1. For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit more about the solo project?
1695 is a manifestation of imaginations and thoughts gone havoc and as a result creating weird sound patterns - sometimes soothing, other times disturbing.
The music of the album was born in the lockdown spring of 2020. During the long hours at home I listened to quite a lot of dark ambient. Since the work with my regular metal and folk bands had also slowed down I decided to use the time for some individual exercises in creativity. So once a week I went to the rehearsal room/studio without special preparations to force my creation – with the help of the various instruments lying around – to come up with all kinds of soundscapes and other absurdities. The sessions gave birth to the album “Lennud loojangusse / Flights to Dusk” which is my first and so far the only official release as a solo artist.
2. You released an album a few months ago, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
I had thought about launching a ritualistic ambient project for a long time, so now the stars were finally right for this endeavor. But to gather all the songs under the banner of a single genre name is a tricky task. The music itself meanders from a pretty much classical dungeon synth to the metallic dark folk with brief deviations to the world of hectic noise or - on the contrary - strictly organised choir harmonies. The common themes would be a slow flow, liminal journeys over landscapes (both physical and spiritual) and melancholic darkness.
3. You also have experience playing in metal bands, how would you compare your solo stuff to the material you have released with your metal bands?
Most of my work with the metal bands like Langenu, Ulguränd and Swarn is predominantly much faster compared to my solo stuff. Doing different things from time to time helps to keep the spring of creativity fresh and flowing.
I must admit, I probably have more bands than I can handle but they are all quite different from each other. Langenu falls into the pit of experimental and avant garde’ish black metal, Ulguränd has vowed loyalty to a blackened heavy metal and the songs about distant history, while Swarn is a rather straightforward occult death metal.
Besides them I also play in a number of acoustic folk bands, so I cannot really complain about the lack of musical variety in my modest life.
4. A lot of your song themes focus on 'Gregorian Traditions', can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?
Only one song, “Põhjakaar / The North Arc” is directly referring to the traditions of the Gregorian chant. It’s one of the two songs in a capella arrangement and the lyrics of it, although containing just two words, are in Latin. I am not quite a choir singer material myself - maybe because of the deep rooted individualism - but it was interesting to put different layers of harmony together and see how it sounds. The outcome was pretty satisfying and gives an idea what a choir of a dozen clones of me could sound like if there was one.
5. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name '1695'?
I came up with my artist name ’1695’ about 15 years ago or so when I began to play in a black metal Langenu. I got seduced by the name of the Norwegian band 1349. Just to think of it – an artist name which is simply a sequence of numbers! 1349 happened to be the year of the outburst of Black Death in Norway, so I began looking for a similarly drastic event in the history of Estonia. 1695 was the first of the three infamous years of crop failure that culminated with a great famine. Ca 20% of the Estonian population died – altogether about 70 000–75 000 people, especially the old and weak.
Modern metal music in general seems to be pretty obsessed with the heroic side of history. Fighting in battles, crushing one’s enemies, hearing the lamentation of their women… You get the point. Natural disasters like plagues, famines, droughts etc on the other hand may easily nullify all the human goals and therefore have great power over our vanity. ’1695’ stands as a grim reminder of this.
6. Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the album cover?
The songs were all born in the time of twilight – hence the album name „Flights to Dusk“. Every time I went to record another piece I rode across the river Emajõgi that flows through my hometown of Tartu, Estonia. The dusk colours of the sky and their reflection on the water surface of the river inspired the overall feeling of the music to a large extent. When having to decide how to visualize the essence of the music on the album artwork the evening colours of the river were the number one choice. The walks to the river offered wonderful spectacles of the twilight; I am glad that I managed to capture some of these valuable moments in the photos.
7. With this project you record everything by yourself but have experience with full line up's, which one do you prefer?
Every combination has its pros and cons. The full line ups help to create music as a group and every member can have an input to the whole. An artist who creates everything alone doesn’t have to (and cannot) rely much on anyone else. My solo works are therefore deliberately mostly much more minimalist than the songs of the actual bands. In a way things got done much faster than with a full line up band which needs a period of rehearsing and discussing things through. But on the other hand, doing things alone may sometimes give one-sided results which may lack a certain depth.
Anyway, imperfection is something that 1695 as an idea strongly stands for.
8. The album was released on 'Warhorn Records'. how did you get in contact with this label?
Kruxator, the brains and the musculature behind Warhorn Records is a good friend of mine and a real powerhouse of the whole Tartu metal scene. He happened to hear the songs at my place and immediately found this suitable for being released via the label. The rest of the process was fairly easy – we prepared the songs and the artwork and the rest is history.
9. On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of experimental, ambient and metal?
The album has not reached any top list and I would have been very surprised if it had. It was intended to belong to the shrouded underground spheres with very little availability and it has faithfully remained there. So I haven’t gotten a huge wave of reaction from the wide world. However, the people who have listened to the music in a bit deeper manner have said some positive words and this is enough to keep me motivated.
There have even been some (not really serious) suggestions to go live with the material but I don’t believe this will be done in this aeon.
10. Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician during the future?
In the near future I hope to focus more on the possibilities of the classical guitar. Maybe the next album under the name of 1695 will also be much more acoustic and lyric. Still, the dark beauty is what I see as the most important in my works, despite the concrete ways to express it. And I will definitely continue with my passion for metal as well.
11. What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
The album “Lennud loojangusse / Flights to Dusk” itself got its first actual impulse when I was listening to a Mortiis album “Født til å Herske” (1994). From that came the longest song of my album “Värvi loojang oma hingeverega / Paint The Dusk With The Blood Of Your Soul” which is the most dungeon synth-ish thing I’ve ever done. Much of the rest of the material owes to the dark neofolk - acts like Seventh Harmonic, Tervahäät, Sol Invictus, Current 93 etc. There used to be an annual festival called Darkland Fire here in Estonia that introduced these kinds of artists to the local audience - that’s where I got acquainted with this mystical genre. Since my profession and lifestyle involve a lot of writing (mostly history and music related texts), calm ambient-like music helps a lot in keeping my thoughts focused.
Besides all of this, I am a keen admirer of the black metal bands, especially like Emperor, Dødheimsgard, Drottnar and so on. Their ambitious compositions which blend harmony and dissonance have shaped me as a creator a lot. Also, the innovation of the early hard rock / heavy metal pioneers like Deep Purple or Black Sabbath should never be forgotten. Their legacy is simply immeasurable.
12. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Never get tired of searching for new things in the world, whether it is music or knowledge about something or whatever! The best and most valuable things are usually hidden under the crust of shiny nonsense. Take a deeper look and drown yourself into it - it’s all worth it!
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