Ελληνικά
One year has passed since your last concerts in Athens and Thessaloniki, where everyone were amused by your performances. How do you feel about coming back to Greece again?
I think we feel like we have to win the bet again! One year ago we were lucky enough to do two very strong gigs, but the audience should not be taken for granted. So there is, of course, excitement and joy, but at the same time there’s pressure to achieve the conditions we have set for ourselves.
Let’s talk a little bit about ‘Macbeth’, Shakespeare’s homonymous tragedy, which formed the basis for your record in 2016. What impact did this work have on you as individuals?
The truth is that this is a very dark work, which certainly has a great impact on the actor’s psychosynthesis, which goes into the role again and again. In general, theater helps us a lot in composing new songs.
Going back to 1998 and the “Bacchus’ dance of the Nymphs”, we see clearly the ancient Greek element. Elefsina and Delphi are the most respected sites in Greek territory, as highlighted after the end of the Persian wars. What is your relationship with the ancient Greek religion?
Daemonia Nymphe have already “left” from the narrow limits of the ” ancient Greek element ” and experimented in different places and with varying influences. All those are of course filtered through our aesthetics while we always try to create something new, no matter how old is what inspires us. And as you mentioned the ” Bacchus Dance of the Nymphs ” I would like to say that at the upcoming concerts this album will be honored. As for religion, as we have said before, we see it as a personal matter for everyone, and in the band everyone believes in what they want.
The cult of the chthonic deities that dominated the cosmopolitan of the people of the archaic era and “falls” a little later with the dominance of Olympian Pantheus, but without losing their place in the consciousness of the people then. How did your dealings with the chthonic deities in your diagrams prevail over the Twelve Gods?
Exactly because they are older, more instinctual, mystical, and primitive.
You have also worked with important names from the Greek pentagram such as Dimitra Galani. How honorable was that for you, or possibly for her?
Our first collaboration was with Alkinoos Ioannides on our first album with Prikosnovenie. Then came our collaboration with Psarantonis on the album “Krataia Asteropi” and with Dimitra Galanis on “Psychostasia”. There are three collaborations we are honored with, and the resulting pieces are very much loved by both us and our audience. Overall we believe very much in collaborations and over the years we have crossed paths with several musicians, some of whom are best known to the general public and others not.
Tell us a few things about “Psychostasia”. What does the term stand for, but also for the performance.
Psychostasis is the doctrine of weighing people’s souls into scales. Psychosocial scales were placed in graves to measure the weight of the dead soul before going to the Lower World. The album “Psychostasia” is one of our most important works so far. It is an album that was worked almost entirely in London and is a multi-instrumental work with musicians from different countries. On this occasion, in 2013 we performed ” Psychostasia ” at the Old Cholmeley Boys Club in East London in collaboration with the Theater Lab Company and then in 2014 ” Psychostasia: The Performance ” at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios. Four years of concerts (in Europe and America), theater music and other projects followed, and finally 2018 is the time to return to ” Psychostasia ” with ” Psychostasia II The Ritual ” at the Asylum Chapel in London , an atmospheric, cinematic space of an old church that had been bombed in World War II and now functions as a venue for performances, exhibitions and concerts (Game of Thrones, video clip for Daughter, etc.). During all these shows and concerts, we composed new pieces with the same concept, so it was reasonable to include them in the re-release.
The Earth was of immense importance in ancient times for human life as it was the main source of their “life”. Today, we do not even see the corresponding respect by humans. What is the reason for this?
There are many reasons. The main I think, is the domination of profit at the expense of life. Life seems to be counting in our time just as it did in the Middle Ages, which means not at all. Since today’s dominant philosophy is profit, everything else is sacrificed.
What is the most important show you have given so far?
I don’t think it’s just one, because each show can be important for different reasons. Also for each of us, the answer may be different. One of our concerts that is deeply engraved in my memory, however, because of the beauty of the scenery and the very special atmosphere, was many years ago, in the Petroussa Gorge, in Drama. I would like to return back there sometimes. Kourion in Paphos as well, where we played live the music of “Antigone”.
What are your best memories from the Greek public?
I will never forget our first concert at the Carpentry in Thessaloniki in 2007. Such a reception was something we had never experienced before. Last year’s concerts, both in Athens and in Thessaloniki, were deeply moving for us as well. Those moments felt like we had been deeply seduced by the audience into something that was only theirs and ours.
February is approaching, so are your performances in Thessaloniki and Athens. What can we expect from you? What would you like to do to your audience with your music?
We will not tell you what to expect, we will simply tell you that the journey for us continues, with new compositions, additional collaborators and explorations of new paths.
What happens next for Daemonia Nymphe?
None of us know!
That’s all from us! See you soon back at the Principal club. Something you’d like to say to our readers?
A big thank you,with the wish to always discover the music that makes you happy.
