interview by: Roberto Martinelli

This dark ambient project from England was creepy enough to scare off a potential writer to Maelstrom who claimed she liked ambient music. Haha! Certainly, to the uninitiated, Kerovnian could indeed be unsettling, but to fans of dark sounds it's cavernous depths are conforting. Thankfully, Kerovnian's sounds are devoid of the weedy keyboard sounds that plague many of the projects in this genre. Imagine the aural equivalent to the kind of "cyclopean" landscapes descibed in H.P. Lovecraft's works, and you've got a pretty good idea of what Kerovnian sounds like. 2001 sees the release of this projects latest, From the Depths of Haron, a sort of concept album that centers around the river Styx. I contacted Vlad K. to discuss the eerie world in which Kerovnian resides.

Maelstrom: Hello, Kerovnian! Your new album, From the Depths of Haron, has been described by one of Maelstrom's writers as "the audio equivalent of taking a walk by moonlight in some remote graveyard and been ravaged by a deranged beast, which then drags you into some deep sewer before consuming you slowly and painfully and enjoying every last strip of flesh and drop of blood." What do you think of that description?

Vlad: I cannot comment this exact description since we all have our own daemons and nightmares that are easily awaken by any kind of black/dark ambience. Personally, I can say that the (i)magery enveloped around Kerovnian is not based on standard cliché such as moonlit graveyards and werebeast howlings. Also, I do not perceive Kerovnian daemons to be some flesh-ripping deranged miscreants, but rather I consider them to be portions of our sub-consciousness, "materialised" in various forms of demonic manifestations, that eventually take the soul to a trip of darkness, and expose it to infinite oblivion and void that Kerovnian music strives to conjure. The abovementioned description is close enough to such experience, and definitely a mirror image of writer's own subconscious desires, hehe. But, after all, that is the nature of Chaos: we perceive only what we wish to perceive, and eventually what we think we wish to perceive, until we are consumed by our own desires and illusions. But isn't that the ultimate goal of the big Joke our Universe is?

Maelstrom: Track three is officially called "The Worm of the Broken Urn," but the long, drawn-out atrocious squishy sounds have caused me to unofficially dub it "the bout with evil diarrhea." What on earth is going on on this track?

Vlad: Yes, well, unfortunately I have read descriptions about this song, and I must admit, I am sad no one actually received what I intended. See, the Worm is again a projection of our subconscious symbolism, this time the symbolism of death and decay, in form that after years and years of trying to be "good persons who live by the book" we finally realise that our own purpose is to serve the infernal Entropy. Yes, the lovely Entropy that slowly but definitely eats a portion of each of us, each day, each month, each year. With each dream we have, a portion of ourselves dies. Since we are actually soulless symbiose of millions of our thoughts and emotions, the True Death is that of Mind, not of Body. And then the Worm is here to remind us of the fact. And what about the Urn? Obviously, it is the Primal Egg, the Prima Materia (some even consider it to be the Pandora's Box, but then, again, they are insane) of the Uncreation, where the Worm intentionally escaped to unmake us (once again). Perhaps that is the reason you consider it to be evil. Why, there is even a scientific support for this. They recently labeled a force as the Dark Force (or Dark Energy), which strives to push galaxies far away from each. Well, that is our lovely Worm. The Entropy, which will finally isolate entire galaxies to be eaten by their gigantic black holes in their centres (again a manifestation of the Entropy Worm), until there's nothing left to devour, leading to death of the black holes in screaming agony of their own event horizons slowly crushing upon the Singularity of their unexistence. And, isn't that one hell of a joke?

Maelstrom: In comparison to your previous album, Far Beyond, Before the Time, From the Depths of Haron takes a more minimal approach. Was there anything in particular that led you to doing this? What was your objective by making the sounds more sparse?

Vlad: For one thing, I don't like to repeat previous workings (although I think I have failed). And there is the complete symbolism of the album! The journey along Styx, along the regions of ... ? undocumented in any mythology. Conjuring such events in minds of the listeners can only be accomplished if you leave them space for the work of their own imagination. I tried to have the sounds as cues for their own perception of Negation, that lurks in the deepest parts of Stygian underworlds. On the other hand, I feel this is the right combination of sounds. I tried to add some more only to find that it was too much. The whole concept was then collapsed.

Maelstrom: Is Kerovnian a solo project? What kinds of instruments do you use (like, what makes the Worm noises?)?

Vlad: Yes, Kerovnian is my solo project. There are three more people who were supposed to help me out (and they did) with some concepts and sounds, but I prefer working alone. Regarding to the instruments, I use completely keyboards for most melodical parts, and self-made sampled sounds for the rest of melodical parts and sounds (like the Worm)... If I told you exactly what I do, it wouldn't be so fun to listen, now, would it? Hehe.

Maelstrom: What are your national origins?

Vlad: I am Croatian.

Maelstrom: Vocals are used to a greater and relatively more clear extent on the new album. The opening track, "Dripping in the Form of Styx," features a looped, hollow spoken part that seems to act more as a rhythmic device, as the voice is not speaking any coherent language. Or is it?

Vlad: I don't know about the language. After all, all this stupidity with some dark angelic language is driving me insane. It seems as if the Universe played another trick on me. So I responded with the cursing words, that the poor undead thing is repeating on the first track. Surely, back then it was a form of Greek/ Persian morphology; but that alone! It was all as false as the reflection of darkness in the mirror. (Until someone turns on the light). But, I lie to myself that it is all magick: the thought, the word. It is actually an array of symbols unperceived by the awaken mind, so that the sleeping mind can absorb it and manifest wonderful events in the quantum flow of our own existence. Or, in that case, stupidity. Oh, yes, my own stupidity and I ask you all to forgive me, as it was all illusion to my mind. Nevermore, as dear Poe would say. But, then again, yes, the language is coherent. As coherent as a cursing words towards the infernal faces that laugh insanely on the walls of our Universe. And why not use such pleasant curse as a rhythm device? Does it all have to be drums, guitars, strings, keyboards? Why, I can show you that a human being is polyphony of sounds, its thoughts concerting in plethora of tunes and rhythms. And, eventually, the word itself is a sound, so why not use it as an instrument? If I used any known language, then the meaning of words would shatter the exquisite sound that (undead) voice can produce. Take choirs for example. Wasting energy to sing written songs. Instead they should vibrate their own thoughts in forms of unheard languages and perceive thousands of hidden vocals and tunes in a single vibration of, for example, vocal 'O', where their lungs produce even more sounds as they exhaust the last bits of air left in them, and the oxygen depleted mind starts hallucinating. Until they collapse and feel joy for they have just produced a sound-shape entity.

Maelstrom: The lyrics provided in the booklet for From the Depths of Haron are not featured on the album itself, but seem to follow the tracks fairly closely. What kind of story are you aiming to tell? What are we to learn from the episodes?

Vlad: Well, as I said before, I wanted it to be a journey to the undocumented regions of, well, something, where Styx finally goes. Tartaros has been quite many times a spiritus movens for many stories. Well, me and Charon agreed I should perhaps tell a tale of what lays beyond. (don't you get tired of 'beyond' things?) And there are some tales about the Lady Death, about the Kronos (not the one from Greek mythology, but rather a symbol for the unexisting time) and death of whole space-time dimensions, then there is the mortuary of the sanity, the hunt for Worm and the escaped Shadows, etc... Finally, there is the sad spirit, crying in the maze. Crying? I don't think so. I would rather say laughing at us, and we just perceive its laughter as a cry. Once more the Universe tricked us, because that little thing is actually the Entropy Worm, in one of many of his manifestations. Don't you just wish to obliterate it? I once tried, and found that the battleaxe I used suddenly turned into a decayed worm's tail.... It is impossible to kill it. "The Worm is Us, We are the Worm...". And killing yourself won't actually kill the Worm. It will eventually find a way to trick us again, and will perish into another form of (un)existence as long as the Entropy is satisfied.

Maelstrom: Is Haron an alternate name for Charon, the boatman of the Styx?

Vlad: Yes, it is the real name, written in Latin letters. But he ain't no boatman, that is a lie.

Maelstrom: Who is the narrator in the story?

Vlad: I would say it is me. Or at least some manifestation of myself.

Maelstrom: How do you approach laying down the framework for a track? One would imagine traditional arrangements to be out the window.

Vlad: It depends of what do you think traditional arrangements to be? No, I have an image first, a concept in my mind. And with the concept come the emotions and sounds, and I simply try to imitate the (heard) sounds as best as I can. Some tunes and sounds come later purely as ornaments to the main thought.

Maelstrom: Please run us through the recording of a give track from your discography. What comes first? How long do you know how to play? What kind of timing is involved?

Vlad: For one thing, there is no timing, nor tempo. I hate it. I hate to structure the music through frames and boundaries. It is almost impossible to write my music with standard notation. I tried once, and then gave up. What is important is the first thought, the first complex of sounds I get with the vision (imagination) of a concept, and I simply add layers of sounds and tunes I find appropriate to the concept. Many times I have to change the upper layers or even change the complete soundwork. I hate when that happens. But eventually, the timing comes by itself. I sometimes have to cut it so that the tracks aren't boring.

Maelstrom: How do you feel about the genre you are classified as being in overlapping with the underground metal scene?

Vlad: Well, I came from black metal scene so I don't mind. Actually it would be very interesting to try to combine black metal and black ambient into a single project. I think that would be a new genre of its own, which will be liked both by black metal fans and black/dark ambience fans. It would surely be fun!

Maelstrom: Could you tell us what you were involved in?

Vlad: Well I was in two black metal bands (Haethen Mysticism and Dungeon), playing bass guitar and vocals. We were mostly having concerts, and worked on a serious album project, but I left to concentrate on Kerovnian and the bands continued on their own.

Maelstrom: Speaking of which, when you tell someone what kind of music you play, how do you describe it?

Vlad: It depends on how much that person understands music genres. I simply answer dark/black ambience, and they will either understand it or not. If they do, there is no need to describe any further unless they wish; if they don't there is no need to describe any further because they wouldn't understand it anyway. Fortunately there are not many people asking what kind of music I play, hehe.

Maelstrom: The booklet for From the Depths of Haron has a melty picture of what looks like a tragedy mask. The caption says "the Kerovnian." What is a Kerovnian?

Vlad: It is not a tragedy mask. Actually, when I think of it, yes, it is! It is a single face, torn to two parts, neither good nor evil. I would say painful. And that is Kerovnian. That is me. It represents the duality of multitudity (damn this!), that is the polymorphic nature of Kerovnian philosophy. It represents the insanity. Why? Because there is no difference between sanity and insanity. One face is sane, and the other is insane, but how can you tell which is which? You can't. It is all subject to perception and suggestion. I can shape my perception as I wish, and I try to share that perception with others through my music. And I think I somehow failed.

Maelstrom: What pleasure do you get from being involved in a project such as Kerovnian?

Vlad: I establish my presence in the space-time continuum?

Maelstrom: Where do you draw inspiration from?

Vlad: Mostly from the demons and miscreants of my corrupted imagination, although Obliveon has become a real entity now!

Maelstrom: How does Kerovnian measure success?

Vlad: I don't know. I never thought about it. I think answering to this interview is one form of success, don't you agree? My music is perceived, recognised, and people want to learn more about it. It think it is a form of success.

Maelstrom: Where does/can Kerovnian go from here? Do you see a point where staying in this style would stagnate?

Vlad: Yes, definitely. Kerovnian has to evolve, but perhaps this evolving will probably, along with other bands, bring dark/black ambience to new spheres? What I mean is the genre will evolve by itself, as many bands continually improve their music. And perhaps I will try to intersect genres into something new, and hopefully darker than this. Is it possible? I don't know, but I sure wish to find out.

Maelstrom: Thank you for your time and for your interesting work. We wish you luck.

Vlad: Thank you for your interest! Visit Kerovnian at www.angelfire.com/band/Kerovnian

Back to top