PENSEES NOCTURNES – Interview with Vaerohn

I hope, that you read this interview in night, because it is ideal time to nightly considerations about an art of music and about a philosophy…

Hello Vaerohn! Tell me the something about a rise of your project PENSEES NOCTURNES

Well its usually the question you answer after the others in order not to repeat yourself Pensées Nocturnes is a one man band which gives me the opportunity to express myself without other constraints than my imagination. Its really difficult to work in symbiosis within a band and concessions arent easily made when related to art. This project lies on a Black Metal basis and approaches many other influences to fit to what I have in mind. No matter what is usually done. No matter what people want. Pensées Nocturnes is the image of how I see music, what I really want to listen to. Ive composed this first song (Flore) in August 2008 and I guess we can call it the creation of the project.

Did I translate the name of your project well – “nightly considerations/reflections”? Really the music is ideal to listening at night

Well to make a word for word translation, Pensées Nocturnes means Nocturnal Thoughts in French.

What did you mean entitling the album “vaccum”?

Vacuum refers to the futility of humans activities and purposes. Religion, politics, science, philosophical ideals, all these illusions which keep our mind busy and keep us away from our condition. Nothing we do has an existential foundation aside from spending time. As if life comes down to everything that allows us to forget life Ive discovered urban life a short time ago and it totally scares me. All these landscapes made of concrete, showing human propensity to create death for nothing However as said Tchekhov we have to live and this nihilist vision of life is a starting point as it shows lack of explanation for every single truth. Everything has to be invented. And paradoxically music, as a creative process, contributes to this kind of reconstruction after this calling into question. Music is for me simply a way to live.

I associated many of your music with the creations of ELEND. Did you take an inspiration to creation of your compositions from this sort of sounds also?

Ive discovered this band when theyve released Winds Devouring Men and I really like A World in Their Screams but generally speaking I find their music too messy. Its an interesting project by its originality and its integrity but Im not really found of the vocals which dont fit at all with the music, even if its something theyve managed to improve in the last release. I dont think mixing Black Metal vocal with Neo-Classical Music is a really good idea

But blues and folk subjects also appear in your music, although seldom

Im used to spending evenings improvising with friends during hours, this kind of moment where time linearity loses all its signification. I think Blues melancholy totally fits with the atmospheres we can meet in Vacuum. If you would have preferred more of these influences and originalities I think youll love the next album.

Why do you create so depressive music? Is there in you so many sadness and despair? Are you such melancholic person every day?

I think you have an answer with the third question.

I wonder… Did you add the special lyrics and the philosophy to such dark music, where is full of mysticism and the melancholy?

Lyrics deal with many differents themes among which Solitude, Nihilism, Nature, Death, but they are generally vague enough to let listeners enough freedom. I dont have any messages to spread, any cause to defend and I lost the hope to change the world with notes a long time ago. Pensées Nocturnes is a way for me to put everything on the table and then accept life as it is. A positive Nihilism which leads to a kind of but we have to live anyway in the style of Tchekhov and paradoxically music, as a creative process, contributes to this kind of reconstruction after this calling into question. This lyrics describe most of the time atmospheres, ambiances rather than fighting for something. I dont have the solution, the answer. I just write for me.

How does the process of creation progress?

Actually composition and recording follow the same process because I always try to see what an idea looks like: its difficult to imagine it with only a piece of paper. I have indeed a lot of ideas and my work can be summed up in materialize them and see if it is worth keeping it or try something else. I dont want to copy a band or a style and thats why I refer to what my imagination suggests.

You are lonely composer. Do you think sometimes about an amplification of the project?

Forming a line-up has really a strong influence on the composition and thats what I wanted to avoid. I dont know if the rendering is perfect (which is just an idle fancy actually) but it represents what I want and thats the most important. I can do whatever I want without any remark. I can if I want to only put three notes of violin in the whole album and the violinist wont get disappointed contrary to a Pagan Metal band which has to make its musicians play all the time for example. I play in other bands because its a different experience but I want to keep this freedom too so Pensées Nocturnes will always be a one man band.

Then you would present your music live

I dont know if a concert would be something suitable for this music and as you may have understood I dont want to know. For the time being the priority is the bands discography. Im not convinced being able to share as easily as Im able to do with an album and thats why I dont want to lose time trying to set up a line-up only for promotional interest or to do like everyone. Its not a final decision but the priority is really the next album for the moment. Clearly if something has to be planned, it cant be a common concert, something that really fits to Pensées Nocturnes. Its too much to think about for the moment.

Who is Danny Elfman?

Danny Elfman is a soundtrack compositor. This kind of sweet melancholy mixed with this naive approach of horror. Im also used to listen to other soundtrack compositors such as John Williams whom sophistication and complexity impress me so much. Actually each song follows what I would call a scenario fitting to an image I have in mind. I think its important music keeps a link with reality and starting from a picture is an interesting approach. Im presently working on some soundtrack plans, so you were pretty right.

PENSEES NOCTURNES is probably the first publication of young French label Les Acteurs De L'Ombre Productions…

Les Acteurs de lOmbre is well-known non profit-making organization in France for organizing Metal concerts with seriousness and honesty and Vacuum is indeed their first release. I know them for giving them a hand from time to time and I didnt hesitate one second to work with such a professional organization. To be honest signing with this label has been a huge chance for Pensées Nocturnes. I dont think Vacuum would have received as much support with any other label. Its real pleasure to work with people led by passion for music. They bet a lot by signing an unknown band which develops an atypical music and doesnt play live so I hope the organization will be able to make this release profitable.

Do you have an idea for the next album?

I have almost finished the next album and I can say it will be something less kind, more unhealthy and dissonant. Vacuum is my first experience and Ive learnt a lot of things. There will be a lot of surprises, something very personal.

How the man like you with melancholic nature will spend the New Year's Eve?

Well I work for Christmas and for the New Years Eve so that will be a day like the others for me.