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Interview with: Nino Sable, Din-Tah Aeon
Conducted by: T.V.
That day when Aeon Sable released their debut album back in 2010 nothing was anymore as it was before in gothic rock and dark music. When it almost seemed that nothing new can be really done, Per Aspera Ad Astra came. Many new worlds and options were opened and fans of gothic rock were amazed by such a band who wasn't afraid to make experiments. Years passed and German visionaers Aeon Sable, who soon after that released albums like are true gems of dark music - Saturn Return, Aequinoctium and Visionaers, found their own way and kind of an unique artistic expression like not many other bands can. Still influenced by great works of The Sisters Of Mercy and Fields Of The Nephilim, with a touch of dark atmospheric gothic metal reminiscent to Tiamat and Moonspell for example, deeply embraced by everything esoteric, occultism and magick, this is Aeon Sable, who are just about to release their fifth masterpiece named Hypaerion. An album showing that they are maybe the most creative and credible force of the genre out there. I love the album and have explained it why in the review (read it over HERE), thus I think that this time Aeon Sable might be on a right path to finally cross the restraints of underground. I did already the fourth interview with the two creative minds behind the name Aeon Sable, Nino Sable and Din-Tah Aeon, and the two friendly artists explained many things behind the new album - Hypaerion, which will hit the stores on 11th March via Solar Lodge.
T.V.: Hello Nino and Din. Less than one month is left until the official release of your next album. It seems that for Aeon Sable the white has become a new black...
Nino: Lucifer is the light bringer. And for human beings there is no greater power then the power of thinking, of being themselves. White stands for our inner illumination. Aeon Sable has grown up and I guess that we don't need to fulfil clichés. Our music is based on the same darkness as always. Just the skin is different. And beautiful.
T.V.: Talk to me about the title, Hypaerion. It's in any way connected with Greek mythology, one of the Titans...? 
Nino: The title Hypaerion was initially chosen because we felt that this album is a bit more powerful and in some ways stronger and darker than our other albums. So we looked for a title sounding a bit like a Giant, something big. Hypaerion is also one of saturns moons, and thus a link to our album Saturn Return.
T.V.: I thought that it will be almost impossible to beat the greatness of your previous album, Visionaers, but more and more I listen to it, I think that you done exactly that. How do you feel in general about Hypaerion, what has changed if compared to your previous works?
Din: We are glad to know that we seem to have kept the hypnotic touch. As always, we have done a lot of hard work on this album and are very satisfied with the results. We didn't change much, but evolved our work. Compared with our previous releases, we got more straight to the point of our message, without losing its complexity. You know, live plays its tricks on us and we have to deal with new challenges every day. Maybe the challenges have led us to a better expression. We have the feeling that Hypaerion could be our best record so far. A record that could bring us to new ports.
T.V.: There's also much more melancholy and kind of a more subtle melody incorporated into the album than ever before. Is this kind of a reflection of certain things that happened to you in the meantime?
Din: We are inspired by the current states of our lifes, but seldom by certain events. Every song has a main vibe we want to convey, but has subtle layers of different subliminal emotions. Delight and melancholy was always present in all our albums, but the dear listener may feel like one of them is more on the surface than the other.
T.V.: I can sense a bit of Garden Of Delight or Merciful Nuns smell. Especially in the opening song. Maybe a coincidence or a consequence that you are now under the Solar Lodge roof and Artaud Seth did the mastering?
Din: Aeon Sable was, is and will always be an individual misfit in gothic rock. Musically and visually we are influenced from the bands we listen to since we were teenagers, but we do our own strange kind of "oeuvre". Similarities to other modern bands are only linked to a certain "Zeitgeist". The Solar Lodge supports us in distribution and mastering work, musically Merciful Nuns and Aeon Sable sails on their separate river.
T.V.: I didn't mean to say that your music is similar to Garden of Delight or Merciful Nuns. Just that I sensed a couple of things similar. I will always say that Aeon Sable are one of rare bands that do their own things inside the genre and many genre borders were crushed by your input. Can you talk a bit more specifically about your musical vision and about your musical influences/inspirations?
Nino: As some may already know, we have our tentacles in a lot of genres. Mostly metal and gothic based, but we do also listen to a lot of industrial, ambient, etc.… In our opinion, music - and art in general, is always changing. New techniques, new tools and new inspirations from the “real world” take place and if you are an artist you’ll know a way to fuse all that together and develop your own kind of art.
T.V.: Every album you did before had a song that was kind of an instant hit ("Dancefloor Satellite", "Tenfifteen", ...). I can't find such an easy listening song in here, the closest it gets "Elysion", but still it has kind of a different vibe, a bit more complexity and darkness...
Din: We strive to create our albums multi-coloured, from danceable hits to sluggish ballads. Otherwise we don't plan things like calculating numbers. "Elysion" is the smoothest song on the album, and like the other six tracks on the album it represents the state we find ourselves in these times.
T.V.: And about what kind of a state are you pointing at while you were composing tracks for Hypaerion. Certainly there are lot of bad things going on in the world right now. Is this represented in those tracks in any way?
Nino: Well... whatever happens to this world, politically, economically... we will always try to keep thoughts connected to the “real world” out of our creations. All the love and hate, the darkness and brightness, the occultism and its dependencies we describe in our songs take place on a playground deep inside of us.
T.V.: You are loyal to your formula of featuring a hidden track on every album and Hypaerion is not an exception. Can you explain me how this idea was born and what's the purpose of such a thing?
Din: Oh, we love hidden tracks. This is one thing which happens from itself. On our first album, Per Aspera Ad Astra, we wanted a Melanculia cover, but the song was too short and too different to be an separate track. So we integrated it as hidden track. A hidden track is like getting an extra cookie at the bakery, so we proceed with this idea and it became a sort of tradition.
T.V.: You were always very secretive about your lyrics before. Can you give us kind of a deeper insight into the written words this time?
Nino: This is something we will hopefully never do. Everyone has the right to compose he’s own formula of a dream based on our creations. If we start explaining how people should understand our art, we will start decomposing it again. We are artists...
T.V.: Ok, I can live with that. Now, I don't know if it's a first time in Aeon Sable's history, but part of lyrics for magnificent "Garden Of Light" was written by Pat Bloos. How did it come to this and who actually is Pat?
Nino: Well, Pat Bloos is a very active member in nowadays alternative and occult scene and as he is also part of the Solar Lodge and a great supporter, we thought that it would be a great idea to ask him if he could help us out. In my opinion, there is no one out there who knows more about the mystical background of Aleister Crowley then he. As we wanted to create a wonderful track based on Thelema, Pat was our first and only option.
T.V.: And what about the artwork. I know that many of your fans are eager to know what are those pictures on the front covers of your albums. At least can you tell me what does the front cover artwork of Hypaerion represents?
Nino: You can see it as an entrance or a portal.
T.V.: An entrance into what? Can you be a bit more detailed here? My first association was to the horror movie The Ring and I wonder if there's any kind of a connection?
Nino: This is up to you, your creativity and imagination. This is exactly what we want to create. We want to create portals for imagination. You associate it with The Ring, I associate it with a pond where you throw a coin in or leave your soul in order to fulfil a wish, others see a mirror to themselves in it. It is a portal to your inner creative child.
T.V.: On "Of Cats and Mice" you are singing together with with guest Aeleth Kaven. How did this collaboration started and I believe that you must be satisfied with her contribution?
Nino: In the area where we live called "Ruhrgebiet" exists a very active music-scene, especially for harder and darker sounds. So we know a lot of people here (and people who know other people who knows other people,...) and from time to time we invite selected people for a session. We like to add some guest vocals for the extra touch, like on "Dawn Of An Era", "Dancefloor Satellite". Like the hidden tracks, it's kind of a tradition. And yes, we are very satisfied with the results.
T.V.: And it's right in "Of Cats And Mice" and in the next one "White Snow" where I can sense kind of a similar feeling to the glorious "Praying Mantis". Is there kind of a connection?
Din: Well no, for us there is no direct connection to these two songs. But everyone is free to create their own connection between different songs, and we like the idea that people do it. Everything plays in the Aeon Sable universe, it's like if planets are revolving each other and distances are subjective values, anyway...
T.V.: And talk to me about tracks like is hypnotic "Laylah", or the doomiest track you ever did "Procession". Some pretty unique stuff... Also in "Garden Of Light" you nailed it with such a stunning combination of gothic rock and dark metal!
Din: We noticed that we turned the knobs on our guitar overdrive pedals a bit more than on our previous songs, maybe for gaining progress with a reminiscence to our metalish youth days. On "Laylah" we felt like establishing ties to our Saturn Return days: reduced instrumentation while focussing on slightly fallacious melodic lines. All colours that adds to paint the picture.
T.V.: Your metallish youth days... so what are you listening to mostly these days?
Nino: We are mostly listening to the same music like ten years ago. The music you grow up with is the music you will still love in your grave. Once in a while a new band appears on the surface, but it will hardly have the same value as the band you smoked your first dope with.
T.V.: That's the truth! Hypaerion is already your second album released under the label Solar Lodge. How comfortable are you feeling signed to this label?
Nino: We are comfortable with having the freedom to do what we like. We are doing our music and our visuals and the lodge is helping us to make it accessible to the people. So everything works fine.
T.V.: Now Aeon Sable have quite a lot of live experiences. Do you prefer making and recording music or playing it live?
Din: Obviously both has its dark and bright moments. Recording and producing needs a lot of long-time creativity, while playing live needs a lot of concentrated punctual power. Both takes and gives a lot. I can't really tell you what means more for us. Both is awesome.
T.V.: Not long ago you've mentioned that you would like to go on a proper tour finally. Any news about that?
Nino: You are right. We did plans some time before, but I guess we still didn't found the right people to work with on a tour. As we do anything on our own, a tour is complicated. We are still looking for a booking agent to take care of that kind of things. A tour is expensive and need a lot of management and know how. We would have to stop our daily jobs for a tour, so there would be no income. That's not really easy.
T.V.: I'll keep fingers crossed for you to find a good booking manager and will hope to see you playing live soon in the near future. Anyway, with or without booking manager you've already played in many different places across Europe and I wonder where and which show was the best for you and why?
Nino: We like every crowd in every venue. The southern stages are very emotional while the western stages are very professional. There is no concert I would say was the best or the worst. But there are for sure some I remember first. Our first ever concert was a blast, Wave Gothic Treffen was awesome too, big crowd, great sound and venue. Madrid, Porto and Greece were all great too.
T.V.: Right now we finished our annual Terra Relicta Dark Music Awards thing. This time is the first time without Aeon Sable taking part, but if you'll have to choose or you already did, which two albums that made it into the final round are your favourites?
Nino: We didn't have the time to listen to all the albums, but we like the sound of Kommunity FK and Alfahanne. First for the intransigence still making music with those kind of nested drum beats, noisy guitars and lo-fi sound full of spirit. Second for the hardihood making such cool, snotty black'n'roll songs.
T.V.: Hypaerion is obviously marking kind of a new era for Aeon Sable, not only because of its outer appearance, but partly also because of its contents. So, what do you expect to achieve now, you already mentioned that it could open some new ports and I believe that now it must be the time for Aeon Sable's major breakthrough.
Din: We believe that Hypaerion is charged with enough creativity and art to be accessible to a lot of people who doesn’t “belong” to the underground yet. We know that everyone has a dark side. Here is an adequate soundtrack!
T.V.: You did some great videos in the past, so I wonder when will we have a chance to see the first one for a song from Hypaerion and for which one it will be done?
Din: A friend of us has been working on an astonishing video for "Elysion" for a long period of time. As powerful as the album is, even here we invested all possible resources to produce a video that deserves the brand Aeon Sable. But see for yourself, it's now released...
Aeon Sable links: Official website, Facebook, Bandcamp
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