WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 The dead ride so fast. Yeah, exactly. I mean, 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:09.279 if that isn't just one of the most evocative 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:11.199 gothic titles you've ever heard, I really don't 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:13.240 know what is. It immediately sets the scene. 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:16.219 Right. I'm picturing, you know, mist and galloping 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:20.059 horses, maybe some kind of carriage careening 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:22.980 through a dark forest at midnight. It just feels 00:00:22.980 --> 00:00:25.000 incredibly high stakes right out of the gate. 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.839 It certainly does, yeah. It's traumatic, it's 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.440 urgent, and it's completely steeped in that heavy 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:33.619 19th century romanticism. And strictly speaking, 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:36.659 it's actually a line from the famous ballad Lenore 00:00:36.659 --> 00:00:39.460 by Gottfried August Berger. Oh, interesting. 00:00:40.040 --> 00:00:42.759 But for our purposes today, as we dive into these 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:45.520 sources, it is the English translation of the 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:47.320 title of the album we're looking at. An album 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:49.780 that is, well, it's a lot of things. It's a ghost 00:00:49.780 --> 00:00:51.719 story, it's a chamber orchestra masterpiece, 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:54.520 and honestly, it's kind of a masterclass in artistic 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:56.579 obsession. Obsession is definitely the right 00:00:56.579 --> 00:00:59.179 word for this one, because today, listener, we 00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:02.659 are going deep into the 2003 album by the legendary 00:01:02.659 --> 00:01:05.459 dark wave act, Sopor Eternus, and the Ensemble 00:01:05.459 --> 00:01:07.799 of Shadows. That's right. And I have to say, 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:10.379 just looking at the source material, this isn't 00:01:10.379 --> 00:01:13.379 your standard, you know, band releases and album 00:01:13.379 --> 00:01:15.560 kind of story. This is something else entirely. 00:01:15.739 --> 00:01:17.920 No, not at all. This is a story about legacy, 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:21.219 it's about perfectionism, and really about the 00:01:21.219 --> 00:01:24.400 physical artifact of music itself. Yeah. It shows 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:26.700 just how far an artist is willing to go to get 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:28.959 something exactly right. And we should probably 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:31.180 mention the subtitle right off the bat. Oh, absolutely. 00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:33.280 Because it really sets the tone for the absolute 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:35.219 weirdness we're about to wade into. Yeah. So 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:38.159 the album is called Es reiten die Toten so schnell. 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:41.140 But the subtitle on the cover is The vampire 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:43.700 sucking at his own vein. Which is an image that 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:45.319 honestly tells you everything you need to know 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:47.439 about the introspection and the darkness going 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:50.319 on here. It's a bit visceral. I mean, sucking 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:52.780 at his own vein. It sounds painful, but also 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:56.900 I don't know, sustaining. Exactly. It's autophagic. 00:01:56.900 --> 00:01:59.579 It's the whole idea of feeding on yourself to 00:01:59.579 --> 00:02:02.920 survive. And as we unpack this album, you'll 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:05.519 see that's quite literally what the artist, Anna 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:08.759 Varney Cantadella, is doing here. She is cannibalizing 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:11.939 her own past work, revisiting it, and consuming 00:02:11.939 --> 00:02:15.659 it to create something massive and completely 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:18.909 new. So our mission today for this deep dive 00:02:18.909 --> 00:02:23.509 is to really unpack how this specific album represents 00:02:23.509 --> 00:02:27.550 a totally unique moment of artistic return. We're 00:02:27.550 --> 00:02:29.669 going to look at how she revisited old work to 00:02:29.669 --> 00:02:32.539 transform it. And listener, you are definitely 00:02:32.539 --> 00:02:34.120 going to want to stick around for the end of 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:36.360 this one, because we have to talk about the physical 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:38.439 release of this album. Oh, yes. The physical 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:41.099 release is incredible. The details of the box 00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:43.780 set are, well, I've seen some crazy limited editions 00:02:43.780 --> 00:02:46.180 in my time, but I have never seen one that includes 00:02:46.180 --> 00:02:48.599 what this one includes. It really is a fascinating 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:51.439 case study in immersive art. But before we get 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:53.360 to the actual box set, we have to understand 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:55.719 the music itself. Right. Because usually the 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:57.840 trajectory of a band is pretty linear, right? 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:00.280 You release a demo tape, then maybe you get signed. 00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:02.400 to debut album and you move forward. Yeah, you 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:04.219 evolve. You don't generally look back. Right. 00:03:04.219 --> 00:03:06.159 You might play the old hits live or something, 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:08.280 but you don't usually go back and re -record 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:10.840 the demo tape a decade later. No, that feels, 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:13.419 I mean, that feels risky. Like, usually fans 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:16.680 hate that. They do. They love the gritty, terrible 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:19.740 sound of the original demo because it feels authentic 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:22.919 to them. Precisely. There's a huge nostalgia 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:26.180 for that lo -fi origin sound. But that is the 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:30.500 core concept of this 2003 release. Yeah. To understand 00:03:30.500 --> 00:03:34.180 Es Raiden Di Toten So Schnell, the album, you 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:36.219 have to understand that there was a demo tape 00:03:36.219 --> 00:03:39.340 with the exact same name released way back in 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:41.020 the very beginning of the project. OK, let's 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:42.860 unpack this a bit. So our sources mentioned that 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:45.120 Anna Varney went back to this original demo tape 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:47.759 and she didn't just remaster it, which is what 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.099 most bands do to squeeze a little more money 00:03:50.099 --> 00:03:52.020 out of the back catalog. She didn't just clean 00:03:52.020 --> 00:03:54.400 up the hiss. She re -recorded the song. Completely 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.259 re -recorded them from the ground up. And she 00:03:57.259 --> 00:04:00.060 respected the original vision deeply. The first 00:04:00.060 --> 00:04:03.360 seven tracks of this 2003 album follow the exact 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:05.479 sequence of that original demo tape. Really? 00:04:05.780 --> 00:04:08.560 Yes. It's a deliberate recreation of that initial 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.000 journey. It's kind of like rewriting your very 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.159 first novel word for word, but using the vocabulary 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.669 you have 10 years later. That's a great analogy. 00:04:15.969 --> 00:04:19.110 Or imagine a painter who sketched something on 00:04:19.110 --> 00:04:21.850 a napkin 10 years ago and now decides to paint 00:04:21.850 --> 00:04:25.110 that exact same scene on a massive canvas with 00:04:25.110 --> 00:04:27.629 expensive oil paints. Right. The composition 00:04:27.629 --> 00:04:30.550 is identical, but the execution is light years 00:04:30.550 --> 00:04:32.870 apart. But the album isn't just the demo, right? 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:35.279 It's longer than that. Right, it expands the 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:38.060 scope significantly. The rest of the album features 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:40.600 re -recordings of bonus tracks that were originally 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:43.319 included on the very first Sopor Aeternus album, 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:45.720 Ich Töte Misch, plus a handful of completely 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:48.519 new songs. OK. So it's basically a collection 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:51.459 of the early years, but reimagined through a 00:04:51.459 --> 00:04:54.139 much more mature lens. And speaking of reimagining 00:04:54.139 --> 00:04:55.980 things, there's one detail on the track list 00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:57.779 that really jumped out at me from the sources. 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:00.519 It's a song called Birth Fiendish Figuration. 00:05:00.939 --> 00:05:03.990 Ah, yes, that is a crucial track in there. discography. 00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:06.649 The sources call this Sopra Aeternus' signature 00:05:06.649 --> 00:05:09.430 song from their first album. But on this 2003 00:05:09.430 --> 00:05:12.670 record, this track appears in its fourth incarnation. 00:05:13.110 --> 00:05:16.230 Fourth? That is fascinating, isn't it? That is 00:05:16.230 --> 00:05:18.889 so many times to record the same song. I mean, 00:05:18.970 --> 00:05:21.769 I love Bohemian Rhapsody, but I do not need Queen 00:05:21.769 --> 00:05:24.350 to release four different studio versions of 00:05:24.350 --> 00:05:27.250 it. Right. What does that say to you, purely 00:05:27.250 --> 00:05:29.509 from an analytical standpoint? Why keep going 00:05:29.509 --> 00:05:31.709 back to the well like that? Oh, well, if we connect 00:05:31.709 --> 00:05:33.670 this back to that subtitle we talked about, the 00:05:33.670 --> 00:05:36.490 vampire sucking at his own vein, it suggests 00:05:36.490 --> 00:05:40.290 a relentless pursuit of a very specific sonic 00:05:40.290 --> 00:05:43.750 ideal. Birth fiendish figuration clearly holds 00:05:43.750 --> 00:05:46.410 a central place in the Sopra Eternus mythos. 00:05:46.870 --> 00:05:49.189 To record it four times means the previous three 00:05:49.189 --> 00:05:51.110 versions, while they were probably beloved by 00:05:51.110 --> 00:05:53.829 fans, didn't quite capture the truth of the song 00:05:53.829 --> 00:05:56.040 in Anna Varney's mind. Like it just wasn't finished 00:05:56.040 --> 00:05:59.500 yet. Exactly. It suggests that for her, the song 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:02.079 isn't just a static recording frozen in 1994. 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:04.879 It's a living thing. Yeah. It evolves with the 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:07.639 artist. It's about getting it right, matching 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:09.379 the sound in the real world to the sound she 00:06:09.379 --> 00:06:11.120 hears in her head. It's almost like the song 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.540 itself is growing up of her. It's not just, hey, 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:15.720 here's the hit single. It's more like, here's 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:19.060 the current state of my soul. Yes. And to achieve 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:21.779 that, current state, to finally get that sound 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:24.779 exactly right, you can't just use the same tools 00:06:24.779 --> 00:06:27.399 you use for the demo tape. You need an environment 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:30.519 that matches the grandeur of the idea. Which 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:32.779 brings us to the actual production of the album. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.699 Yes. This is where things get really interesting 00:06:35.699 --> 00:06:38.120 for the audiophiles out there listening. Because 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:40.459 the difference between a demo tape and this album 00:06:40.459 --> 00:06:43.540 isn't just a matter of practice. it's personnel. 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:46.040 Absolutely. The production on this album is a 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:49.060 major step up and that's largely due to one specific 00:06:49.060 --> 00:06:52.560 name, John A. Rivers. A legendary name in this 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:55.040 specific corner of the music world. The notes 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:57.439 lift his credentials and they are heavy hitters. 00:06:57.459 --> 00:06:59.100 We're talking about the guy who produced for 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:01.600 Swell Maps, Love and Rockets, but the big one 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:03.779 for me and I think for the overall vibe of this 00:07:03.779 --> 00:07:07.379 album is Dead Can Dance. Dead Can Dance is definitely 00:07:07.379 --> 00:07:10.019 the key comparison here. Absolutely. For listeners 00:07:10.019 --> 00:07:12.579 who might not be deep into the dark wave or ethereal 00:07:12.579 --> 00:07:15.120 wave genres, can you explain what that Dead Can 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:17.300 Dance sound actually is? Like, why does that 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:19.959 name matter so much here? Sure. So Dead Can Dance 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:23.120 is famous for a sound that is vast, timeless, 00:07:23.459 --> 00:07:26.259 and incredibly spacious. Yeah. When you listen 00:07:26.259 --> 00:07:28.759 to their records, it doesn't sound like a band 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:31.939 in a recording studio. It sounds like you are 00:07:31.939 --> 00:07:34.300 standing in a massive cathedral or an ancient 00:07:34.300 --> 00:07:38.259 cistern or a foggy moor somewhere. It's pristine, 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:40.959 but it's incredibly haunting. So it's big. It's 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:43.639 cinematic. Exactly. So when Anna Varney brings 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:46.100 in a producer like John A. Rivers, she isn't 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:47.939 just looking for someone to hit the record button. 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.279 He is looking for that atmosphere. She wants 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:53.180 that high fidelity ghost story sound. It really 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:55.839 signals a shift, doesn't it? It moves the project 00:07:55.839 --> 00:07:59.759 away from lo -fi goth or bedroom dark wave into 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:02.769 something much more, I guess, respectable or 00:08:02.769 --> 00:08:04.930 at least much more sonically ambitious. Ambitious 00:08:04.930 --> 00:08:07.370 is the perfect word. And that ambition is actually 00:08:07.370 --> 00:08:09.129 reflected in the geography of the recording as 00:08:09.129 --> 00:08:11.529 well. Right. The sources note that previous works 00:08:11.529 --> 00:08:13.449 were recorded in the artist's home country of 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:16.569 Germany. But for us right in Detoden, so schnell, 00:08:16.810 --> 00:08:19.149 the recording process actually moved to England. 00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:22.810 To Rivers Studio, presumably. Correct. And this 00:08:22.810 --> 00:08:25.850 geographical shift really matters. It shows a 00:08:25.850 --> 00:08:27.850 willingness to step completely out of the comfort 00:08:27.850 --> 00:08:30.209 zone, out of the home environment, to chase a 00:08:30.209 --> 00:08:33.120 specific sound. Yeah. Darkwave and classical 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:35.259 are the genre tags attached to this album in 00:08:35.259 --> 00:08:38.139 the sources. And to get that blend of electronic 00:08:38.139 --> 00:08:40.440 darkness and orchestral grandeur, you really 00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:42.539 need a producer who understands how to balance 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:44.779 those specific elements. Right, because you have 00:08:44.779 --> 00:08:48.049 acoustic and electronic trying to mesh. Exactly. 00:08:48.289 --> 00:08:51.169 Rivers was the perfect choice to bridge the gap 00:08:51.169 --> 00:08:53.470 between the synthesizer and the symphony. And 00:08:53.470 --> 00:08:56.649 that balance is crucial because looking at the 00:08:56.649 --> 00:08:58.509 personnel list and the sources, this is not just 00:08:58.509 --> 00:09:01.090 a synthesizer and a drum machine anymore. This 00:09:01.090 --> 00:09:05.090 is a massive production. It is a true ensemble. 00:09:05.389 --> 00:09:08.090 Let's look at the Ensemble of Shadows here. Usually 00:09:08.090 --> 00:09:10.789 that name Ensemble of Shadows feels like a metaphor, 00:09:11.110 --> 00:09:13.629 like, oh, the ghosts are my bandmates. But on 00:09:13.629 --> 00:09:16.169 this album, the ensemble is made up of very real 00:09:16.169 --> 00:09:19.809 people. It's essentially a full chamber orchestra. 00:09:20.169 --> 00:09:21.909 I was reading down the credits list in the source 00:09:21.909 --> 00:09:24.110 material and I just kept scrolling. It's huge. 00:09:24.350 --> 00:09:27.330 It is. We've got Chris Wilson on violin, Elizabeth 00:09:27.330 --> 00:09:30.169 Tollington on cello, Marcus Cornell on double 00:09:30.169 --> 00:09:33.009 bass. That is a very solid string section. The 00:09:33.009 --> 00:09:35.809 foundation of any... good classical melancholia. 00:09:35.990 --> 00:09:37.690 But then it just keeps going into the woodwinds 00:09:37.690 --> 00:09:40.269 and brass. You have Tonya Price on clarinet, 00:09:40.590 --> 00:09:42.990 Eugene de la Fontaine on oboe. And don't forget 00:09:42.990 --> 00:09:46.129 the cor anglais and bassoon. Eric Santilla on 00:09:46.129 --> 00:09:49.370 cor anglais, yes. And Darina Gore on bassoon. 00:09:49.710 --> 00:09:52.350 Plus trumpet, trombone, tuba. I mean, this is 00:09:52.350 --> 00:09:54.649 a serious lineup of musicians. It really is. 00:09:54.669 --> 00:09:56.490 And it's important to note the distinction here. 00:09:56.809 --> 00:09:59.370 Annavarni Cantadea is credited with vocals, all 00:09:59.370 --> 00:10:01.690 other instruments, and programming. She is the 00:10:01.690 --> 00:10:03.250 composer and the architect of the whole thing. 00:10:03.250 --> 00:10:06.899 Yeah. But these specific musicians, Wilson, Tollington, 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.340 and the rest, they're the ones breathing actual 00:10:09.340 --> 00:10:12.320 life into the score. It really separates Soap 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.299 Ria Ternes from a lot of other goth or dark wave 00:10:15.299 --> 00:10:17.620 acts of the early 2000s. I feel like in that 00:10:17.620 --> 00:10:19.460 era, it would have been very easy to just do 00:10:19.460 --> 00:10:21.860 all this on a keyboard. Oh, absolutely. Synthesizers 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:24.000 were getting really good by 2003. You could fake 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.720 a cello if you wanted to, but she actively chose 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:29.960 to hire a tuba player. And an oboe player. Think 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:32.360 about the sound of an oboe. It has such a distinct, 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:35.120 mournful, reedy sound. It sounds almost like 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.759 a human crying. It does. You can't perfectly 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.200 replicate the breath of a real oboe player with 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:43.200 a keyboard patch. By using real instruments, 00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:45.759 what we call acoustic instrumentation, you add 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:47.759 a layer of organic texture that you just can't 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:50.379 fake. It adds texture, but I think it also changes 00:10:50.379 --> 00:10:55.279 the whole vibe. Synths can feel cold, plastic. 00:10:55.549 --> 00:10:59.860 maybe futuristic, but a bassoon. A cello. Those 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:02.580 feel old. They feel like wood and gut and breath. 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:05.379 Exactly. It grounds the spookiness in reality. 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:08.360 It makes the dead in the title feel paradoxically 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:10.960 more alive. It's tactile. You can practically 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:13.539 hear the resin on the bow. That's a great point. 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:15.399 It creates a physical presence in the room with 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:18.139 you. And speaking of grounding things, or perhaps 00:11:18.139 --> 00:11:20.360 ungrounding them, we should talk about how these 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:22.679 instruments were used to transform specific tracks 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:24.940 from the demo. Yes. We mentioned birth earlier, 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:26.860 but there's another track the sources highlight. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:29.519 And that's Reprise. This is a great example of 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:31.519 that transformation process, that filling in 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.259 the sketch idea we talked about earlier. So in 00:11:34.259 --> 00:11:36.940 its original version on the demo tape, Reprise 00:11:36.940 --> 00:11:39.980 was just a spoken word piece. It referenced a 00:11:39.980 --> 00:11:42.460 line from the bridge of another song called Dead 00:11:42.460 --> 00:11:45.179 Souls, just a spoken outro, basically. Kind of 00:11:45.179 --> 00:11:47.100 a here's some spooky thoughts to end the tape 00:11:47.100 --> 00:11:50.419 vibe. Pretty standard fare for a concept album 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:52.879 or a demo, just a placeholder for an emotion. 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:56.779 But on this 2003 release. It has been transformed 00:11:56.779 --> 00:11:59.580 into a full song. It's no longer just someone 00:11:59.580 --> 00:12:01.740 talking over background. It's a complete musical 00:12:01.740 --> 00:12:04.210 composition. Which really reinforces the idea 00:12:04.210 --> 00:12:07.149 that S. Wright and D. Toten so schnell is a realization 00:12:07.149 --> 00:12:10.090 of the demo's true potential. Yeah. A spoken 00:12:10.090 --> 00:12:13.009 word track might be a placeholder simply because 00:12:13.009 --> 00:12:15.230 the artist couldn't quite express that feeling 00:12:15.230 --> 00:12:17.129 musically at the time. She didn't have the orchestra. 00:12:17.289 --> 00:12:18.929 She didn't have John A. Rivers. Right. She was 00:12:18.929 --> 00:12:21.850 limited by the resources. Exactly. Years later, 00:12:21.990 --> 00:12:24.289 with the full ensemble, including cellos and 00:12:24.289 --> 00:12:27.070 bassoons at her disposal, she could finally turn 00:12:27.070 --> 00:12:30.029 that spoken sentiment into a fully realized melody. 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:32.320 It's like she finally had the vocabulary to finish 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:34.559 the sentence she started 10 years ago. Precisely. 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:37.240 She filled in a sketch with oil paints. I really 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:39.519 love that image. But speaking of tangible things, 00:12:40.019 --> 00:12:43.159 of oil paints and canvases, we absolutely have 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:45.379 to talk about the physical object itself. I had 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:48.039 a feeling we were heading here the release formats. 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:50.259 I mean, we cover a lot of deep dives and we see 00:12:50.259 --> 00:12:52.039 some pretty cool marketing gimmicks. But this 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:54.799 one, this takes the cake for being the most committed 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:58.000 to the bit. It is certainly committed, but Sopraturnus 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.820 is known for treating the physical format as 00:13:00.820 --> 00:13:03.519 part of the art itself, not just a container 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:06.039 for it. Right. So the album comes out in 2003, 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:08.919 and it's not just a standard CD in a jewel case. 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:11.639 There were two specific limited editions mentioned 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:14.059 in the source material. First, there's a box 00:13:14.059 --> 00:13:18.840 set, an A5 sized box. Limited to 1 ,999 copies. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.539 A very nice specific number. Not 2 ,000, exactly 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:25.720 1 ,999. It feels very curated. But then... There's 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:28.179 the double vinyl edition. Limited to let me guess. 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:31.440 You know exactly where this is going. 666. It's 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.159 classic theatricality. It's camp, but it's a 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:37.759 very serious, dedicated camp. But what's inside 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:40.299 the vinyl edition is what really matters. Okay, 00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:42.240 listener, you really have to picture this. You 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:44.539 order the vinyl, you get the record, you get 00:13:44.539 --> 00:13:47.399 a poster, standard stuff, get a t -shirt. Very 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:51.440 cool. You get postcards. Nice. That's a pretty 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.460 deluxe bundle. But then you find... communion 00:13:54.460 --> 00:13:57.820 wafers symbolic certainly playing heavily with 00:13:57.820 --> 00:14:01.320 religious iconography the body of christ and 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:04.559 authenticated graveyard soil yes this is where 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:07.000 it gets really interesting i have so many questions 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:10.700 about this authenticated graveyard soil what 00:14:10.700 --> 00:14:13.120 does that even mean how do you authenticate dirt 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.279 is there a certificate like yes this dirk is 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:18.539 definitely from a place with dead bodies signed 00:14:18.539 --> 00:14:21.460 the groundskeeper the source material is delightfully 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:23.860 vague on the how of it all It simply states that 00:14:23.860 --> 00:14:26.120 it came with authenticated graveyard soil. It 00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:28.279 doesn't cite a lab report or a coroner's signature 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:30.379 or anything. It's just dirt in your record sleeve. 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:32.159 But think about the effect of that. We talked 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:34.179 about the subtitle earlier, the vampire sucking 00:14:34.179 --> 00:14:36.679 at his own vein. We talked about the dead ride 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:40.610 so fast. By including soil, specifically soil 00:14:40.610 --> 00:14:43.929 associated with death, the artist is literally 00:14:43.929 --> 00:14:46.570 breaking the fourth wall. Oh, wow. Yeah. You 00:14:46.570 --> 00:14:48.389 aren't just listening to a ghost story anymore. 00:14:48.570 --> 00:14:50.730 You are holding a physical piece of the setting 00:14:50.730 --> 00:14:53.590 in your own hand. It's immersive marketing taken 00:14:53.590 --> 00:14:56.629 to the absolute extreme. It bridges that gap 00:14:56.629 --> 00:14:58.570 between the art and the listener completely. 00:14:58.629 --> 00:15:00.850 Yeah. You literally own a piece of the grave. 00:15:01.129 --> 00:15:04.620 And it creates a relic. A standard CD is just 00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:08.000 a mass -produced consumer good, a box containing 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:11.860 soil and wafers, limited to 666 copies. That 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:15.139 is a ritual object. It really is. It changes 00:15:15.139 --> 00:15:17.419 the entire way you listen to the music. You approach 00:15:17.419 --> 00:15:19.419 it with more reverence or at least a lot more 00:15:19.419 --> 00:15:21.419 caution. It definitely adds to the mystique. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:23.299 I mean, if I bought a record and it came with 00:15:23.299 --> 00:15:25.000 dirt, I'd be telling everyone I knew about it. 00:15:25.019 --> 00:15:26.600 I'd be like, hey, don't touch that. It's the 00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:29.519 grave dirt. It creates an entire story around 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:32.120 the object itself. And notice the specific pairing 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:36.340 there. Communion wafers and grave soil. The sacred 00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:39.720 and the profane. Life eternal and physical decay. 00:15:40.340 --> 00:15:43.059 It's capturing the entire thematic arc of sopore 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:46.220 eternis and two tiny physical items. That is 00:15:46.220 --> 00:15:49.000 wild. It's just total art. The music, the photos, 00:15:49.139 --> 00:15:52.460 the packaging. It's all one cohesive, slightly 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:54.820 terrifying world. And it worked. We are sitting 00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:58.080 here talking about it 20 years later. So. Looking 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.019 back at all this. Let's recap the journey for 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.379 a second We have a demo tape from the early days 00:16:02.379 --> 00:16:04.500 that was rough around the edges, right? Then 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:06.940 years later the artist decides no, this isn't 00:16:06.940 --> 00:16:10.120 finished She hires a world -class producer, moves 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:12.759 the recording to England, hires a massive classical 00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:15.340 ensemble, re -records everything to absolute 00:16:15.340 --> 00:16:18.360 perfection, and then sells it with literal grave 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:20.879 dirt. It is a massive, massive undertaking. What 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:22.539 does this tell us about So Poor Eternus? What 00:16:22.539 --> 00:16:24.659 is the big takeaway here for you? It tells us 00:16:24.659 --> 00:16:27.240 that for Anna Varney Cantadea, the past is never 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:30.179 really dead. It's raw material. Most artists 00:16:30.179 --> 00:16:32.820 treat their back catalog as a history book. They 00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:36.120 say, this is what I did in 1995. But for her, 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:39.059 the back catalog is a living document. It can 00:16:39.059 --> 00:16:41.620 be reopened, rewritten, and expanded upon at 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:44.580 any time. The song birth can be born a fourth 00:16:44.580 --> 00:16:47.700 time. The spoken word track can finally become 00:16:47.700 --> 00:16:50.059 a song. It's almost like she's perfecting her 00:16:50.059 --> 00:16:53.639 own mythology. Precisely. She is curating the 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:57.720 legend of Sopor Aeternus in real time. By elevating 00:16:57.720 --> 00:17:00.500 the demo tape to this grand orchestral status, 00:17:00.860 --> 00:17:03.100 she's essentially saying, my beginnings were 00:17:03.100 --> 00:17:05.920 not humble. My beginnings were grand. I just 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:08.039 didn't have the budget to show you yet. That 00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:10.900 is a really powerful way to look at it. Retroactively 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:13.180 fixing the budget of your past. Basically saying, 00:17:13.319 --> 00:17:14.839 I always sounded like this in my head, now you 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:17.009 can hear it too. And the choice of the Dead Ride 00:17:17.009 --> 00:17:19.450 so fast as the title, it feels very relevant 00:17:19.450 --> 00:17:21.730 to this whole process. Oh, so? Well, the phrase 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:24.849 implies speed, urgency, something catching up 00:17:24.849 --> 00:17:26.690 to you. In the original poem, the dead return 00:17:26.690 --> 00:17:28.930 to claim the living. But in this album, I actually 00:17:28.930 --> 00:17:30.930 think the dynamic is flipped. The artist is the 00:17:30.930 --> 00:17:33.559 one chasing the dead. She's chasing these old 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:36.319 songs, these dead souls of her past repertoire. 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:38.779 She's hunting them down, catching them and giving 00:17:38.779 --> 00:17:41.700 them new bodies. She is flat out refusing to 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:44.539 let them rest in peace as mere demos. She's riding 00:17:44.539 --> 00:17:47.759 faster than they are. In a way, yes. Or she is 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:49.500 joining their ride so she can steer the carriage 00:17:49.500 --> 00:17:52.200 herself. It really is a unique entry in the world 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:54.660 of music. I honestly can't think of many other 00:17:54.660 --> 00:17:57.539 acts that have done something quite this specific. 00:17:58.220 --> 00:18:01.259 rebuilding a demo into a magnum opus with such 00:18:01.259 --> 00:18:03.859 fanatical detail. It's very rare, and it explains 00:18:03.859 --> 00:18:06.700 why the fans of this project are just so dedicated. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:09.220 They aren't just consuming content. They are 00:18:09.220 --> 00:18:12.420 witnessing a very personal, very intense artistic 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:15.039 evolution unfold. And they are holding the soil 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.599 to prove it. Indeed. They are part of the ritual. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.819 So as we wrap up this deep dive into S. Reitende 00:18:20.819 --> 00:18:23.460 Toten so schnell, We're left with this image 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:26.140 of an artist who just refuses to let the past 00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:29.079 stay imperfect. She built a massive monument 00:18:29.079 --> 00:18:31.619 out of a demo tape. And filled it with oboes, 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:34.759 cellos, and soil. It's gothic. It's ambitious. 00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:38.240 And it's undeniably cool. It makes you look at 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:41.339 your own old work and wonder, could I fix that? 00:18:41.420 --> 00:18:43.900 Should I fix that? I'd like to leave you, the 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:46.220 listener, with one final thought on that subtitle. 00:18:46.430 --> 00:18:49.349 The dead ride so fast. We've talked about the 00:18:49.349 --> 00:18:51.630 re -recording process, the fourth version of 00:18:51.630 --> 00:18:54.549 birth, the constant refinement of the art. If 00:18:54.549 --> 00:18:56.730 the artist is continuously re -recording and 00:18:56.730 --> 00:18:59.150 refining the past, are they trying to outrun 00:18:59.150 --> 00:19:01.869 the dead? Or are they trying to keep them alive? 00:19:02.309 --> 00:19:04.809 Is the perfectionism a way to silence the ghosts, 00:19:05.049 --> 00:19:07.490 or is it the only way to ensure they never truly 00:19:07.490 --> 00:19:09.910 fade away? That is definitely something to think 00:19:09.910 --> 00:19:11.630 about next time you're listening to an old favorite 00:19:11.630 --> 00:19:14.250 track. Are you keeping it alive? or is it haunting 00:19:14.250 --> 00:19:16.549 you? Thanks for taking this deep dive with us 00:19:16.549 --> 00:19:18.549 everyone. A pleasure as always. Keep digging.