Interview with Hidden Place

 

Hidden Place is an interesting cold wave/electro/synthpop band from Italy.
You can listen to their songs on http://www.myspace.com/hiddenplaceitalia. They have released three albums ("Weather Station", "Fantasia Meccanica" and "Punto Luce") and a compilation of early tracks. They have also appeared on some compilations (like "VAWS Vol.V" and "Credo In Unum Deum").

First please tell us about the beginnings of Hidden Place. Why did you choose such name? What is the current line-up of the band?

We started in 2004. The band is formed by siblings SaraLux and Fabio Vitelli, Giampiero Di Barbaro,Antonio Losenno.About the band name we have always understood this "Hidden Place" as an area for meditation and reflection, a sort of microcosm where we are trying to act "in a highly intimate and naively pure and where the end of our action is the Creation of our Art, seen as a cure for the soul."

Technical question: what instruments and software do you use to create music? Do you often play live?

We use differents kinds of instruments for our music,obviously about synths. We love too much our Novation X-Station. His atmospheric sound is awesome! Mikrokorg is another machine that we use often especially for electronic sounds. About livedates unfortunately we don't play them. This because every band member live in different and distant cities,but we hope to solve this problem as soon as possible.

What about lyrics? Who writes them? Do you consider lyrics as an important part of your creation?

SaraLux writes lyrics and they are very important for our music. Lyrics need music like music need lyrics. Every song talks about deep and important elements of our life, from Art to feelings.

You have put your track on the VA “Credo in Unum Deum” compilation, produced by Josef Maria Klumb and Damiano Mercuri. Could you tell us something more about your participation in this project and about song “Euritmia del Fulgore”?

To Take part of"Credo in unum Deum"is been very nice for us.We have written for it "Euritmia del Fulgore" that will appear on our forthcoming album "Weather Station early works" released from Twilight Records. We are fascinated by the origins of Christianity that seeks to return to the roots of our ancestral Europe, that Christianity 'authentic' that has much in common with paganism, where you can find many items already in pre-Christian European world.

Hidden Place...

Ciąg dalszy...

There are greetings to bands IANVA, Recondita Stirpe and Egida Aurea on the cover of “Punto Luce”. These bands are often considered as a part of “neofolk” scene. What is your opinion about this scene? And what about “sisterly” scene – martial?

We adore "neofolk".Three Hidden Place's members(Fabio,Giampiero and Antonio) played in a neofolk band called Lupi Gladius.We wrote a CD-R demo called"Lucania". One of our favourite bands (Death In june) come from neofolk-martial scene.Unfortunately, after Death in June and bands like sol Invictus or Current 93, we think that very few bands are interesting. If a neofolk martial band offers something original then we appreciate it but if there isn't originality... no thanks!

How important are booklets and cover designs for you? Would you like to publish any of your records in luxury packages with illustrations, gadgets etc. (as some bands, especially on martial / neofolk scene, e.g. Les Joyaux de la Princesse, Von Thronstahl)?

Cover designs are important for us. We are art lovers!And luxury packages would be cool only if the concept idea of artwork is fine.

What are your main music inspirations? Which bands or composers do you listen? Are you interested in classical music? And what about EBM and industrial?

Our main music ispiration is 80's new wave. We love a lot of bands like Joy Division, New Order, Kraftwerk, Ultravox, Cocteau Twins etc. About classical music we like Bach and why not Ennio Morricone ;).EBM bands interesting are Vnv Nation, Frontline Assembly and some Wumpscut's works.

Do you think that your music has any particularly “italian” character? Is this national identity important for you? And what do you think about campaigns like “Io non festeggio l'unità d'italia”? Maybe Italy should be a mosaic of little, independent kingdoms and republics like it was before 1861?

Our italian identity is important. It's our way to be and we are proud of it. We love Italy more as culture than as country. Italy for us was it before 1861 too,with a different name but with same culture. We are sons of an old and rich (spiritually) culture. We can never forget how important is for us the "Old Rome".

Not so serious question… What do you think about italo-disco? : - )

Wow.we love italo disco... it's our electro music flag in the world :) ...We don't know if Hidden Place would exist without italo disco ;)

Finally, do you know any interesting Polish bands, labels or composers? Or maybe any other artists?

Of course! ;) We like 80's polish bands like Ziyo (their first album is awesome!), Siekiera and Made in Poland. Very great old school polish music!