Interviews

Kto si, čo robíš, čo ťa najviac zaujíma práve v týchto dňoch ?

Čau. Som Matej, robím všeličo, profesionálne sa venujem komunikácii. Už vyše 20 rokov robím hudbu v rámci môjho projektu Phragments. Momentálne sa snažím skĺbiť rodinu, prácu a 3 vinyly, ktoré mi majú vyjsť v najbližších týždňoch/mesiacoch.

Kedy a ako vznikol projekt Phragments a ako priala doba a domáca scéna temnej ambientnej muzike v čase jeho vzniku - bol si súčasťou nejakého subkultúrneho hnutia, alebo si bol pionierom tohoto žánru u nás doma? Kam sa odvtedy posunul Phragments a aj celý žáner?

Projekt Phragments vznikol v roku 2002 v Bratislave. Od začiatku ho vediem sám, v posledných rokoch sa ku mne pridal môj dlhoročný kamarát Nenad Branković. V roku 2002 to bolo na Slovensku zaujímavé. V rámci experimentálnej elektroniky nás bolo zopár, dark ambient nerobil prakticky nikto. Pre gotikov to bola nuda, metalisti tomu ešte neprišli na chuť. Ja som sa k žánru dostal cez extrémny metal, v roku 1996 som objavil veci z labelu Cold Meat Industry a to poznamenalo môj hudobný vývoj navždy. Potrebu vyjadrovať sa hudbou som mal už od strednej školy – najprv som mal s kamarátmi psychedelickú kapelu, potom som pochopil, že na zhmotnenie mojich hudobných svetov musím robiť hudbu sám. Phragments sa odvtedy posunul relatívne. Na začiatku to nebol čistý dark ambient, skôr kombinácia orchestrálnych a industriálnych prvkov. Neskôr som sa posunul k čistejšej dark ambientnej forme. Na druhej strane napríklad materiál na splite so Zmyrnou je dosť odlišný od typického zvuku Phragments.

Máš na konte šesť albumov, viacero kolaborácií a vystúpení doma aj v zahraničí. Ktoré diela a aktivity považuješ za svoje najpamätnejšie a vďaka čomu?

To je veľmi ťažko povedať. Phragments má za sebou dlhú históriu a každý album, spolupráca či koncert odrážajú časový bod, v ktorom boli realizované. Čo sa týka albumov - prelomový bol určite „Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood”, cez ktorý sa mi podarilo zviditeľniť na globálnej scéne v rámci žánru. Ďalším dôležitým bodom bol nasledujúci album New Kings and New Queens, kde som šiel do takého minimalizmu v rámci hudobného vyjadrenia, že to mnohí nezvládli . Okrem toho to predznamenalo hlbší ponor do vôd čistého dark ambientu. Koncertov bolo veľa, podarilo sa mi hrať v starých vojenských bunkroch, v obrovskom squate, v renesančných kaštieľoch, ale aj v rôznych štandardnejších kluboch po Európe. Všetko má svoje pozitíva, ale najradšej hrávam na čudných, netypických miestach.

V auguste vychádza kolaborácia Phragments s black metalovou Zmyrnou “Concilium” - ako sa zrodila idea spolupráce?

Idea sa zrodila, keď sme sa zoznámili s Michalom zo Zmyrny na ich koncerte pred dvoma rokmi. Vedeli sme o sebe navzájom a pomerne rýchlo sme si povedali, že by sme mali niečo spolu urobiť. Ostatné už išlo samo – postupne sme pracovali na materiáli, až do úspešného konca.

Témou kolaborácie je Koncil v Kostnici (1414 – 1418) - toto dôležité cirkevné stretnutie okrem iného posilnilo represálie voči vtedajším reformátorom, ktoré viedli k upáleniu Jána Husa a husitským povstaniam. Ako došlo k výberu tejto témy? Má presah do súčastnosti alebo tá pri tvorbe “Concilium” nebola dôležitá?

Od začiatku sme obaja vedeli, že chceme robiť nejakú stredovekú tému. Mňa stredovek fascinuje už od detstva. Ku katolíckej cirkvi máme myslím obaja pomerne jasný, kritický postoj. Ja som pôvodne navrhoval spracovať tému heretických siekt (ktorú som nakoniec spracoval v jednej zo skladieb), no nakoniec sme sa rozhodli pre Kostnický koncil. Ako hovoríš, je to veľmi dôležitá udalosť v rámci obdobia vrcholného stredoveku, ktorá významne ovplyvnila ako cirkevný, tak aj svetský život na nasledujúce storočia. Pre mňa osobne majú všetky dôležité historické témy presah do súčasnosti, no na ten som sa pri spracovaní témy a kompozícii materiálu vôbec nesústredil. Mojim cieľom bolo vystihnúť atmosféru toho konkrétneho obdobia.

Z akých zdrojov ste čerpali pri tvorbe konceptu “Concilium” - tématických aj hudobných?

Môžem hovoriť za seba – o Kostnickom koncile som vedel mnoho, no doštudoval som si rôzne historické materiály – textové aj obrazové. Dôležitým bola určite kronika od Ulricha von Richentala, mešťana z Kostnice, ktorý koncil zaznamenal slovom aj obrazom. Hudobné materiály som študovať nepotreboval - stredoveká hudba ma baví už desiatky rokov, takže mám slušný prehľad.

Na novom albume sa striedajú 4 skladby Zmyrny so 4 skladbami od Phragments. Nemali ste chuť spraviť spoločný track?

Michal aj mal, ale ja som to zavrhol kvôli jednej v podstate technickej, ale dôležitej veci: akustické prostredia, v ktorých sa odohráva moja hudba, sú natoľko odlišné od akustických prostredí Zmyrny, že by to jednoducho neznelo dobre. Myslím si, že veci netreba zbytočne hrotiť. Spoločným menovateľom je tu téma a organické striedanie skladieb od oboch projektov.

Keď skladáš stredoveké zvukové plochy, čo si pri nich predstavuješ a ako hlboko sa vieš v predstavách dostať?

Ja si od začiatku v rámci tvorby dávam rôzne obmedzenia, podporuje to môj kreatívny proces. Tentokrát som si povedal, že nebudem využívať žiadne moderne znejúce zvuky. V mojich skladbách na splitku teda nie je počuť žiadny synth ani nič podobné. Všetky zdroje zvukov sú vokálneho, alebo akustického pôvodu. Bola to zábava a výzva. Chcel som, aby materiál znel špinavo, podprodukovane, ako zo starej (ale veľkej) krypty. Myslím, že sa mi to podarilo.

Čo je ten moment, keď si pri tvorbe skladieb na “Concilium” povieš “toto som chcel dosiahnuť, takto to má znieť”?

Skladby často komponujem veľmi dlho, vraciam sa k nim, mením, vyhadzujem jednotlivé prvky. Tentoraz to šlo rýchlo. V nejakom bode som si vždy povedal – toto je ono, takto to má znieť. A bolo. Predsa len, robím to už vyše 20 rokov, takže sa už poznám a viem, kedy prestať.

Ako veľmi je pre teba v hudbe dôležitá melódia a rytmus?

Čo sa týka mojej hudby, nie je dôležitá takmer vôbec. Občas melódiu použijem, no viac ma baví, ak nie je konkrétna. Mojou hudbou sa snažím vytvoriť pocit, atmosféru, namaľovať mentálny svet.

Čo plánuješ s Phragments do budúcnosti?

V najbližšej budúcnosti je to koncert na Hradbách Samoty. Ako som už spomínal, v týchto týždňoch/mesiacoch mi majú vyjsť tri albumy - splitko so Zmyrnou, môj posledný album Anthems of Solitude na vinyle (na poľskom labeli Fluttering Dragon) a kolaboračný album s talianskou legendou dark ambientu New Risen Throne na holandskom labeli Winterlight. Je toho veľa, pri mojom tempe vydávania albumov je to až neuveriteľné. No a postupne sa mi snáď podarí vrátiť ku komponovaniu nového albumu Phragments, na ktorom pracujem už pár rokov.

Na rebríčku obľúbených historických období - na ktorom mieste je stredovek a prečo? Ktoré obdobie nasleduje?

Históriu mám veľmi rád. Obľúbených období mám viacero, ale neviem ich dať do rebríčku – to je príliš obmedzujúce. Milujem starý Sumer, tam sa to všetko začalo. Samozrejme stredovek, bavia ma vikingovia a slabosť mám pre prelom 19. a 20. storočia.

Ktoré zobrazenia stredoveku v knihách alebo filme považuješ za najvydarenejšie?

Určite Meno ruže, knižne aj filmovo. Markéta Lazarová, Siedma pečať. Ale milujem ak starý britský seriál Robin of Sherwood, ktorý som videl, keď som mal 8 rokov. A tam sa pravdepodobne môj vzťah k stredoveku začal.

Stáva sa ti, že ti niečo z dnešného sveta pripomenie stredovek? Myslíš si, že v niektorých ohľadoch mohol byť stredovek dokonca vyspelejší než dnešná doba?

No, maximálne úrovňou tmárstva a bludov. Stredovek určite nebol vyspelejší, teda ak sa bavíme o európskom stredoveku. Bola to doma tmárstva, totality, „zabúdania” objavov. Ak by sme sa bavili o stredoveku v arabských krajinách, tam je to úplne o inom.

Stredoveké pamiatky alebo príbehy, ktoré odporúčaš.

Na Slovensku máme najviac zrúcanín hradov na kilometer štvorcový v celej Európe. Tu treba začať. V tejto súvislosti odporúčam skvelú knižku „Labyrintem tajemna, aneb, Průvodce po magických místech Československa”.

Ktorý zvuk (štúdio, album/kapela), artwork (album cover) a videoklip na domácej scéne ťa v súčastnosti zaujal najviac ?

Veľmi ma bavia Ceremony of Silence, Solipsism, Hecatoncheir, Adacta, samozrejme Zmyrna. Artwork – čokoľvek od Dávida Glombu, Svjatogora, Blooming Stones. Videoklipy nesledujem.

Je niekto na domácej alebo zahraničnej scéne s kým by si si rád prečítal rozhovor na Jablkách ďaleko od stromu ?

Ktokoľvek z vyššie uvedených kapiel, ale tie už tam takmer všetky boli .

Motto alebo odkaz na záver.

Verte odborníkom. Cirkev je vždy nepriateľ. Smrť fašizmu.

Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the musical project since the recording and release of the new album?

I have been creating the songs for this album during the past three years. It’s been an ongoing process and all four songs are bound by a common theme that I have been exploring during those years. Since music is not my day job, and I am first and foremost a husband and father, I have had less time for music. However, once the muse kicks in, it’s unstoppable.

Recently you have released a new album, musically how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?

Musically, “Anthems Of Solitude” is a continuation of the path that I have been exploring on previous albums. The music on the new album is dark ambient with orchestral undertones, field recordings and a bit of analogue synths. I have recorded a bit of vocals this time, too. Where it differs from the last full-length “All Towers Must Fall”, is that the songs are more introspective. This, however is most definitely connected to the theme of the album.

This is also your first album in the past 4 years, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time frame?

During the past 4 years I have been doing what I always do – just keep composing at a pace that results from two factors: my lack of time and the muse. Sometimes I don’t compose anything for weeks, even months. At other times, I create sketches of two songs in two days. What never happens though is that I would finish a song in a short time. The songs always have to undergo a process of ripening.

You have referred to your music as being “Orchestral Dark Ambient” and “Apocalyptic Electronics’can you tell us a little bit more about this term?

Well, the first definition is more musical – the genre I mostly operate in is dark ambient with orchestral undertones, or an overall orchestral atmosphere, if you wish. Apocalyptic Electronics refers more to the semantics behind my musical work. In my musical worlds, ‘m never too far away from an overall apocalyptic feeling.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?

The artwork was created by my good friend, the talented graphic artist Nenad Branković. I have cooperated with him for more than 10 years and he has also been a live member of Phragments. The cover is pure atmosphere, and stands for the main topic of the album: solitude. The cover is less dark than the ones on my previous albums. It has lot of white colour and that hints a bit to where I have evolved during the period of the last three years. However, I’m not sure you can hear too much light in the music.

In a previous interview you described yourself as a pagan, can you tell us a little bit more about how your pagan beliefs have evolved over the years?

I say that I’m a pagan, but in the sense of being opposed to gods and religions. I’m an atheist (used to be a strong antitheist). However the topics of religions have always been of interest to me. And I love studying diverse mythologies from around the world.

You also have mentioned having an interest in extreme metal, have you also played this style in past bands and also do you feel your diverse interest in music has made you a better musician over the years?

As a fan and music consumer, extreme metal is actually what I mostly listen to. I have never played in a metal band, but I have been an avid fan since my early teens, even spreading the gospel (haha) during my days as a university lecturer. I love black metal, death metal and doom metal for life. I definitely think my diverse musical tastes (that go far beyond metal) have contributed to where I am now as a composer.

You also have an interest in literature, what are you currently reading these days and also do any of the authors you have read also have an influence in your musical concepts?

I have very little time to read fiction nowadays, but if I do read, it is mostly graphic novels from all around the world. I love comics and have really fallen in love with the format of graphic novels. My favourite author has to be Alan Moore.

What are some of the best shows that you have played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Well, I definitely know what my best show was – I have also released it on a second disc of the All Towers Must Fall 2CD. It was on the 4^th of July 2014 at the Hradby Samoty V. festival. Such a wonderful event and such a great concert. The festival took place in a renaissance castle and we played in this amazing theatre room. The audience was very responsive, we decided to play in darkness with no lights and the concert was a total blast. During the years I was lucky to have had the chance to play at some really amazing locations – castles, bunkers, great small clubs. My stage performance isn’t anything fancy – I used to play with a video projection, in the last years I play without it.

Over the years you also have been a part of a few splits, can you tell us a little bit more about the other musical projects that had participated on the recordings?

Yes, I have participated on splits, compilations and had quite a lot of collaborations. A very good showcase of my collaboration tracks is featured on Fratres – an album that collects collaborations from the previous years. The collaborations feature my friends and brothers in darkness – mostly dark ambient musicians: Atranenia, Mindspawn, Rasalhague, Sock Frontier and Terra Sancta.

The new album was released by ‘Construct.Destroy.Collective’, can you tell us a little bit more about this label and also how would you compare working with them to other labels that you have been a part of in the past?

CDC is my own label. I have run it in the early 2000s, nowadays it usually lays dormant except when I want to release or co-release an album. I have been fortunate to release most of my albums on the fantastic US label Malignant Records. For “Anthems Of Solitude”, however – I decided to go back to the roots and self-release, with Malignant Records handling the distribution of the vinyl version in the US. The reasons are multiple, but mainly that underground labels are struggling – it’s really hard for them to sell physical releases, especially CDs. So, after a talk with Malignant’s label-boss Jason, I decided to release the album myself – after all, the physical version is extremely limited (111 CDs and 111 LPs), so it wouldn’t make much sense to even send it over from Europe to the States.

On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of dark ambient?

As I see it, it has always been very positive. And that’s definitely a thing that I enjoy most on creating music – being able to communicate via my compositions with people from all around the world. I have fans in Europe, US, South America, Australia, all around.

Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician during the future?

No great ideas for the future. I let it flow. However, I suppose my next album will feature more live orchestral instruments – but who knows? I’d like to play some concerts again, but the current situation in the world doesn’t permit it. We’ll see what happens.

What are your currently listening to nowadays?

Last year it has been mostly black metal for me – I’m really glad to have discovered Aosoth’s discography. I also loved Svartsyn’s latest album, and the final album of Soli Diaboli Gloria. But my favorite scene within black metal is by far the Icelandic scene, with giants like Svartidaudi, Misthyrming, or Sinmara. This year I also came back to listening to other dark ambient artists - I have a stable 30-40 albums that I listen to - mostly titles released on Malignant Records, Cyclic Law and of course the legendary Cold Meat Industry.

Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

I want to thank you for the interview and if anyone would like to hear some apocalyptic electronics, check out my Bandcamp and submerge in the darkness.

Greetings Matej! It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to interview you in depth. Let’s start with a clarification of the project’s line-up. Though Phragments is often perceived as a solo project, you’ve sometimes described it as a duo, featuring “Matej who creates the music, and Sonic(k) creator of the videos.” Your creative collaborator and wife Soňa, also known as Sonic(k), produced the lyrics and vocal work for the track “Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood,” and a bonus video-track for the Homo Homini Lvpvs release. You’ve also worked closely with Metrom, Korinth (Robert Adamec), Atranenia, and Brada (Boris Sirka and Nenad Branković), among several others. What is the current Phragments line-up? Have there been any band member changes over the years since the project started in 2002?

Greetings Danica. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Musically speaking, Phragments has always been my solo project. In the early years, my wife Soňa created videos for the live shows. This was an integral part of Phragments live shows until around 2009. The visual aesthetics of the videos gave the whole performance a different aspect.

At first Soňa did cut-ups of old communist propaganda videos; then she moved to a less explicitly political form, playing with various combinations of desolate landscapes both natural and man-made. It all culminated with the beautiful “Macrocosmos” video, which she created using her own shots of nature. So at that time, it was only logical that I referred to Phragments as a duo.

Later on, though, I decided to play live without visuals. My decision was quite spontaneous; after Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood I wanted to explore more formless territories musically. That time was all about deconstruction of what had been, and experimenting with how minimal I could get with the musical form. The result can be heard on the album New Kings and New Queens.

At that time I decided to drop the visuals during live events. It was a furthering of the path I started musically, transposed onto the concert experience. I wanted the audience to have no external “help”, just to drown in pure music and emotion. A “stay, if you dare - or leave” situation. This was actually quite a radical step, since the majority of dark ambient artists have a visual backdrop when playing live. But it worked out great in the end. Not that I would disregard the visuals in any way; it’s just not for me right now. But who knows? Maybe I will return to having them in the future.

Regarding Nenad Branković: Nenad is a good friend of mine and an artist whose work I’ve admired since we first met in the early 2000s. He has been very active as a visual artist, but later on he also entered the musical realm. Together with Michal Tornyai, they started the martial-dark ambient-drone project Metrom. We played a couple of concerts together, and after that Nenad and I started to jam together at his home studio. The first fruit of our labor was the collaboration track of Phragments and Atranenia (Nenad’s solo project) “Evenfall” in 2011. Later, Nenad also collaborated on my New Kings and New Queens album. Since 2012, he has been joining me as an active member of Phragments on live occasions.

Phragments will always stay first and foremost my own project, but I do like to stir things up a little to keep everything flowing. And coming full circle: Nenad is the designer of the cover artwork of all Phragments releases since Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood. Our aesthetics are extremely compatible, so it was an easy choice.

How did you come up with the name Phragments, and what does it mean to you?

The name Phragments represents something symbolic, old, and disintegrated, but still very present. The meaning also refers to the music - the combination of fragments from different genres and musical cultures. The alteration in spelling was a spontaneous idea. I wanted to appropriate the word somehow so that it was mine, as was the music.

You’ve been outspoken about the importance of taking an unambiguous stand against oppression such as racism, sexism, and fascism. You wrote in a previous interview that Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood is “a tribute to all victims of genocide and…a stance against the totalitarian ideologies, which have caused it.” I’d like to hear more about the provocative philosophies and principled political stances behind your creative visions. Have you encountered any egregious misinterpretations of the statements surrounding your art?

Yes. I am deeply liberal in my worldviews; I believe that since all art is political (meaning even trying not to be political is a definitive political stance per se), one should stand behind what one believes in, or is strongly against. I think especially in genres like industrial and extreme metal it is necessary to take a stand, since it has nowadays become a sort of haven for various fascist individuals.

I miss the old-school approach, when this was just not tolerated. Ideologies that discriminate based on inborn traits are disgusting and should never be “protected” by freedom of speech. That’s just bullshit. You do not discuss with fascists. Fascism is not a “different opinion on things”, but an abhorrent ideology that must not be allowed into the societies’ standard discourse. When I started Phragments I was younger and a bit more narrow-minded, but the main points of my beliefs have not changed. I stand in strong opposition against totalitarian ideologies.

I have always been very open about all of this, so it came as a big surprise when I found out my music was being listened to by adherents of said ideologies. I even told several of “these fans” to just fuck off and not listen to my music. Of course I cannot make them comply, but maybe I can disgust them enough to stop! I miss the old times when musicians took a clear stand.

That’s partly why I started to reject the “martial” genre moniker: because it lumped Phragments in one category with fascist and pseudo-fascist projects. I am very critical about what goes on in the world today, but in a much different way than this “against the modern world - romantically dreaming of a utopian epoch” bullshit. Wake up! It’s not the 1850s anymore. There’s no more space for ideological romanticizing after WWII.

Your album New Kings and New Queens stands out from your other releases for its minimalism. Though the title refers to human beings and there’s a story behind it, you’ve described the album’s function as “a projection screen.” The tracks serve as landmarks to provide a basic orientation, leaving a great deal of room for listeners to shape the work through their own perceptions. In this context, you also mentioned that one thing you appreciate about dark ambient is that it “leaves some work for the listeners to do and supports their imagination.” Could you share a bit about the range of listeners’ responses to the album? What kind of “work” do you feel is involved in developing a robust appreciation of dark ambient music?

New Kings and New Queens was my personal adventure, and also a rebellion of sorts. After the success of Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood I felt I had arrived at a crossroads: either do another album in the same vein, or do something completely different. I chose the latter. I have to admit I did expect that it would piss off some of my fans. And it did. Not only fans, but also reviewers. And although it was definitely a subversive act from my side, the music wasn’t composed with spiteful intent. It was an authentic portrait of where I wanted to go musically at that time. I just wanted to go as “bare-bones” as it gets, using practically no melody and very few obvious changes: pure atmosphere and emotion. Kudos to my label boss Jason Mantis (of Malignant Records) for accepting the album as it was, and providing me with the necessary support and creative freedom.

So New Kings and New Queens truly is a blank canvas for the listeners. It’s akin to projective techniques in psychology, where the object serves as a means for the person to reveal things from their personal unconscious. In the end, what the listeners experience has a lot more to do with themselves than with the recorded music. Some of the listeners found the album to be very calm. Some found it completely oppressive.

This is like magic for me: to be able to offer the listeners a space for self-reflection. I loved creating the album, although it was definitely the toughest one to give birth to. I went through endless exploration. I drifted off on it, often felt unable to focus on critical listening, and encountered some really bizarre technical issues when mixing it. But it was worth it a thousand times.

Regarding the last part of your question: I think in order to become a regular listener of dark ambient (and I don’t mean once a month; I mean much more often than that), one has to be a rather trained listener. It’s helpful to have some experience with other complex and fringe genres before truly appreciating dark ambient. It’s one thing to listen to it as a part of a film or game soundtrack, and quite another to listen to 60 minutes of it consciously. One must have an affinity for the obscure, and for that which lies beyond. One must have a fondness for escapism and adventure. And patience, too, is a must.

You’ve described Phragments as “orchestral industrial” as well as dark ambient. I’m curious about your industrial roots, especially as expressed through early Phragments releases such as We Are All Beasts. Switzerland Occupied, your second release, is classified as rhythmic noise. What routes did you take, musically speaking, that led to the formation of Phragments? Were there any unexpected factors that played pivotal roles in your early musical trajectory?

There were quite a few unexpected factors. In order to understand, one needs to know a bit about my own musical history. When I was about 8 years old, my older sister bought a tape with a Guns n’ Roses album that rocked my world hard. Then, around the age of 12, it was Depeche Mode and grunge at the same time. I also got into extreme metal quite early on, when I was 14. Not in the usual Iron Maiden way, either. Mostly doom and black metal. I went straight for the extreme stuff.

At 15 I was introduced to Cold Meat Industry. This was a completely new and utterly fascinating universe for me. I started with Arcana, and followed with artists such as Desiderii Marginis, raison d’être, and Coph Nia, slowly devouring most of CMI’s catalogue. However, it was more than seven years later that I founded Phragments, so I had plenty of time to discover different musical genres and figure out how I wanted to approach things. I’ve also been influenced by 1980s goth and ‘60s psychedelia.

I did refer to Phragments’ sound in the past as orchestral industrial. My original musical goal was to combine orchestral and industrial elements. Musically and aesthetically, my roots are firmly based in both genres. During the first years of Phragments, I had both orchestral and industrial tracks, but most of them were a blend of these two genres. Regarding dark ambient: this came naturally, without me consciously wanting to incorporate it. The dark ambient started to be more prominent on Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood and then came into full force on New Kings and New Queens. All Towers Must Fall is, in a sense, the beginning of a new musical era for Phragments. This era isn’t as stylistically pure as New Kings and New Queens, and once again I’m using a combination of different elements, but this time they grow out of dark ambient. I have a soft spot for opposites, so even if I think I am working on an album with a softer sound, the disruptive noisier elements tend to find their way in. The material for the new album is most definitely dark ambient, but again there are some new elements.

There are lots of non-musical factors that influence the direction of my music. It’s mostly books and visual art, but there are also a lot of indirect influences from atmospheres and emotions that I then transform into compositions of my own.

You have an extensive background in higher education. You completed a master’s degree in psychology, and a doctoral degree for which you wrote a thesis on the psychological aspects of film music. You served as a faculty member at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, and you have lectured internationally. Do you still teach? How has your education - formal and informal - shaped your work with Phragments?

I do not teach anymore. I taught for eight years; it was a great, intense time. However, I burned out after that, said goodbye to academia, and found a new field to work in. My studies did bring me a much deeper understanding of sound and music - meanings, origins, and contexts - but I don’t think my education directly influenced my musical work. I consider my music to be completely separate from all other areas of my daily life, and I never over-intellectualize the composition process. I try to compose based on what I feel and what I want to “paint” with my music.

In their book Spaces Speak. Are You Listening?, Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter discuss aural architecture and auditory spatial awareness. They assert that modern culture devalues engaged listening, and overemphasizes the visual and utilitarian aspects of physical spaces. Blesser and Salter distinguish hearing (detection of sound) from the aural or human experience of sound, and also from listening (actively attending to meaning, symbolism, and emotions involved in sound). What are your thoughts on the art of listening? If you were asked to design a contemplative space exclusively for the purpose of using dark ambient music to facilitate meditation and deeper listening skills, how would you approach this challenge?

This question feels very much like one of my lectures, but I’ll try to be brief!

Both hearing and listening are important when perceiving music. Hearing attunes your body to the music, and is responsible for various phenomena, e.g. the perception of surprise in a musical composition. However, listening is much more important. That’s where emotions and meaning emerge.

While hearing is more general and its principles work more or less the same within one culture, listening is a completely unique process, influenced strongly by factors on the side of the perceiver. In other words, what you feel and perceive when listening to music - especially in an abstract genre such as dark ambient - is very much YOU. Your perception is colored by your character, experiences, preferences, fears, and yearnings.

Regarding perfect spaces to listen to music, I’d distinguish between a concert situation and domestic listening. In my opinion, both provide great possibilities for deep listening and introspection. Dark ambient live performances are different to performances in other musical genres. People do have a certain feeling of togetherness, but it’s more akin to a cinematic experience. When watching a movie in a cinema, you’re basically alone with the movie, but simultaneously surrounded by many people that are also alone with the same movie. Thus, a collective experience emerges. So I’d argue that a live performance listening situation is also amazing for dark ambient, provided the audience is respectful and came to enjoy the performance in the first place.

I love playing live in strange environments. Over the years, I’ve played in a WW2 shelter, a theater hall in a renaissance castle, an abandoned decaying 16th century monastery…you name it. These places provided amazing experiences, both for me as a musician performing there and also for the audiences. I feel that live dark ambient music is best experienced in places with a specific history and past.

In a domestic listening environment, I usually listen to dark ambient via headphones, and mostly at night. I don’t have a specific listening room, since listening to dark ambient mostly transports me to another world, almost instantly. However, I know a lot of people prefer specific rooms in which they can be surrounded by the music (as physical media, artifacts, and sound). I would definitely recommend a dampening down of visual stimuli, since visuals can distract the listener from the minuscule details present in dark ambient music.

You’ve participated in many artistic collaborations, working with projects such as Metrom, Korinth, Mindspawn, Rasalhague, Shock Frontier, and Terra Sancta. What do you consider the most important qualities for fruitful creative collaborations? Reflecting on the creative processes involved, did you learn anything that stands out in hindsight?

I love collaborations. I was in a band before going solo in the early 2000s. One of the main reasons I went solo was to have total control over everything. I wanted to compose music my way, without any compromise or influence from others. After a couple of years it does get lonely, though, and the complete freedom also becomes a jail of sorts. So it was mainly for creative reasons that I decided to do collaborations once in a while.

My first collaboration was with Korinth. We worked on the compositions for the Mysteries of the Greylands album for almost two years. The result was great and the process has also awakened creative currents in my solo work as Phragments. Having another head, soul, and heart to work with during the composition process is a great adventure. I’ve never had a bad experience, but this is probably due to the fact that I only collaborate either with friends or people that I feel extremely close to musically. In my opinion the most important quality for a fruitful collaboration is a certain closeness, perhaps even intimacy, whether it’s a personal or an aesthetic-musical one. And both parties have to put their egos into the background.

I really enjoyed each and every collaboration I’ve ever done. That’s why I decided to release the Fratres album, which collects all the collaborative compositions from the past few years.

I’m curious about your everyday life - work, family, friends, interests, and other activities. How do you spend your time, and how does making music fit into the picture for you? How have changes in other spheres of life affected your music over the years?

First of all, I am a husband and devoted father of two sons, and family will always be my main focus. My sons are still very young, so I try to spend most of my free time with them. I try to enjoy it while it lasts, before they go on their own paths.

I’m currently working as a Creative Communication Director for an ecological housing product. Most of my work relates to PR and marketing, which I mostly enjoy.

Music is, and always has been, my hobby. I’ve never wanted it to be a job, because what I do is a fringe genre. I wouldn’t want to compose music for money, since I would probably not have the energy nor creativity for what I really want to do. I’ve created music for a couple of theatre and film projects, but the reason was always my appreciation for the projects, never the money. My music is sacred for me: it’s a refuge, a place to channel emotions, create worlds, and find inspiration.

My music changes as I do. Every album is an approximate reflection of where I was at the time personally. But since I don’t have the capacity to analyze myself, I can’t give you any specific examples. My life experiences do impact my music, of course, but I’d compare them to ingredients in food. You don’t really notice the specific ingredients, but if you removed any of them, it would be a different food. What I do know is that I’m only able to compose dark ambient when I’m relaxed and in a good emotional state. I can’t compose at all when I’m stressed out or feeling down.

I’d like to hear about your literary tastes. Do you have a shortlist of favorite books? What have you been reading lately that you recommend?

My literary tastes are quite specific. I’ve always loved reading about music, whether through reviews or books. I have a nice collection of books on extreme metal, and a rather small collection of books on industrial and ambient music. I’d also love to have a book on dark ambient (wink wink). When I was an academic, practically the only books I read were specialized books on sound in artistic and everyday contexts, so I have quite a few of those, too.

After my friendly divorce with academia, I was deprived of stories, and I rediscovered my old passion: comic books. The more difficult ones, I mean. Not superhero comics. In the last couple of years, I’ve read graphic novels almost exclusively. My favorite author is probably Alan Moore. He is an important inspiration for me, both as an author and as a person.

The list of other authors and works is too long to mention here. I’ve read over 30 graphic novels in 2019 alone. If anyone wants some tips, drop me a line! When it comes to books, throughout my life I’ve been an avid reader. My favorite authors of fiction include: Andrzej Sapkowski, Aldous Huxley, Hermann Hesse, August Strindberg, J. G. Ballard, Peter Høeg, Ian McEwan…and the list goes on.

Dark ambient music is sometimes described as “an acquired taste.” If you were asked to make a good case for why a newcomer should listen to dark ambient, what would you say?

Hmm….this is a hard one, since I deeply believe in total freedom to listen to what one desires and apply a “laissez-faire” approach. I did promote dark ambient a lot in the past though, mainly for the extreme metal scene. I have always thought that the genres have a lot in common in terms of meaning, emotion and atmosphere, and so a large group of extreme metal fans theoretically should like it. I was right: since the mid-2000s, extreme metal fans have finally started to discover and appreciate dark ambient.

Nowadays I don’t have the urge to convert anyone. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, right? I can only share what I’ve found in dark ambient, and if that sounds interesting to someone who isn’t acquainted with the genre, then perhaps they should try it out.

What I found in dark ambient was a feeling of positive solitude. You have to understand that unlike most of the dark ambient fans that I have met, I am a very extroverted person. But us extroverts also need a place to wind down - a place for introspection and self-reflection.

Another extremely important and utterly fascinating aspect of dark ambient that I love is the feeling of discovering new worlds. I also appreciate its timelessness, which I consider to be really important to re-discover in our hyper-accelerated world. Even within the extreme metal genre, I’ve always had a soft spot for doom metal, a subgenre known for its crawlingly slow tempos. Dark ambient was the next logical step - from tempos so extremely slow that it becomes hard to stay in beat, to complete dissolution of tempo and a feeling of timelessness.

Timelessness is still quite a worldly quality, but it’s very close to the concept of eternity, which on the other hand is a completely spiritual quality. Here we start to shift to completely different spheres of philosophy and real spirituality. How many musical genres nowadays allow you to get in direct contact with those?

You indicated above that one thing you appreciate about dark ambient is that it enables “direct contact” with spirituality. If I understand correctly you consider yourself a Pagan. This makes me wonder what kind of role, if any, dark ambient music plays in your spiritual life and how it relates to your paganism. Does it vary based on whether you’re engaging with the music as a composer or as a listener?

I consider myself a pagan from the point of view of an organized religion - as in I am “outside of the religious group”, “not serving the traditional god”. However, I am not religious in any sense. I’ve always had a lot of interest in different mythologies, and I’m a great fan of Norse mythology.

Dark ambient music is a great gateway to spiritual experience - this is connected to the self-exploratory and introspective aspect of the genre.

It does vary a lot depending on whether I engage as a composer or as a listener. Unlike a lot of others, I do not perform any religious or semi-religious rituals. When I compose, it’s a combination of the rational (the work with composing tools as such) and the emotional (my own emotional investment). Then of course there’s also the meaning-making work that I apply to the process. So there has to be a lot of control and conscious decisions present, which for me stands in opposition to spiritual experience.

On the other hand, when I engage with music solely as a listener, there is no control. No borders, no inhibitions, just pure emotion and meaning-making. For me this serves as a perfect combination for a direct spiritual experience.

Phragments recently performed at a sleep concert in Bratislava. What do you enjoy most about sleep concerts? What do you find most challenging?

Oh, I loved the whole experience. I’ve always wanted to take part in a sleep concert. I even thought of organizing one, but then I immediately remembered the few concerts that I have organized throughout the years - I could never really enjoy the musical performances themselves. So I was very happy when I got invited to the first sleep concert held in my hometown of Bratislava.

I prepared a special improvised set, very drone-y, without the occasional rough-sounding industrial elements. We (Nenad Branković and I) played around 1:00 AM, with most of the audience sleeping or drifting off. It was an amazing feeling to play for an audience with an altered state of mind. We were in total control, but we were also entrusted with the responsibility to avoid invading their mental space in a brutal manner, since in states like this, you are more open and your defense mechanisms are down.

Overall, it was an adventure that I really want to repeat. Also, in terms of the actual performance, we had much more freedom and time. Basically, when you play dark ambient to a sleeping audience, you can lose the last of your inhibitions as a performer. Since the audience really doesn’t have any direct expectations, they don’t need to be entertained at all. You can play really slow and “boring”. This is a very refreshing aspect that I hadn’t considered prior to the concert itself.

Artists often consider themselves to be mediators, vessels, or transmitters of something otherworldly or mysterious. On this view, one measure of a skillful artistic performance is its ability to awaken something vulnerable in the listener. In other words, effective art helps us become acquainted (or re-acquainted) with hidden, repressed, or previously unknown aspects of ourselves and our surroundings. What are your thoughts on this?

I very much agree. In order to evoke anything at all in the listeners, you have to get under their skin, meaning inside their psyche. Once you are able to get in - or, better to say - they let you in, their normal defenses must be lowered. This sounds so serious when it’s put into words, but in fact it’s a beautiful process.

There’s something very special about dark ambient in this regard: the abstractness of the genre and musical form and the minimal points of orientation on one hand, and the strong atmosphere and emotional impact on the other. All these things make it extremely well suited for the projection of the listener into the musical canvas, including introspection (as in observation of one’s inner world), self-exploration, and growth.

However, this can only happen if the listener is “tuned” to the artwork, accepts the musical language, and is ready to be absorbed by it.

What conditions (environmental, cultural, social, etc.) bring out the absolute best in you, creatively speaking? What helps you thrive as an artist?

Years ago, I thought I knew what it was that awakened my creativity. The older I get, though, the less certain I am about that. My own creativity is a mystery for me. I can only guess how things inside my brain might work.

There are a couple of things, though, that I am certain have a strong impact on my overall creativity. First is the environment. I get inspired mostly in nature or at places with a strong presence; ruins of castles do magic for me. You know, Slovakia has the most castle ruins per square kilometer of all European countries. I also enjoy abandoned old buildings far from civilization. On rare occasions I also find inspiration in urban environments. For example, the neo-gothic churches in Manhattan are among my personal favorites. The way they are stuck in the midst of the skyscrapers is both surreal and haunting. It makes an otherwise quite dehumanized place come alive, gives it historical perspective, and emanates beautiful darkness.

In the last couple of years I’ve noticed that my creativity tends to bloom during someone else’s artistic performance that I enjoy. Whether it’s a concert, film, installation, or theatre play, I notice that while being exposed to the art, I feel the urge to create. It’s not that I would loose focus during the piece; I just get a massive dose of creative energy.

My music is a refuge for me. It’s an outlet for emotions. It’s something that I love, want, and have to do.

Is there a closing message you’d like to leave for readers of Endarkenment?

I would like to thank you very much, Danica, for giving me the opportunity to do an in-depth interview. For the readers: I am happy for every one of you. If you haven’t had the chance to listen to Phragments, give it a try!

The opening bars to the first (title) song on the album sound like the ominous, slowed down evacuation warning. Can you tell me about the album’s theme and whether it relates to an idea about what must happen before our sorry society can move past the desperate state it is in? Do you think humanity is doomed? Is religion to blame?

As a composer of rather abstract music, when it comes to musical meaning, I like to keep things a bit open for interpretation. But the album definitely reflects the current status quo of the world, how we are not able to learn from our own mistakes in the past. The album also contemplates on what could be done – and if it is even possible – to revert the imminent doom. Religion is a complicated topic – although I am in no way a fan of religion, through the years I learned to understand that the tendency towards religion is most probably hard-wired in humans. People need to belong and have a purpose. The problem is what organized religion teaches them. Dogma instead of education. Fear, ignorance and bigotry instead of an open heart and compassion. So yes, religion is an important factor in our doom, but not the only one. As it turns out – sadly and quite surprisingly so – the internet is an extremely significant factor too. Who would have thought that such an amazing tool would have such an idiotizing effect when put into the hands of humans?

What else inspires you to imbue your recordings with such a portentous and menacing atmosphere?

What inspires me are the darker aspects of the worlds that we live in. Both on the macro-level, like politics, history, mass psychology; as well as on the micro-level, like social relationships, human drives, emotions. Since I have a degree in psychology, you could say that I tend to think about these things a lot. Sometimes too much. And then I channel this and transform it into music. But it’s not all suffering – it makes me very happy to create these dark worlds – there is the escapist motivation for sure as well as a reaching out to other people that might experience and enjoy similar emotions and aesthetics as I do.

What I love about the album is that it is not cluttered. It allows you your own time and space to be sucked into its pitch black vacuum. Is this deliberate?

Yes. My first three albums were more song-based, but then I decided to experiment a bit with a more minimal approach and composed the extremely sparse “New Kings and New Queens” album, which is a very slowly evolving piece of dark ambient. After that, I combined the two approaches and this led to “All Towers Must Fall”. I don’t want my compositions to tell a specific story – rather create a world, paint a landscape through sound. I’d say the compositions are more a topography than precise maps with directions. So the listeners get sucked into these worlds and find their own stories, based on the music, the song titles and the artwork. It’s amazing when I read reviews that reveal the imaginations people have had when listening to my music.

There is, alongside the menace, a great amount of pathos and sadness (at least to my ears) in All Towers Must Fall. This is a trait perhaps more common in funeral doom and some of the best black metal than in dark ambient. How important is genre to you and do you like to take bits of inspiration from disparate genres and styles?

My first three albums were a melange of orchestral and industrial elements, so the pathos is strongly rooted in my sound, even with the evolution into slightly different waters. As for the sadness, it has been an essential part of my music since I started to compose. The music of Phragments is an output for difficult emotions and while I’m a rather positive and extroverted person, I love art that communicates darkness, doom and melancholy.

Genre is quite important to me and that’s also why I like to break its rules. I love dark ambient and I am deeply rooted in that genre, but I also love to experiment and create my own version of the genre. I have been a metalhead since I was 14 and that – as you know – stays with you forever. Doom, death and black metal are still very important to me and I think you can find certain traces of these genres in my music, even though what I do is completely different in form. Then there is also the orchestral element, which is still present as ever, but in a different way than before.

I read about the ‘deeply processed’ field recordings involved in making the album. Are these field recordings relevant in their nature to the album’s theme or are you always prepared to find the most suitable sounds in the unlikeliest of places? I guess what I am getting at is whether you think the provenance of field recordings holds power?

In short, the answer is no. I approach sound as sculptural material. I play with it and mould it until I like it. Sometimes it surprises me – after all, chance and randomness nowadays play quite a big role in my compositional process. But the way I work with field recordings on the album doesn’t really allow the listeners to recognize the original source, or location of sound. Of course the provenance of some of my field recordings is very important to me and it has its firm place in the creative process, but it doesn’t really transpire to the listener.

The apocalyptic nature of the theme and essence of the recording suggests that you may be interested in some of the post-apocalyptic literature out there. I think immediately of my favourite – The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Do you have any favourites?

Absolutely! McCarthy’s “Road” was a great journey for me. I love dystopian stuff. Huxley’s “Brave New World”, Orwell’s “1984”, Ballard’s “Myths of the Near Future” and last but not least Alan Moore’s “V for Vendetta”. Actually, it is very frightening how Moore has predicted the fascist tendencies that now started to arise all over Europe, Britain and the US. I love whatever Alan Moore lays his fingers on. As for the dystopian books and comics, they have left a strong trace on my imagination and my musical work.

“New Kings And New Queens” arrives five years after your last album “Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood”. During this time you published only a split work with Korinth. Why so much time to release a new CD?

After finishing the last Phragments full-length album “Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood”, I was working on the split with Korinth. That took a year to finalize and after that, I have been working on the “New Kings and New Queens” album for two years. So after all it’s not such a long period of time. But the new album did take a little longer to make than usual. The composition technique was very different this time, I wanted to experiment with new approaches. And then there was the mixing and mastering process, that was also complicated. I am very happy that I the album is finally out now.

What have you been doing during this period? Were you maybe a bit disaffected with the scene?

No no, no disaffection. There are parts of the scene I like, and then there are parts of it I don’t. After ten years of this music, there isn’t much that can surprise me. But I am happy that more people seem to be affected by dark ambient music than a few years ago. During the last five years I was also working on my professional career, I’m an assistant professor at a university here in Bratislava.

By the way, can you spend some words as a reflection on the split work you released with Korinth? It was a very good one and your first cooperation with an Italian label too...

The split with Korinth was a very nice experience for me, although it is a few years back now. I know Robert from Korinth personally, we are friends. I released his first album “Sign of Eternal Return” on my label. He is a very talented musician. We have decided to make a collaborative album, it’s not really a split, since we have been working together on all of the tracks. It was my first collaboration and I think we did a really good album. Lately I listened to “Mysteries of the Greylands” after a longer time and I still like it a lot. Also, the theme was a little different, more mystical and psychological, which was refreshing. Regarding the cooperation with Greytone – the label approached me that they wanted to release an album of Phragments. At that time I was looking where to release the coolaboration album with Korinth, so it was a very logical step to make. The cooperation with Greytone was flawless, they are really nice people.

What’s the meaning behind the title “New Kings And New Queens”? Who are the “kings” and the “queens”? And what can you tell us about the cover artwork?

When I was composing the new album, I decided that I would try to make it very “open” in terms of meaning. The listener gets information through music, the cover and the names of the six chapters of the album. And nothing more. The album functions as a projection screen, where everyone hears and understands things based on their own selves. The music is like landscape art in painting and the names of the tracks function as landmarks – they give you a basic orientation of where you are but it is up to you which path you take, what part of the space you discover. So all I can tell you is that New Kings and New Queens represent us, humans. There is a story behind the chapters, but I like to keep a few blanks spaces for the listeners. That’s one of the really strong aspects of dark ambient in my opinion – it leaves some work for the listeners to do and supports their imagination. As for the cover artwork – it has been created by my good friend Nenad Branković from the projects Metrom and Atranenia. Nenad has his own graphic design studio (www.nenbra.com), he did covers for my releases, Svartsinn, Metrom and others. I love the artwork, it’s really amazing and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the album.

Tell us about the sound and style of the new album, which seems to take quite some distances to your past works which were more into martial sounds.... How did you create it? What are the main inspirations for the album?

After the release of “Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood” and the finishing of the collaborative album with Korinth, I really wanted to experiment with new structures in my music, new approaches to composing and new sound sources. Where the last album was more song based, “New Kings and New Queens” is one single composition divided into six chapters. There are no vocals and the architecture of the composition is different from my previous albums. In terms of style, I wanted to create a pure dark ambient album. When I started to compose it, I decided for a strictly minimalist aesthetic – trying to achieve big things with very little means. I always like to give myself restraints, and in the past I have often complicated my composition process on purpose. “New Kings and New Queens” is definitely the peak of this achievement. Also, I wanted to focus on this opposition of darkness and light – four of the chapters on the album are very dark, and two of them are full of light, almost sacral in a way.

During the composing of the album, I have collaborated with Nenad Branković on the music as well. We had a few very good improvisation sessions playing on old broken radios. These have created the basic structure of the record. The album is composed of a variety of sounds, including the mentioned broken radios, classical instruments and some field recordings. It might seem that there is not much happening during the 32 minutes of the album, but if you listen carefully, there is a lot of details under the surface. And about the inspiration? I get inspired by a lot of things, I process them and then I get it out through my music. So it’s not easy to talk about the exact inspirations. But this time it was mainly pure feelings and storytelling through abstract sonic landscapes.

How has your music changed from 2002 until today? Are you still interested in that martial-industrial style which was the basic of your work in the first phase of Phragments, or that period is definitely over for you?

My music is changing constantly, since I started Phragments. If you take the first album “Homo Homini Lvpvs”, most of the compositions were orchestral / industrial in style. But there was also a dark ambient track and a more ritual ambient oriented track. Then on “The Burning World”, everything sounded a little bit more neo-classical – I would say this was the peak of the orchestral industrial era of Phragments. I have introduced vocals for the first time and there was practically no dark ambient on that album. Then we have “Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood” – this album is more song-oriented, but with a lot of dark ambience creeping through the orchestral sound. And finally, “New Kings and New Queens”, which is pure dark ambient. In terms of music, it is very important for me to do what I like. There’s no pressure for my music to progress, it’s a natural process. But I think even with the new approach and compositional techniques on the

“New Kings and New Queens”, it still sounds like Phragments – to me, the feeling stays the same and that’s what’s important.

And regarding the “martial-industrial”, as I have already said a couple of times in the past, I never liked my music to be called that. Firstly, I enjoy darkness, not uniforms. Secondly, I am a deeply liberal and anti-totalitarian, so most of what is happening in the martial-industrial genre pisses me off, because I have never flirted with totalitarial ideologies and I don’t like it. And thirdly, I always thought martial-industrial was a too narrow description for my work. I call the genre of Phragments orchestral industrial, apocalyptic electronics, maybe orchestral dark ambient.

“New Kings and New Queens” is an experiment in form and although my future work will definitely be more dark ambient oriented, this is not the end of my evolution – I am sure there will be compositions with more structure and there will be ones with less.

I know your attention is reserved to video creations also. How do you assemble them? How do you choose them?

The videos of Phragments are always created by my wife Sonia and I use them when playing live. They are an important part of my live performances, they complete the experience. In the period around the first album, she was using these crazy old communist propaganda documentaries, combining them with her own original shots. The later videos were more abstract, with a lot of decaying nature, the clash of the natural and the concrete world. The last video she did was called Micropolis and it’s a beautiful 45 minute journey of amazing autumn landscapes. I will be using that one in my future live performances for sure.

What are Phragments forthcoming projects? Are you also a live act? Any side-project we should know about?

Last year I did a project with my friends Metrom, a dark ambient / orchestral / drone band from Slovakia. We did a collaboration project called “Machines of both Wires and Flesh” – a live improvisation. We played the project twice and a recording of one of the concerts is available on youtube. It was a good experience, I felt the need to improvise and play live with friends.

The future of Phragments looks bright, I feel very inspired in the last months. I have been doing a lot of compilation tracks and collaborations in the last few years (Metrom, Atranenia, Rasalhague, Shock Frontier) and since they are really good in my opinion, I have a plan to release an album of these tracks in the future. There is also a new album in the works, but this will definitely take some time, since me and Sonia are to become parents this autumn.

I have been playing live since 2005, I played several concerts in Switzerland, France, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Playing live is nice and I get to meet the fans, which is always a great experience. I will be playing live in the future, but right now I want to focus on my family, so this will have to be put on hold for some time.

I don’t have any side-projects. If I want to do something different, I usually get it out of my system through collaborations with other artists.

What about the Slovakian scene? We know some bands, mostly related to the label Aliens Production (Disharmony, Oxyd...), but don’t know much about the dark ambient and industrial scene there..

There is a small scene in Slovakia, but it is getting bigger with every year. The artists you have mentioned come originally more from an EBM background, whereas I come from a metal and industrial background. I recommend everyone to check out the projects Metrom, Atranenia and Korinth, these are really close to my heart, both in terms of sound and philosophy. Also, there’s a new-ish project called BIOS that has caught my attention. For people into noise, make sure you check out the legendary project Einleitungszeit, if you haven’t already.

Thank you very much for your availability. Last words at your disposal...

Thank you very much for the nice interview. For anyone who wants to check out my music, I have a Bandcamp profile with most of my catalogue available for listening or buying online (phragments.bandcamp.com). Phragments has also a Facebook profile (Facebook where I post the most up-to-date news and infos on albums and live performances. If you want to buy my albums or Phragments T-shirts, you can do so through Bandcamp, or drop me a message through the Facebook profile. Thank you again and remember, there is no light without darkness!