Adversus
| Adversus | |
|---|---|
 Adversus after the publication of “Eine Nacht Gewesenes”, 2006. |
|
| General information | |
| founding | 2000 |
| Website | http://www.adversus.de |
| Founding members | |
Singing, composition, lyrics, artwork |
Torsten "Rosendorn" Schneyer |
Vocals, keyboard |
Susanne Stitz (until 2005) |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Aysel |
Singing, composition, lyrics, artwork |
Torsten "Rosendorn" Schneyer |
Keyboard |
Stefan (since 2011) |
guitar |
Sebastian Kuhn |
double bass |
Carsten "Bass Master" Hundt |
Drums |
Thomas Eifert |
singing |
Johanna Dietz (since 2010) |
| former members | |
singing |
Manja "Tyrae" Gueckel (until 2006) |
violin |
Sabeth (until 2003) |
guitar |
Thomas "Tommy" Steuer (until 2005) |
guitar |
Paul |
singing |
Susanne (until 2005) |
Clarinet / keyboard / flute |
Tanja Frisch (until 2010) Pia "La Musica" (until 2011) |
violin |
Lestaria (from 2003 to 2010) Lena Biehl (until 2011) |
Adversus (Latin: opposite, opposite, adverse, unhappy, disgusting, hateful ) is a band from Offenbach am Main that was founded in 2000 .
biography
Adversus, founded as a solo project by the artist Torsten “Rosendorn” Schneyer, appeared in public for the first time in 2000 with the demo publication A First Spark . This demo won the project a record deal with the Sonorium label . The debut album Winter, so unspeakable winter… received positive reviews from magazines such as Zillo and Orkus . In addition to Rosendorn herself, Susanne Stitz, who was responsible for the female vocals, was a permanent member of the band. In addition to the two, various guest musicians took part in the recordings.
In 2005, their second studio album, Eine Nacht Gewesenes , was released, which was another concept album with an ongoing storyline. The line-up of this album had grown to seven permanent members (another singer, a clarinetist, a double bass player, a guitarist and a violinist). In addition, three prominent guest musicians were represented on the CD: Alexander Spreng , Marcus Testory von Chamber and the folk musician and bagpiper Thomas Zöller, known for his work at Qntal and Estampie .
In 2007 the mini-album Laya was released with only five songs and a playing time of 35 minutes. According to the band, it is not a regular Adversus album, but a quiet acoustic work that emphasizes the folky, medieval / classical side of the project and is intended to bridge the waiting time for the next studio album. For this EP some changes were made to the line-up: Since Susanne Stitz withdrew from the band events in 2006 for personal reasons, Adversus presents a new singer on Laya with Aysel. The guitars are no longer played by Tommy Steuer, but by Sebastian Kuhn.
Since Laya , Adversus have been in the studio sporadically to record the follow-up to What Has Been One Night .
As part of a puzzle on the band's official website, the title of the upcoming studio album was announced. There were five images hidden on the website that represent a word or syllable of one of the words from the name of the new album. In the end, five fans found out the title Der Zeit abhanden .
On September 15, 2010, the band announced a change in line-up. The previous violin player Lestaria and the keyboard player / flute player / clarinetist Tanja Frisch will no longer support the band musically. The two musicians Lena Biehl as violin and Pia “La Musica” as keyboard player were hired for the band's music video, which will be released shortly. To what extent Lena and Pia will be retained for further productions by the band is not yet known. In addition, a new second voice with the name Johanna Dietz was permanently set.
19 days later, on October 4, 2010, the target release date for the new album was given as “early December”. In addition, a preview with parts of each song was uploaded to YouTube. It was also announced that the first edition of the CD Der Zeit abhanden - Eleven fairy tales for escaped people will only be sold with a short story book Rosendorns.
As explained on the official website in February 2013, the band is working on a new album, which is expected to be titled Criminal Court - Ten New Deadly Sins . A release date was not given and instead referenced to the release history of the computer game Duke Nukem Forever .
style
music
Adversus mix elements from numerous divergent styles of music and are therefore difficult to assign. The influences range from early music to folk and metal to techno , drum & bass , electro and neoclassical . Among other things, bagpipes, acoustic or metal guitars are combined with techno beats and sometimes minne- like singing and shouting . Songs like Daemon, too deep inside you and spider leg and Hawksheart based on drum - & - bass rhythms, with blades dance , however, both techno come and break beats used during Come, O death on trip-hop elements recourse. Frequent tempo changes, breaks (especially with regard to the opposing rhythm patterns), orchestral insertions, polyphonic choir passages, crescendos and bells are the most prominent features.
Another characteristic of the band is the use of alternating vocals and duet passages between a classic soprano singer and a metal singer. In addition to normally sung, there are shouted, whispered and recitative sung passages, so that an often theatrical and pictorial music is created.
Texts
Adversus' albums are concept albums ; In other words, an overarching theme has run through every work so far and connects the pieces of music with one another like individual chapters of a book. Each piece tells the story a bit further, often the individual sections are linked by text collages and poetry passages.
Adversus' texts are often long, metaphorical and cryptic. The style of poetry is a mixture of classical, romantic and thus anachronistic poetry and postmodern, expressionistic language experiments. There are various opinions about the interpretations of the texts and Rosendorn's statements on this are not always clear. In the band's own Wortwahn forum and in several interviews, he took the view that the listener's preoccupation with the content and spinning his own interpretations are also an important part of the work of art and that he does not want to destroy it by his own specifications.
Nevertheless, it can be roughly stated: Fundamental questions of human existence such as “guilt”, “closeness” and “distance” are dealt with from different perspectives. The isolation of the individual against the background of an indifferent society is often discussed. Furthermore, the field of tension between “belief” and “disillusionment” as well as the comprehensibility of “reality” is dealt with. Adversus thus indirectly refer to philosophical currents, especially existentialism .
Winter, so unspeakable Winter ... describes the development of a conflict-laden first-person narrator away from a fear-driven, radical and destructive worldview towards a free, self-determined existence. However, it is left open whether this act of liberation is associated with self-harm (as indicated in the piece catharsis ) or even suicide ( winter of the soul ) and thus it is merely an escapist pseudo-freedom.
What has been a night is about an unusual couple relationship, the complete development of which from the first crush (“aware of your beauty”) through first doubts (“this is obvious”) to the inner detachment (“spider leg and hawk heart”) in a single night plays. In the end, the protagonists stand in front of the shambles of their illusions. In essence, the question is asked to what extent psychological preconditions of those involved (as described at the beginning in the play The Nihilist Hymn ) inevitably determined the outcome of the drama. In this sense, what has been a night follows the pattern of a tragedy .
In contrast to the previous albums, Der Zeit Abhanden - Eleven fairy tales for escaped does not tell a coherent story, but presented itself as a loose collection of modern myths, which are carried by a fundamentally threatening and / or escapist mood. The album came with a book full of short stories and illustrations, which are assigned to the individual songs on the CD. In terms of text, the work often takes up the subject of social outsiders ( brothers , things that have been a night , cellar child ) and bizarre incidents ( webs , one thing in the mirror , under the covers ). Often the stories told end tragically. So the two twins from different eras ( brothers ) never see each other again, the girl who crushes spiders ( webs ) becomes the victim of her own cruelty and the lovers from One Night (which pays homage to the band's album of the same name) through different time levels separated.
painting
Adversus is a band that sees itself as a total work of art and is also perceived as such. This is expressed, among other things, in the fact that the project insists on designing all artwork, booklets and merchandise items by yourself. Torsten “Rosendorn” Schneyer produced the entire artwork for the band himself. In addition to the 3D-rendered cover, the booklet of Winter, so unspeakable Winter ... contains several watercolor , ink and charcoal drawings. The booklet of the second Adversus album Eine Nacht Gewesenes also contains several oil paintings by Schneyer. These together with the texts, the photos of the band members, some ornaments, photographs by Jörg Kahnt and other objects were processed into a collage . In the book Der Zeit abhanden - enclosed with the album of the same name - corresponding illustrations are attached to each song / poem on the CD. The core technical requirement of the project was to compose a song including poetry for each short story and to paint an accompanying picture, so that in the end - according to Rosendorn - “a translation of a single thought into four different languages of art” was available.
Discography
- 2001: A First Spark (Demo CD)
- 2003: Winter, so unspeakable winter ... (CD)
- 2005: One Night (CD)
- 2007: Laya (EP)
- 2010: Time lost (CD and book with short stories)
Cover and remixes
- 1 More Day , 2003, original by Evereve , appeared on their album .Enetics .
- This is no dream (Adversus Interpretation) , 2004, original of Samsa's dream , appeared on their album a.Ura und das Schnecken.Haus .
- Moritat (Adversus Remix) , 2006, original by Das Ich , published on their album Cabaret (Special Edition) .
Web links
- Official website
- Adversus on MusicBrainz (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Criminal Court - A first album preview. adversus.de, December 9, 2013, accessed on November 21, 2015 .