Anfel/Interview with Denis and Elvira

Interview by Andrew Stanton

ANFEL are cool band from Russia. Andrew Stanton talked to them about their new album.

Hello and welcome to Inside the Darkness.

"Greetings to you and all readers and thank you for your attention to us and our humble music work."

- Can you tell our readers a bit about your history, please?

Denis DIONIS Lobotorov: “ANFEL is a studio Goth- listener in different parts of the world and still looking for it. There are 10 albums in our discography at the moment, besides 10 solo albums by Denis DIONIS Lobotorov. Also we have a few instrumental cover albums and participated in different compilations.”

Elvira ALCHEMIDA Lobotorova: Already as 12 years we are engaged in music creativity. And we don’t plan to stop.

Current Line-up is: •Denis DIONIS Lobotorov - Founder, Ideologist, Composer, Vocals (growl) •Elvira ALCHEMIDA Lobotorova - Vocals, Guitars, Arrangements, Sound

Discography:

1. In Memory About (2009)

2. Blind Me (2010)

3. Pain Of A Thousand Tears (2011)

4. Fragments Of Memories (2012)

5. The Heart Of The Black Queen (2013)

6. Silhouettes Of Consciousness (2013)

7. One Last Touch (2014)

8. Icy World (2015)

9. Echoes Of Buried Hope (2019)

10. The Origins Of The Soul (2020)

- What bands did you like growing up?

D.: “I’ve been a melomaniac since childhood, I’ve always listened to and loved a lot of different kinds of music. Of course, I was more impressed by classical music, music from silent movies and old romances.”

E.: “I also grew up with classical music, finishing my music school as choir singer and pianist. Later I was engaged by hard rock starting with Scorpions and Roxette ballads, later my tastes became heavier and shifted more to Symphohic/Gothic metal, Sympho Black/Extreme metal, Doom Metal etc.”

- What does Anfel mean?

D.: “ANFEL is an acronym for And New Future Ever Lives. For us it is the slogan and style of our musical activity, that regardless of situations and life’s twists and turns of fate, we move forward into a new future, no matter how hard it may be at times.”

- How do you manage to work on and release so many albums every year?

D.: “It’s very difficult to give any specific answer to this question. Probably the main reason is our special feature of our musical life and our musical family in that we are very prolific in terms of creativity, practically every day we compose something new. And, of course, in the end our strict systematic principled work matters. In addition, now we are in re-record previously composed instrumental discography, which partly creates a small illusion, that there are so many releases.” E.: “Indeed, the releases go one by one in connection with the fact, that we are closely engaged in re-recording and re-mixing of the previous albums, and the new material will follow later. In addition, instrumental songs without vocals are proceeded faster than songs with vocals, and they are mixing according by the finalized algorithm, which has been developed for years, i.e. we don’t waste much time on searching for the new sound. So our plan is to finish re-recordings of the old instrumental discography for this year and next year, 2022. We already have plans to start presenting new instrumental albums to the world as they are released. More distant plans are to record already released instrumental albums as well as new albums with vocals (clean and growl), which of course will take longer. But not everything at once, ANFEL is originally an instrumental project and we stick to these priorities.”

- What are your lyrics about?

D.: “Our lyrics include many different branches: stories of the lives of our loved ones, relatives and their fates and ourselves. It is also a constant theme of internal struggle and reflection on the goodness and evil of this world, on the power of faith, honor, love, human vices and their actions in the present, as well as in the historical past and some imaginary moments. And, thanks to our collaboration with text writers, these stories become more diverse, more frank, and allow any listener to see these new insights. Simply said, our lyrics are a philosophical abstract romance decorated with various reflections and themes.”

- Does working with your husband cause a lot of arguments?

E.: “There’s an old proverb: husband and wife live the same life) We are a family and our work is mutual and honest work with each other as one living mechanism (“We are a Groot” (c) Guardians Of The Galaxy) We understand and accept each other with all our ideas and all our dark sides. Of course, we also like to discuss with each other in the process of musical experiments.”

- How do you describe your music?

D.: “At the present, our music has completely reached its final and recognizable sound, which we came to after many years of trying and experimenting. According to our friends, relatives and many listeners, our music in its performance and construction is simple, accessible and full of tenderness, romanticism, lyricism and beauty, with a touch of unbearable weight of worldly sadness and melancholy. If we describe it as a whole, our music is a balanced mixture of symphonic, gothic and atmospheric doom with a touch of minimalism.”

- What would you say to people who say Anfel isn’t Metal?

D.: “In this case, I completely agree with this opinion. I never thought that project ANFEL - is just Metal, the presence of heavy guitars does not define the music itself, but rather gives opportunities to describe it more fully and more simplified search in the modern musical world as a result. I believe ANFEL is music for the heart with certain stylistic additions. Being an addicted melomaniac, I basically do not like certain kind of stylistic cliches, because in modern music all styles and directions are closely mixed and exist in all music artists, if not in description, then in sound. However, even without these musical terms, too, it is impossible, because any website, interview or compilation requires at least some approximate description of the band’s style. We have to deal with this reality and go to some compromise.”

E.: “Metal can be different) In this case metal is just a part of the arrangement, and the core of the music - piano melodies with a sad romanticism and justified in symphonism. So it’s not surprising that among the ANFEL fans there are a lot of listeners who are far from heavy music. And you know, there is kinda unique that so different people can find in ANFEL something for his own mood and desire. That’s why we always record several versions of the album.”

- What can fans expect from your new album?

D.: “Our new instrumental album will be the 11th in our discography. Exclusively for the readers we will reveal its title: The Ghosts Of Lonely Destinies. It will be recorded in our traditional atmospheric sound. As always, our instrumental album is a particular musical story, with its own images, characters and destiny. Listening to our new album, as well as our previous albums, you can dive into this music and feel yourself in these situations or help yourself overcome your mental difficulties. We hope you will enjoy it. The artwork was designed by Aina Tornheim who is probably known to many of you from Blackthorn and whom we have been working with for many years. Because we really think, she is the one who is so good at bringing out in our humble covers the atmosphere we feel when we drop into this album. She is also successful in finishing the work of our friends, whose drawings or photos have become the basis for some of the album covers.”

- Do you have a message for our readers?

“Take care of yourself and your loved ones,

Never give up,

Listen to good music,

Yours, ANFEL.

Our web-links: https://www.face book.com/anfelband https://anfel. bandcamp.com/ https://vk.com/anfelgroup https://www.you tube.com/c/anfelband

Thank you for your time.