Interview with Rosarium2

rozmawiał Adam Tomasz Witczak

Hello! First of all, please tell us when did you start your project Rosarium² and why did you choose such nom de guerre.

Good incipit! Well, before starting this project I experimented with many different genres of music, and I used to create ad hoc projects, all of which were based on different concepts and had different names. At the same time I was doing a years-long research on religion and philosophy. At a certain point I became aware of the fact that I was studying all the artistic and the spiritual systems of the world except mine! So in 2011 I started listening to myself and to create my own music in order to hear myself better.

So began the Rosarium² project and its name came along: Rosarium because I think the rosary is the most beautiful and complete group of existing prayers, and the best compendium of Catholicism you can have; in Latin because it is the original language of the rosary and simply because I love it; the exponent ² has many meanings: reflection on how all the energy you put into praying comes back to you; infinity, but also completeness; resolution of the opposites; calmness and at the same time continuous movement; eternity.

It seems that (if we speak about electronic side of your music) you are highly inspired by glitch and click’n’cut scene. Is it proper interpretation of your sounds? Do you agree that glitch and click’n’cut is a music which perfectly describes our postmodern, hi-tech, digital society of skyscrapers made of glass and steel?

I like to use “interferences” in my music, like heavy editing, noises and lo-fi samples, because I want to recreate my states of mind experienced during prayers and meditations, and I feel that all my inner thoughts are fused with sounds that come from the outside. Yes, we live in a world dominated by technology, and sometimes this is very stressful, but by mixing it all with prayer we can stay well everywhere and anytime. This is my message, and my life.

All in all, you come from Sardinia—so you are probably more close to nature and a kind of natural calm than people from big city skyscrapers. So please tell us, is Sardinia—it's culture, history and nature—any inspiration for you?

Sardinia is known for the beauty of its beaches, but we also have green mountains with small towns where people don’t need to buy organic food, because they cultivate it themselves. Unfortunately there are also polluting industries, huge military areas and anonymous urban conglomerates. They all are my inspirations. As far as culture and history are concerned, Sardinia has a very strong Catholic background and it has been a crucial factor in my personal and artistic development.

Are you in any way connected to so-called martial/neofolk scene which sometimes is also interested in Christianity or inspired by it? (Of course we know that even more often it’s inspired by Neopaganism).

Thanks to the Internet I’m in touch with some artists that use Christian themes in their music, but I cannot say that I’m part of a scene. Sadly, the alternative culture, just like the mainstream one, is infested with wrong ideologies, sexual fetishes, destructive habits and other things like that.

Your music often has very repetitive structure. Why is that so? We know that it’s a reference to rosary but—as probably you know—some people in Catholic or conservative circles can be afraid of any kind of “trance”…

The rosary and the litanies are loops, and are made to create a sort of meditative state of mind, so I don’t think that people who practice it everyday could be afraid of the repetitive structures of my music. Maybe they could be disturbed by my deconstructions and personal interpretations, but I cannot do nothing for that. I received criticisms together with appreciations, from traditionalists and from modernists as well, but it was inevitable.

What do you think about the idea of restoration a Catholic monarchy—or rather: Catholic monarchies—in Italy? Of course we’re not talking about masonic and liberal monarchy of Vittorio Emanuele (although, all in all, he was a king of Sardinia…), but about legitimist monarchies (like Bourbons in Napoli).

As you said, the experience with monarchy in Italy has not been memorable. In fact the king and his family were puppets in the hands of foreign powers, and in Sardinia we know it better than the others because they exploited our land before they conquered Italy. I know that there are many arguments in support of the Bourbons, although in our history books they are mocked, but you can be sure that very few people are involved in this issue at the moment.

Leaving the historical facts aside, I think that there is a specific reason why people in Italy don’t have much affection for monarchy: we already have a man that covers the role of a king, the Pope! Ok, he’s the vicary of Christ, he’s from clergy, he’s elected, he can be from any part of the globe, etc., but here everyone—from sedevacantists to militant atheists—knows that he virtually is the one and only true king of Italy! It can be said that this is the same for all the Catholics around the world, and this is true, but in Italy we have a proverb: two roosters cannot stay in the same chicken coop!

I have also a personal point of view on this: the Catholic kings, as all kings, are not elected, but, unlike the others, they theoretically have another king above them, the Pope, that is elected and pursues moral ends. Now, in Italy, as in Europe and in the whole world we have governments held by “democratic” and/or liberal parties and they do whatever they want without asking the people anything, because they receive their power from the rulers of the global economy, that are not elected by anyone and pursue their personal goals. So virtually a true Catholic monarchy is a more democratic system, in the sense of popular approval and public utility, than the one we have at the moment. Curious, isn’t it?

Is it difficult nowadays to be a Catholic on Sardinia? Is there a high level of secularism on your island or maybe you have preserved some old traditions and customs?

As I said, Sardinia has a solid Catholic background, although secularism and modernism are diffused here like everywhere in the Western world. We preserved many traditions, like the celebrations of the Holy Week in the Spanish custom, and we have the living language closer to Latin, so it’s easy for us to understand it. However we are under direct control of Rome and—I think you know that due to some statements of the Second Vatican Council old ways are not well regarded there. So forget about finding in Sardinia churches where priest celebrates with the tridentine rite.

Maybe it sounds surprising to you but I rarely go to church, because the modern mass makes me feel bad, and I prefer to go there for meditation when they are empty. The only religious social activity that I’m taking part in at the moment is praying the rosary in Latin with a group of people of different ages and extractions. We meet once in a month in one of our homes and we pray the entire rosary. I don’t know if I am an atypical traditionalist or a postmodernist believer, but that’s my personal way to live by the Catholic faith and to be part of the Church.

It is a time for more technical question: what equipment, instruments and software do you use to create sounds of Rosarium²?

I use both hardware and software, but the most important factor in my music is humanware! I start from organic matter, like my voice, choirs, guitar, etc., then I process it and add sounds with the machines I have, e.g. samplers, grooveboxes, smartphones, etc. and finally I record it all into my laptop, where I edit and finalize the product with multitracks and various programs. Sometimes the order and/or the instruments are different but for the most part it goes like I described.

Do you know (not personally, I mean music) any ambient, glitch, post-industrial artists who are inspired by traditional Eastern or Western Christianity? Could you recommend any of them?

I can recommend Spreu & Weizen from Germany, they play martial industrial with a militant Christian message; Kraschau and Kriegsfall-U from Hungary, they are industrial projects with Christian and legitimist themes; from Italy: Rose Rovine & Amanti, one of the best neofolk bands at the moment, and Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, ex-frontman of the avantgarde-punk band CCCP and now devout Catholic singer. As for artists inspired by traditional Eastern Christianity I recommend listening to New Orthodox Line from Russia. I also suggest to check out my label Nihil Obstat.

I think that we can hear a big progress in your music, your newest album is much better than the first. So I’d like to ask you about your artistic plans for nearest future.

Deo Gratias! Yes, maybe the last one is the best, but I love them all like they were my children.

One of my projects for the nearest future is to organize a show of contemporary sacred art with visual works and installations by other artists and sound provided by me. Then I have some ideas of making professional videos for some of my tracks, but they need a certain budget, so we’ll have to see!