LIBRARY
Review of Burzum "Dunkelheit"
"Terrorizer" magazine (#28, March 1996)
Gregory Whalen
"Now this is what it's all about", says an obviously impressed David Palser, who currently ranks among Britain's most celebrated artists/directors/set designers. It is June 21-summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and he, myself and Misanthropy Records boss Diamanda are standing atop one of the highest peaks in the north of England. We are witnessing a particularly radiant sunset and filming it for what is arguably the Suffolk stable's most ambitious project to date a Burzum video.
The air is still, and the only sounds to be heard are distant raven-cry and the sporadic "click" of the time-lapse camera set up to immortalize the event. As the bleeding orb dips gently below the horizon, the rose-colored light gradually drains from the world and shadows blend to create a singular darkness. Momentarily speechless, we linger awhile to savor the evening's beauty. Then, slowly, we make our way back to base-camp - a renovated farmhouse in the heart of Lancashire, Witch Country.
Having spent the best part of eight hours out in the sticks, we feel invigorated yet equally exhausted, so the armchairs and roaring log fire that greet us are a welcome home-coming. After a delicious meal of lasagna and wine, we sit back and reflect on the day's work, which inevitably leads to a discussion of Palser's interpretation of the piece that is to be translated into film, "Dunkelheit".
"The video is an expression of the themes that Varg has come up with and an exploration of those themes, providing suggestive images to complement rather than to impose another way of thinking", he explains. "The audience can read into these images what they want without them being too specific. It will not be a typical Rock promo, with lots of lights, cameras and action. What it will be, though, is something very true to what Varg was saying about a return to naturalism and an exploration of natural forces. It has nothing to do with the darker things that I have been doing recently or that people say I have been doing recently".
Palser, a picture of English eccentricity with his white-streaked hair and almost maniacal enthusiasm, has a long history of staging and directing for the theatre. Having studied Fine Art and Theatre Design at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, he quickly made a name and a reputation for himself within the field. But even though his work has always held a certain dark undercurrent, it is only recently that he has become associated with extreme music forms. Notable for his success with, among others, Immortal, Impaled Nazarene and Diabolos Rising, it would appear that he has considerable understanding of the genre.
But how does he view the Burzumic creation by comparison? And how different will his approach be?
"I think that there is a primitivism within the music which is devoid of all the crap that surrounds a lot of other people within the field. I feel that what I think and what Varg has written will go very well together. It will be interesting and honest, and there will be no real subtext. Most of my work usually has a shooting script and a very specific narrative. Some are more fixed than others, but there are usually themes and characters that come in somewhere. This, on the other hand, will be something that you can gaze into and hopefully gain insight on whatever you choose to make it. What each individual gets from this will be different for every single person who watches it".
"You will be getting life as a picture", he continues, "bound by a frame. But the life happens to be represented at 25 frames per second".
Vikernes himself was clear about one thing when he green-lighted the project that nature should be its main ingredient and focus. With this in mind, Palser set out to create what he feels is a perfect visual representation of a song that, not merely in name, is the very essence of Burzum.
By combining striking naturalistic imagery with a series of symbolic runes and complex animated sequences, he has made a film that is more soft-focus observation than Technicolor nightmare. The texture and iconography have resonances with Scandinavian folklore, and it seemed only proper to shoot on the solstice, an event of particular importance in the Norse calendar.
Proper, too, the choice of setting: Lancashire has long been associated with witchcraft and, even though tourism has made the myth a mockery, there is a definite mysticism about the place. Call it paranoia, but at times you get the distinct impression that you are being watched, especially in the forest. This, one might assume, is precisely the feeling Palser is looking to capture nature's oppressive yet silent omniscience and omnipotence.
The elfin head Misanthrope and I have once again taken to the hills. This time it's on one of the many witch trails our guidebook details and, subsequently, not so much business as pleasure. Or curiosity. Having examined the grave falsely presumed to be that of Alice Nutter - a renowned Sabden sorceress whose inbred descendants still make up a sizeable proportion of the area's population earlier in the day, we have decided to pay a few of her old haunts a visit. Pendle Hill, to be precise, where many a spell was cast. They say.
We reach the summit and collapse, breathless from the climb. The view over what is termed "The Forgotten Valley" is magical. In between vast lungfuls of air, I quiz Diamanda about the motives behind the video.
"The concept of doing a Burzum video is quite old, because we always wanted to have a visual to emphasize Burzum's music. However, we always had difficulties with doing this because Varg is in prison, obviously, and usually the artist should be involved in the video. Then we came up with this concept of actually animating the video, and for months we have ideas floating around to animate bits and pieces of the Kittelsen artwork, how to manipulate the images and so on. But somehow we never got around to doing it, mainly due to the lack of a competent video director. So we had all these ideas in the back of our minds until one day David Palser called me up and said "I did these videos; do you want to do a Burzum video?". I said that I was interested, so we met up. He came up with some ideas, which I liked very much, and I was sure that David was artistically and creatively the right person to work with this. So I decided to go ahead... and here we are!"
Quite a lot later in the day - well into the night, in fact - we are sitting by a blazing campfire eating strawberries and exchanging malicious little rumors when it suddenly dawns on me that our interview had been interrupted by the gathering stormclouds that forced a hasty descent from Pendle Hill. I wondered whether people would not have better things to do with their money that to shell out for something that, essentially, is just another glorified MTV clip in a pretty box.
"I think people will buy this video. Because it's not just your average Rock video: first of all, it will come in beautiful packaging for a low price; it will include special memorabilia from the video; and besides, it will be longer than the edited MTV version. I think that this video is going to be so special and so groundbreaking that no Burzum fan will be disappointed to have bought this".
Well, she would say that, wouldn't she?
The air is still, and the only sounds to be heard are distant raven-cry and the sporadic "click" of the time-lapse camera set up to immortalize the event. As the bleeding orb dips gently below the horizon, the rose-colored light gradually drains from the world and shadows blend to create a singular darkness. Momentarily speechless, we linger awhile to savor the evening's beauty. Then, slowly, we make our way back to base-camp - a renovated farmhouse in the heart of Lancashire, Witch Country.
Having spent the best part of eight hours out in the sticks, we feel invigorated yet equally exhausted, so the armchairs and roaring log fire that greet us are a welcome home-coming. After a delicious meal of lasagna and wine, we sit back and reflect on the day's work, which inevitably leads to a discussion of Palser's interpretation of the piece that is to be translated into film, "Dunkelheit".
"The video is an expression of the themes that Varg has come up with and an exploration of those themes, providing suggestive images to complement rather than to impose another way of thinking", he explains. "The audience can read into these images what they want without them being too specific. It will not be a typical Rock promo, with lots of lights, cameras and action. What it will be, though, is something very true to what Varg was saying about a return to naturalism and an exploration of natural forces. It has nothing to do with the darker things that I have been doing recently or that people say I have been doing recently".
Palser, a picture of English eccentricity with his white-streaked hair and almost maniacal enthusiasm, has a long history of staging and directing for the theatre. Having studied Fine Art and Theatre Design at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, he quickly made a name and a reputation for himself within the field. But even though his work has always held a certain dark undercurrent, it is only recently that he has become associated with extreme music forms. Notable for his success with, among others, Immortal, Impaled Nazarene and Diabolos Rising, it would appear that he has considerable understanding of the genre.
But how does he view the Burzumic creation by comparison? And how different will his approach be?
"I think that there is a primitivism within the music which is devoid of all the crap that surrounds a lot of other people within the field. I feel that what I think and what Varg has written will go very well together. It will be interesting and honest, and there will be no real subtext. Most of my work usually has a shooting script and a very specific narrative. Some are more fixed than others, but there are usually themes and characters that come in somewhere. This, on the other hand, will be something that you can gaze into and hopefully gain insight on whatever you choose to make it. What each individual gets from this will be different for every single person who watches it".
"You will be getting life as a picture", he continues, "bound by a frame. But the life happens to be represented at 25 frames per second".
Vikernes himself was clear about one thing when he green-lighted the project that nature should be its main ingredient and focus. With this in mind, Palser set out to create what he feels is a perfect visual representation of a song that, not merely in name, is the very essence of Burzum.
By combining striking naturalistic imagery with a series of symbolic runes and complex animated sequences, he has made a film that is more soft-focus observation than Technicolor nightmare. The texture and iconography have resonances with Scandinavian folklore, and it seemed only proper to shoot on the solstice, an event of particular importance in the Norse calendar.
Proper, too, the choice of setting: Lancashire has long been associated with witchcraft and, even though tourism has made the myth a mockery, there is a definite mysticism about the place. Call it paranoia, but at times you get the distinct impression that you are being watched, especially in the forest. This, one might assume, is precisely the feeling Palser is looking to capture nature's oppressive yet silent omniscience and omnipotence.
The elfin head Misanthrope and I have once again taken to the hills. This time it's on one of the many witch trails our guidebook details and, subsequently, not so much business as pleasure. Or curiosity. Having examined the grave falsely presumed to be that of Alice Nutter - a renowned Sabden sorceress whose inbred descendants still make up a sizeable proportion of the area's population earlier in the day, we have decided to pay a few of her old haunts a visit. Pendle Hill, to be precise, where many a spell was cast. They say.
We reach the summit and collapse, breathless from the climb. The view over what is termed "The Forgotten Valley" is magical. In between vast lungfuls of air, I quiz Diamanda about the motives behind the video.
"The concept of doing a Burzum video is quite old, because we always wanted to have a visual to emphasize Burzum's music. However, we always had difficulties with doing this because Varg is in prison, obviously, and usually the artist should be involved in the video. Then we came up with this concept of actually animating the video, and for months we have ideas floating around to animate bits and pieces of the Kittelsen artwork, how to manipulate the images and so on. But somehow we never got around to doing it, mainly due to the lack of a competent video director. So we had all these ideas in the back of our minds until one day David Palser called me up and said "I did these videos; do you want to do a Burzum video?". I said that I was interested, so we met up. He came up with some ideas, which I liked very much, and I was sure that David was artistically and creatively the right person to work with this. So I decided to go ahead... and here we are!"
Quite a lot later in the day - well into the night, in fact - we are sitting by a blazing campfire eating strawberries and exchanging malicious little rumors when it suddenly dawns on me that our interview had been interrupted by the gathering stormclouds that forced a hasty descent from Pendle Hill. I wondered whether people would not have better things to do with their money that to shell out for something that, essentially, is just another glorified MTV clip in a pretty box.
"I think people will buy this video. Because it's not just your average Rock video: first of all, it will come in beautiful packaging for a low price; it will include special memorabilia from the video; and besides, it will be longer than the edited MTV version. I think that this video is going to be so special and so groundbreaking that no Burzum fan will be disappointed to have bought this".
Well, she would say that, wouldn't she?
Author: Gregory Whalen (© 1996 "Terrorizer" Magazine, UK)
