Stalaggh

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: STALAGGH:
Stalaggh logo 01.png
General information
origin Amsterdam , Netherlands
Genre (s) Noise , dark ambient , black metal
founding 2000, 2007 as : GULAGGH:
Gulaggh logo.png

Stalaggh (stylized as : STALAGGH :) is a Dutch - Belgian music project that has appeared under the name Gulaggh ( : GULAGGH:) since 2007 . Largely unnoticed by the musical mainstream, the collective drew attention to itself , especially in the metal scene, with recordings of the screams of mentally ill people . The obscure settings combine elements of noise , drone , dark ambient and black metal .

Name and concept

The music project Stalaggh was founded in 2000 by several musicians from the Dutch and Belgian black metal , noise and ambient scenes. Neither the exact number of members nor their identities are known, and there are no live performances. After a musical reorientation, the project was renamed Gulaggh in 2007. The name Stalag is an abbreviation for the main camps of the Wehrmacht in World War II . Gulag are the name of the Soviet Union's labor camps operated primarily under Josef Stalin . The respective suffix GH stands for “Global Holocaust ” and, according to the company's own statements, as a metaphor for the “total extinction of human life”.

A special trademark of the recordings is the integration of the screams of psychiatric patients , which should contribute to the authenticity of the message to be conveyed. In several text interviews circulating on the Internet, the group describes itself as a “nihilistic misanthropic audio terror project” and strictly rejects creative terms such as “band” and “art”. Rather, the Stalaggh or Gulaggh is an entity that wants to spread a nihilistic - misanthropic message with its projects (albums) . The driving force here is the ideological bond between the members and their “voices”.

“Humans should realize that their existence is futile. : STALAGGH: is not art nor therapy, and should not be seen as such. "

“People should understand that their existence is pointless. : STALAGGH: is neither art nor therapy and should not be seen as such. "

- : STALAGGH: (2007)

plant

style

Oil painting by Jeroen van Valkenburg (2000)

Stalaggh's music is difficult to classify as a single genre. Although the concept, expression and instrumentation are close to Black Metal , the group insists on the term "Nihilistic Misanthropic Audio-Terror" to describe their work. According to the company, the darkest and most threatening elements of extreme forms of music are mixed with the negative emotions of the mentally ill. An ordinary black metal singer can never convey pain, fear and hatred as authentically and intensely as the screams of those who really suffer. The recordings emerged as a spontaneous “anti-art” without texts, melody or harmony . They should appeal to depressed and gloomy people and form an "exact opposite of feel-good music" on the radio and on MTV .

One member of the collective works in a psychiatric institution in the Netherlands, which gives the musicians access to patients. Compared to the institutions, they state that they do conceptual art in order to be more easily accessible to the sick. Once a piece of classical music is said to have been played as a deception. Stalaggh have worked with people who suffer from schizophrenia , borderline syndrome , multiple personality disorder or various psychoses . A man who spent a few years in a high-security institution for the murder of his mother at the age of 16 is said to have been heard on several phonograms and to have excessively injured himself during the recordings . Another patient suffering from anorexia nervosa and borderline is alleged to have committed suicide a few months after the admission . So far, different psychiatric patients have been involved on each album, some of which were allowed to leave their facilities temporarily.

“The mind of the mentally deranged is far more interesting than the minds of sane people. Living in constant fear and pain causes the soul to fill with hate and despair and will give you visions of the realms of darkness and death. "

“The mind of the mentally disturbed is much more interesting than that of a healthy person. Through the permanent life in fear and pain, the soul fills with hatred and despair and gives ideas of the realm of darkness and death. "

- : STALAGGH:

Publications

Stalaggh released three studio albums , each consisting of only one track, two EPs and a compilation . The first part of a trilogy Project Nihil with the main theme Nihilism was published by New Era Productions in 2003 and is intended to convey to the listener the "futility of his existence". During the recording of the follow-up album Project Terror , an incident occurred in which one of the members was almost strangled by a patient . The choking noises are said to be heard on the record. While the screams were used even more discreetly on the first album, they come to the fore on this sound carrier. With the conclusion of the trilogy Project Misanthropia , the group's most elaborate work to date was created. In the first step, the musicians recorded with seven patients in a dilapidated factory building. Then there was another recording of screams in a vacant monastery , with the voices of the first recording step playing in the background. Finally, black metal elements were improvised in the studio. All voice recordings were not digitally post-processed.

Gulag in the Kolyma region (1957)

In 2007 the group formed anew and set itself the goal of recording another album trilogy under the name Gulaggh. The first sound carrier, Vorkuta , was named after the labor camp of the same name and appeared for the first time in 2008 on the regular New Era label. In order to simulate the cold and desolation of the storage conditions, only classical instruments such as piano , violin , cello or trumpet were played - as “ perversion and inversion of classical music ”, albeit in a stubborn way. In total, more than ten musicians and over 40 voices, including rape victims and former prostitutes as well as about 30 children's voices, were involved in the recordings . The album begins with an excerpt from a Stalin speech. The planned successor plants Kolyma and Norilsk , also named after Gulag locations north of the Arctic Circle , have not yet been published. On the former, the screams of native deaf people are supposed to create a "more animalistic and chaotic" sound, while overall a more bombastic production is planned. After completing these works, the collective is to be dissolved.

Collaborations

Lettering drawn by a patient for Pure Misanthropia

Despite the preservation of their anonymity, Stalaggh already worked several times with other artists. After he became aware of him on the Internet, the Dutch neo-pagan painter Jeroen van Valkenburg designed the covers of the “Project” trilogy, each of which shows sad or fearful faces with empty eyes. A schizophrenic patient contributed a drawing that adorns the cover of the limited edition third LP, Pure Misanthropia , and also shows a distraught face. In addition to the album Project Terror , the production company Rigor Mortis shot a seven-minute black and white film that, among other things, strings together images of concentration camps .

In order to achieve a more extreme, fuller sound, the Berlin ambient producer Osman Arabi, who had already remastered the first two albums, was hired for Projekt Misanthropia , and he initiated contacts with Autopsy Kitchen, Basilisk and Autumn Wind Records. Arabi, who claims to have worked for the collective free of charge, criticized the musicians in 2008 on his blog . He described the remix of his separately recorded, 45-minute electronic background track, which was made without his knowledge, as a "disaster". In addition, his original mix was published without authorization on the album's limited edition.

reception

Both the music of Stalaggh and Gulaggh and their practices are controversial. Pitchfork described the project as one of the most “challenging” bands not only in terms of sound, but also philosophically, which would disturb many with their intentions and work. Various websites rank Stalaggh - regardless of their aversion to the term "band" - among the most bizarre and terrifying musical groups. The group itself welcomes the discussions, but because of their claims it is often considered with doubts about authenticity and dismissed as a “joke” or “ modern myth ”.

The musicians defend themselves against accusations that the patient's state of mind is being used for one's own benefit. Not only did all patients give written consent, most of them also shared the group's negative worldview. Some are said to have even described the recordings as "the best therapy they have ever had". The musicians also mentioned personal contacts with individual patients, many of whom would be quite inclined to collaborate again. With letters and photos from fans who inflicted wounds on themselves while listening to the "music", the group boasted in a 2007 interview with Pitchfork .

The journalist Piero Scaruffi , known for his musically controversial views, evaluated six publications and awarded between 5 and 7.5 out of 10 points. The debut album, which managed to “ stack waves upon waves of thick, deafening, lava-like feedback over infernal screams” and was a close relative of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music , performed best . After 20 minutes of “ cacophonic music” there was another “orgasmic crescendo of wildness that pulverized every idea of ​​'music'”. Attempts by the group to sound “ gothic ” on Pure Misanthropia , the critic found “silly”. On Vorkuta it takes 20 minutes for the voices to "melt into a serious composition", but after that the piece turns into a "relaxed noise jazz jam" from which the voices " emerge like a Hitchcock flock of birds".

Mark Hensch, who sees the work of Stalaggh as a “brutal counterculture ” and years ahead of its time, was able to see an irony in the highly unconventional work despite everything: by giving mentally ill people the chance to set highly personal feelings such as hatred and sadness to music , the group would find a kind of “perverted beauty in humanity” that they ostensibly disdain.

Discography

Stalaggh

  • 2001: Stalaggh ( EP , New Era Productions)
  • 2003: Project Nihil (New Era Productions)
  • 2004: Project Terror (Total Holocaust Records)
  • 2006: Project Misanthropia (EP, New Era Productions)
  • 2006: Nihilistic Terror ( Compilation , Autopsy Kitchen Records)
  • 2007: Project Misanthropia (Autopsy Kitchen Records)
  • 2008: Pure Misanthropia (Limited Edition, New Era Productions)

Gulaggh

  • 2008: Vorkuta (New Era Productions)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Brandon Stosuy: Show No Mercy. Pitchfork , June 20, 2007, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b c d Toby McCasker: Making Music with the Screams of Mental Patients, Rape Victims and Kids. Noisey , June 24, 2013, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Existence is Futile: An Interview with: STALAGGH: /: GULAGGH :. Gnartallica, December 6, 2011, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Piero Scaruffi : Stalaggh. scaruffi.com, accessed on August 12, 2018 (English).
  5. ↑ a b Osman Arabi: Facts about my work with Stalaggh. Osman Arabi, July 16, 2008, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  6. ↑ The Weirdest Band in the World. weirdestbandintheworld.com, May 8, 2013, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Completely crazy ?: Crazy band makes psychopaths, raped and murderers scream. News.de , June 4, 2015, accessed on August 12, 2018 .
  8. ^ Witney Seibold: Can Your Mind Handle The Terrifying “Music” of: STALAGGH: and: GULAGGH :? 13th Floor, May 3, 2016, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  9. ↑ : STALAGGH: /: GULAGGH: Music From Damaged Minds. Weird Retro, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  10. ↑ 10 Most Evil Bands of All Time. Loudwire / YouTube , March 3, 2017, accessed May 17, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Matt Solis: Rise of the Machines: A Dark Electronic / Ambient Starter Kit. Decibel , June 25, 2015, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Mark Hensch: Stalaggh - Project Misanthropia Review. Thrash Pit / Rocknworld.com, 2007, accessed August 12, 2018 .