call themselves pagan metal but many of them stay on a quite superficial level in exploring heathen traditions – at least some years ago, I witness that nowadays there is a growing interest of finding more honest and authentic approaches to this. More and more young people cherish the roots of their local culture, including dialect and special masquerade during rites. I think that this is a logic counter-trend to the globalised world that leaves less and less space for real individualism. But this should by no means be a political statement, nor should a support for local cultures in art be used in a political way.

E&D: I’m curious if you could share some views and insights into the myths and legends you voice through your music, maybe some examples or outlines?

Stefan: I think that the concepts and ideas behind Alpine traditions and myths are not so much different to other regions, but they are exercised in a unique way. For example, the Perchten runs with the craftily designed masks are something very special. As with any folklore, this has been commercialised a lot but the deeper you enter the more remote Alpine valleys, the purer the traditions have been preserved. The Rauhnåcht lyrics have a lot of connections to tales that refer to certain mountains, moors or other places. For example, there is a rock on a mountain near my birthplace that is called “sleeping witch”, because it really looks like this. Of course, there is a tale that refers to this place and explains how the naughty witch was punished and transformed into stone. The tales are full of trolls, hounds, worms, and giants and when you are like me a lot on desolate mountain paths, you get an impression how each place has its distinct special energy that fits the mood of the tales. I had the big luck to grow up at the foot of the Untersberg. This mountain is often referred to as the heart chakra of Europe, we know sayings like this even from the Dalai Lama. There are a lot of really obscure tales surrounding the Untersberg, a lot of them contain time phenomenons and dwarves that lead hikers into the center of the mountain. Rauhnåcht breathes the atmosphere of this mountain and other places in my region, I have the music in my mind when I am hiking and I visualize the places when I compose and record. So actually I could also call the style “mountain metal”.

E&D: You’ve brought out records with both Sturmpercht and Rauhnåcht. Particularly enjoyable I find my first experience with your music, the release of Zur ew’gen Ruh from 2014. How do you walk the tight line, where these projects are distinct, yet also really feed into each other?

Stefan: I think that arranging is what I am best at. I am not someone who composes great tunes and songs every day, but when I have a basic idea or riff, I can take this as starting point and simply walk in two different directions from there. On this album, I wrote a complete song for Sturmpercht one time, a complete song for Rauhnåcht the other time and then I just deleted everything apart from the basic idea and built the song anew out of this fundament. Again I can use the metaphor of a mountain, this album is one mountain with two peaks, one rough and full of rocks enshrouded in mist, the other one calmer with meadows and fountains and Alp huts, where old farmers tell stories of long forgotten times.

E&D: How do you go about writing and creating the music you make? Do you start with the concept or with the music?

Stefan: It all starts with a feeling. When I play something and my soul resonates in the same way as it does when I am walking some majestic path in the mountains, then I know that a good song has just come into being, I only have to stick to this feeling while doing all the „technical“ work of arranging and producing. Sometimes, even a sample of just one tone played in the right way with the right instrument can create this special feeling that inspires me. This is why I love to work with samples or loops, they immediately throw you into the right mood and often I can even delete them in the end, because I built everything well around them.

To be honest, I almost never start with lyrics or concepts, to the contrary, most of the time a song is already finished as an instrumental before I start to think about the lyrics. It is easy for me to find the best places and melody lines for vocals but hard to find words, especially in German. Sometimes, a few words or a certain line suddenly appears when I repeat a part again and again in my mind. I really like to be intuitive when I create music, usually, this brings much better results than stuff that has been mangled through mind and thoughts for too many times.

E&D: The latest release featuring Rauhnåcht, is the Spukgeschichten – Anciennes légendes des Alpes record. How did this come into being and what brought the 3 bands on this record together? What can you say about its overall theme?

Stefan: The idea appeared when I got into contact with Léon from the French bands Grylle and Hanternoz. He is also very fascinated by the old stories of the French parts of the Alps. Tannöd is a mysterious band from Southern Germany that is also rooted in topics about nature and local myths. So we decided to build a bridge over the Alps between France, Austria, and Bavaria. Each band represents its region and on the bonus side of the double LP, I combined field recordings of all three regions, so the listener really is on a trip through the whole Alps.

E&D: The aesthetics of your work get a lot of attention. Natural views, pagan imagery and also amazing editions. I imagine a lot of work goes into that. Can you tell something about this? What do you aim for with the physical releases you put out?

Stefan: I just had the luck to work with the right people who know how to create a fitting visualisation of my music. On the first two full-lengths, as well as on the upcoming album, I had Moga Alexandru (Kogaion Art) from Romania as artwork designer. This man really embraces the spirit of nature in his works, I know that he is in deep love with the Romanian mountains and he also takes great pictures. Max from Steinklang shares my faible for special releases like wooden boxes. For the first version of Zur Ew’gen Ruh we had a box with branches from a fir and a bottle of “Zirbenschnaps”, I really like collectors’ items like this. For the Spukgeschichten split, Joanna (Atelier Chandelours), the girlfriend of the Hanternoz singer, drew a super-size painting of the Alps with a broken bridge. I don’t really like artificially constructed Photoshop-covers, at least not for Rauhnåcht, so I either aim for majestic photographs or for paintings of a natural scenery. I like it when a supernatural touch is added, like the creature on Vorweltschweigen, the album cover of the new album will also feature a connection of nature and let’s call it a higher sphere.

E&D: Are there any artists you would recommend, that you feel are kindred spirits for you?

Stefan: For me, still nothing can or will ever beat Bathory, without Under the Sign of the Black Mark, Hammerheart and Twilight of the gods I would have never started music the way I did maybe. I do not follow the current scene at all, in fact I do not listen to metal anymore, but Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch and Evilfeast would be three names that come to my mind now that you ask me this.

E&D: Could your music be made anywhere else in your perception?

Stefan: The funny thing is that several other mountain regions in different parts of the world have similar myths and similar atmospheres in music. I use a lot of samples or instruments from traditional Mongolian music. These people have a long tradition of overtone and throat singing also. The new album will also feature a traditional flute instrument from Persia called Duduk, which has an exceptionally melancholic sound. When I use sounds of alphorns, why not also didgeridoo? Both instruments are clearly related. The first tasks of music as signals over long distances and as vehicle to support rituals and shamanic work were similar with many ancient tribes all around the world. So I don’t limit myself by excluding certain instruments, everything can be used that creates the atmosphere I aim for.

E&D: What to you is the meaning of this thing called black metal, specially today?

Stefan: Okay, basically we have two groups of black metal bands, first the “traditionalists” that still think that it is cool to burn churches and praising Satan in one way or another is essential for a “black metal lifestyle”. Second, we have the bands that don’t really care about topics and only like to play black metal as a music style. Most of them give themselves a pseudo-ideology and their lyrics are full of serpents and anti-cosmic chaos. When you talk with them, you often can’t find real knowledge about those topics. This is dangerous, because you still open the door to these energies, no matter if you invoke them seriously or only “just for fun”. And there is one thing that those people often do not understand in my opinion: When you want to follow Satan, you only have to swim with the tide of our modern society, he is omnipresent. Continue with your slave-job, eat supermarket-rubbish, follow the ideology of mass media and Satan will for sure be your companion. This does not go well with the rebellish anti-social attitude within black metal.

Personally, I respect when bands create a really negative and chaotic atmosphere in their music but this does not correspond with my lifestyle and spirituality. I accept my own inner dark side, as well as the dark sides of this material sphere we live in, but I for myself do not intentionally focus on chaos and destruction. Also I do not believe that anyone can reach true fulfilment through Satan. This is why I actually do not want to call my music black metal, on the other hand, people have the constant need to label something. “Atmospheric music with inspiration from black metal and folk“ would be too long, so I understand when my label “Alpine black metal” will still be used in the future. But actually Rauhnåcht contains more colours, so maybe I will be successful in bringing in the term “mountain metal”.

E&D: What future plans do you have for Rauhnåcht?

Stefan: The new album called Unterm Gipfelthron will be out in autumn. By the time this interview is online, maybe people will already know the label to release it, right now we did not make an official announcement yet. I still have some ambient material aside, also one long track with a lot of nature sounds and relatively pure arrangement, this is ready to be released on another split or “special release”. In the next years, I’d like to keep up with both, serious well-produced full length releases as well as more obscure, raw and limited stuff.

E&D: If you had to describe Rauhnåcht as a type of food, what would it be and why?

Stefan: Bread baked in a wood-fired oven, smoked cheese on it, mountain herbs on top. And a glass of Zirbenschnaps.