Following up her acclaimed 2022 sophomore album ‘Arcana’, progressive darkwave artist and producer CZARINA returns with the interstellar ‘Empire’ released by the Franco-German goth-oriented label, darkTunes.

The Spanish-based New Yorker ventures further into the cosmos as well as embracing a range of visceral and cerebral themes such as death and rebirth, transhumanism, esoteric mysticism, spacetime and quantum mechanics. Co-produced again by Von Hertzog, ‘Empire’ sees CZARINA move from the earthy organic overtures of ‘Arcana’ to back into electronic and synth undercurrents while utilising more layered orchestral and gothic choir arrangements which have been made possible thanks to today’s virtual technologies.

From the transhumanist-themed drama of ‘Rebirth’, the timpani-laden intensity of ‘Dark Star’ and the frenzied darkness of ‘Ghost Machine’ to the Sci-Fi futurepop of ‘Exoskeleto’ and the title track’s epic orchestrated pop, with diversions into a synthed up baroque cover of A PERFECT CIRCLE’s ‘The Outsider’ and the wistful rhythmic stutter of ‘Metatronica’, this third CZARINA long player is not lacking in spirit, adventure or imagination.

CZARINA spoke from her seaside home in Galicia to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the process of writing and producing ‘Empire’.

With your previous album ‘Arcana’, you appear to have found your tribe? Can you pin down where your audience has come from?

For the most part, I think my audience comes from lovers of dark music genres. I think that the dark genres tend to offer a greater variety of sounds and expressions- whether its darkwave, dark electro, synth pop, industrial, goth, post-punk, metal, pagan rock, dark alternative rock, prog metal. I am finding that the ones who particularly have developed fondness for this project usually are the type of music lovers who might have spent some time reveling in the dark clubs yet also have grown to transcend – having a deeper appreciation for musicality, and looking for catharsis and introspection. I think this project has created a bridge for that.

How was it to play Castle Party in Poland during the summer?

Castle Party was a magical and an incredibly beautiful festival. I don’t think I’ve experienced anything quite like it. The audience, the team behind Castle Party, their logistics and the whole vibe and aesthetic were superb. Bolkow is quite a gorgeous, storybook kind of town that seemed to have popped out of a fairy tale. Also, I had the best pierogies ever. It was truly an honor to have been invited to perform.

How does ‘Empire’ differ from ‘Arcana’ in approach and formulation?

‘Arcana’ is very earthbound, hopeful and grounded with themes of renewal and oneness with nature and the cosmos, and is imbued with gnosis and mysticism. It is also the record where I introduced a new sound and ambitious compositions that had a particular epic grandeur yet still mostly organic in sound. The song ‘Atomic: Ad Initivm’ in ‘Arcana’ carries some futuristic Sci-Fi themes and vibe which I felt I needed to expand on further. This is how the new record ‘Empire’ was developed.

As a follow up to ‘Arcana,’ I wanted to give the songs in ‘Empire’ a more futuristic, Sci-Fi and cinematic quality to them, and for the record to play like a film or an outer space journey. I took inspiration from Sci-Fi films and animes I grew up watching. There are metallic, machine-like and dystopian qualities and lush outer space atmosphere in the composition and production, while the introspective songwriting and lyrics dove deeper inwards into dark liminal spaces. The writing process was similar to shadow work and looking deep into your own personal primordial abyss that could feel absolutely terrifying at times – embracing themes of death, rebirth, and transformation.

‘Rebirth’, the opening song of ‘Empire’ is quite an appropriate title…

When I wrote and produced ‘Rebirth’, I already knew I had to open the record with this track. It was inspired by the intro sequence of the anime film ‘Ghost In The Shell.’ I’ve always wanted to write about what goes on in the human mind in the process of being brought back to life and then awakening into a simulation and a new body – a cyborg. At the end, all we carry that is of value are our memories, and how grand would it be to be preserved and be given another chance at life.

‘Ghost Machine’ is very energetic and epic, what was its inspiration?

‘Ghost Machine’ was meant to follow ‘Rebirth’ and this time we see the cyborg in action and the reasons why she was created. It’s meant to play like an action-packed, fight sequence just like in the music video, and I had to pull from an amalgam of several influences from prog rock, Electro-D’n’B bands like THE PRODIGY, OSTs of Sci-Fi films like what Hans Zimmer did for ‘Dune’ and video game soundtracks like what Nobuo Uematsu did for the ‘Final Fantasy’ series.

How was the dynamic between yourself and co-producer Von Hertzog this time round, what lessons had you learnt since ‘Arcana’ in the making of ‘Empire’?

Von has been such a fantastic partner in engineering the development of the sound for this project. If I’m the creative and artistic freak, he’s the mad scientist, and I think that’s why it works. My writing and production are ambitious, often huge and multi-layered with large dynamics, and I know they could be daunting to tackle when it comes to mixing. ‘Arcana’ was a beast and a hairy monster. It was like bootcamp and a science project, requiring a lot of experimentation in spectral mixing in analog to get all the layers and instruments to sit well.

It’s in this technical end of production where Von has been extremely instrumental, adding to the production’s uniqueness and flavor. He gives respect and enhances the original production without sacrificing any of it, while adding further depth and dimension to the sound and layers to get to that multi-faceted spectral mix. And ever since ‘Arcana’, we have locked in a particular work flow that made the production for ‘Empire’ run a lot faster as we now know what to expect.

Speaking of Von Hertzog, how did he contribute as a featuring artist to ‘Metatronica’ which appears to show more restraint compared with some of the other material on ‘Empire’?

A collaboration featuring Von was long overdue as we’ve been working together over the last few years. Von utilizes a specific sound and textural palette for his own projects like VH x RR, and I’ve always wanted to see how our respective sound palettes and arrangements collide. Since he and I talk about science and math topics a lot, I thought that for this feature collaboration, it would be a cool challenge to produce a song that employs certain fundamentals of mathematics such as The Golden Ratio, while still carrying a perceptive meaning and message related to it.

I drafted the initial production of ‘Metatronica’ using the Fibonacci sequence (topline 1/16th notes starting at 2:00). (This draft ended up being called the “Kitsuné Demo” and is included as a bonus track on the Deluxe Extended Edition of ‘Empire’). Knowing Von was going to add his own arrangements and production, I purposely left the draft open, minimal and restraint to give him free rein. He gave ‘Metatronica’ a particular color and more electricity, created a different vibe to the beats, and added a mirroring (ascending / descending scale) topline melodies to portray the topic of symmetry noted in the lyrics. ‘Metatronica’ literally became the most ‘meta’ of all songs for this project so far where the production literally mirrored the theme and expression of the lyrics.

‘The Outsider’ appears to have a slight melodic reference to ‘Lullaby’ by THE CURE, was this intentional or totally coincidental?

It was purely coincidental – and a jolly one! My head was in orchestral and string section mode, and it didn’t dawn on me as I was writing the section descending to complete the scale. But I was channeling ‘Burn’ by THE CURE when I was working on the drums and percussion sequences for ‘The Outsider’. THE CURE is a huge influence.

Would you say you are making use of more orchestrated elements this time round, like on the ‘Empire’ title song, ‘Dark Star’ and the closer ‘Beyond The Veil’? Were there any particular classical or soundtrack influences?

I felt like I’ve completely found my stride and sound with the mix of orchestral work, and I immensely enjoy writing them. I buried myself in orchestral, cinematic, Sci-Fi and video game soundtracks the past couple of years. I tend to take refuge in them because these kinds works are primarily concerned with retaining musicality and conveying emotional depth and range. They’re not trying to be hip, trendy or cool – a trait which I feel has grown malignant amongst many wave genres, resulting in a lot of music sounding the same and linear. I listen to a lot of Hans Zimmer (‘Dune’ and ‘Dune 2’), Clint Mansell and THE KRONOS QUARTET (my favorites are ‘The Fountain’ and ‘Requiem for a Dream’ OST), Nobuo Uematsu (‘Final Fantasy’ 7 and 8), Joe Hisashi’s works for Ghibli Studio, and Junkie XLs work in ‘Rebel Moon’.

What virtual sound packs were involved as these sound pretty authentic or is this a trade secret?

My favorites have been the strings and orchestral library on Native Instruments’ Kontakt 7. I find them more nuanced in the performance and the textures to be more authentic. Surprisingly, sometimes the standard studio library on Logic has given some fabulous results. I find with strings and orchestral work, the performance of the actual writing matters a lot, especially the velocity and timing. Every delicate nuance in the movement does its job.

Now you have had a small bit of distance since signing off ‘Empire’ for release, are there any key tracks for you?

This is a hard question, because I look at the record as a whole and each track plays a role ‘til the very end. My favorite tracks are ‘Rebirth’, ‘Dark Star’, and the title track ‘Empire’ as they carry a certain transportive liminality to them, and they’re very fun to perform. But ‘Beyond The Veil’ is also a powerful closer, and that the production incorporates the sounds of Saturn’s rings, captured by sound artist China Blue for NASA, makes the song authentic. The message of the song itself is something that I want to leave listeners with, especially those who really need to hear it in this current timeline.

What is next for CZARINA? Will there be any live shows supporting this?

I am performing at the Subversonica Festival here in A Coruña in Galicia on November 9th which is the first performance to support ‘Empire’. Shows for 2025 are currently being scheduled. Aside from that, I am working on more music videos and visual narratives for the tracks in ‘Empire’.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to CZARINA

‘Empire’ is released by darkTunes Music Group in vinyl LP, deluxe extended edition CD and digital formats, available from https://czarinaofficial.bandcamp.com/

https://www.czarinaofficial.com/

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https://open.spotify.com/album/1ositTcJKzO2IldX1PhEAn

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
7 November 2024