Allerseelen (band)

__NOTOC__

Allerseelen is the musical project of the Austrian musician Gerhard Petak, also known as Kadmon and Gerhard Hallstatt. Briefly a group in 1987, it has been a solo project since 1989; Petak collaborates with groups for performances. His music is experimental, sometimes post-industrial and military pop and has often fallen into the neo-folk and pagan rock categories. He is known for his use of lyrics by Nazi authors, and has also written admiringly of Nazi cultural figures and collaborated with right-wing extremist musicians.

Allerseelen's recordings have been issued on the private label Aorta, with various distributors, and since 2004 on Ahnstern, a collaboration with Steinklang, a Salzburg imprint. Album design is by Stefan Alt, known as Salt; several have cover art by the Bulgarian artists HaateKaate. Petak has also published his writing as a periodical titled ''Ahnstern'', formerly ''Aorta''.

History

Until 2001, Petak used the name Kadmon, from the kabbalistic Adam Kadmon. In the 1980s he played drums for Michael DeWitt's Zero Kama and at one appearance of Hermann Nitsch's Orgien Mysterien Theater. In 1987 he founded Allerseelen as his own group, named for the Catholic festival of All Souls' Day and also for the song by Richard Strauss and a chapter in '' Blue of Noon'' by George Bataille. The group soon broke up, and in 1989 it became a solo project.Andreas Diesel and Dieter Gerten,
Looking for Europe: Neofolk und Hintergründe
', 005 2nd ed. Zeltingen-Rachtig: Index, 2007, , pp. 236–47. .

After a series of cassettes, in 1993 Petak released his first CD, ''Cruor'', a purely instrumental compilation of work since 1989 with a Mithraic and shamanistic focus and cover art of an underground temple. He described his work then as "technosophic music" and its style drew on Tibetan ritual music as well as bands including Throbbing Gristle; instruments used in the album include bone flutes, violin, and metallic percussion. ''Zillo'' reviewed the work as "a good mixture of folk-influenced and more experimental songs".

The 1995 album ''Gotos=Kalanda'' is a setting of a cycle of twelve love-poems by the Nazi esoteric philosopher and SS officer Karl Maria Wiligut on the subject of the Germanic months, and depicts on its cover the black sun mosaic from the SS fortress Wewelsburg,Stéphane François, "Musical and Political Subculture—A Review of Attempts of Entrism", in: ''The Extreme Right in Europe: Current Trends and Perspectives'', ed. Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau, Schriften des Hannah-Arendt-Instituts für Totalitarismusforschung 46, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012, , pp. 409–1
p. 411
which Allerseelen have also used as an emblem.Arici
"Cruor—Dünger für's geheime Deutschland"
Grufties gegen Rechts Bremen, archived fro
the original
on 25 March 2014. . The album gave Allerseelen a reputation for glorifying Nazism.Alfred Schobert
"'Allerseelen': Nazi-Esoterik als Klang-Avantgarde"
Duisburger Institut für Sprach- und Sozialforschung, 14 December 1996. .Antifaschistisches Pressearchiv und Bildungszentrum Berlin
"SS-Lyrik in Kreuzberg"
Störungsmelder blog, ''Die Zeit'', 20 March 2015. . Allerseelen have also released records in collaboration with Storm, the right-wing musician Michael Moynihan's label. Petak has said that he was undermining the lyrics on ''Gotos=Kalanda'' with dissonant settings, and in the 2005 reissue on LP, added a setting of Ernst Busch's "Lied der Gefangenen" (Prisoners' Song), which was supposedly circulated among the concentration camp prisoners who worked under Himmler renovating the Wewelsburg.

''Sturmlieder'', Allerseelen's next album, appeared in 1997 and in addition to "In Stahlgewittern", inspired by Ernst Jünger's memoir of the First World War, includes "Leichenfarbne Dämmerung", which quotes from Nietzsche's ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', "Heiliges Blut", inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky's film ''Santa Sangre'', and "Sturmlied", sung by Ostara, which quotes the poem of the same name by Ricarda Huch and was a hit. The cover picture is of a sculpture of Odin by Bernhard Hoetger, an Expressionist whose work was suppressed by the Nazis.

In the following album, ''Stirb und Werde'', issued in 1999, the guest singer was Sabine, who became a long-term collaborator with Allerseelen. Some of the tracks were reissues, including "Alle Lust will Ewigkeit", from a 7" record published in homage to Leni Riefenstahl's film '' The Blue Light'', and "Feuertaufe", from a French Mithraic compilation. Others were inspired by or pay homage to Jünger, Nietzsche, Julius Evola, and Igor Stravinsky; the printed material quotes the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard and includes images from the occult film '' Lucifer Rising''.

With ''Neuschwabenland'' (2000, named for an expedition to the Antarctic carried out by the Nazi regime in 1938–39) Petak announced a shift from dissonance to "fin de siècle military pop", which has been credited as the first use of the term.Dominik T.
"Allerseelen: ''Hallstatt'': Die kauzige Gerhard Ein-Mann-Krautpop-Show!"
''Nonpop.de'', retrieved 1 August 2020. . Tracks are based on or refer to among others Jünger (who is quoted on the cover), Hermann Hesse and his wife Ninon Hesse, the Icelandic heathen poet Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, the tango composer Astor Piazzolla, and in titles, a book on esoteric Hitlerism by Miguel Serrano and ''Where the Wild Things Are'' by Maurice Sendak.

''Venezia'', Allerseelen's 2001 album, includes lyrics by Nietzsche (his poem "Venedig") as well as Rainer Maria Rilke, Ezra Pound, and Jean Cocteau.

In 2002 Allerseelen issued ''Abenteuerliches Herz'', again drawing on Jünger, including for its title, but described by Petak as harking back to the French '' poètes maudits'' he enjoyed in his youth. The album includes a new version of "Santa Sangre" and a neo-folk adaptation of Iggy Pop's "Shoeshine Girl", to new lyrics by Petak. It has Spanish colour in the musical treatments and was the result of collaboration with Spanish groups: Circe and the Catalan musician Demian's project Ô Paradis. There is also percussion by the Moroccan group Rubbayat. The cover photo of a Megalithic monument in Spain is by the Vienna erotic photographer Helmut Wolech. At this time Petak backed up Demian on the album ''Serpiente de Luna, Serpiente de Sol'', which appeared on Aorta, and adopted the professional name Gerhard.

''Flamme'', released in 2003, incorporates classical strings and includes lyrics by Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, and Juan Ramón Jiménez as well as the rune-mystic Friedrich Bernhard Marby, and another song was inspired by an alchemical work by Serrano. The album's cover quote is again from Nietzsche.

Also in 2003 Petak released ''Wir rufen deine Wölfe'', a collaboration with Moynihan's band Blood Axis, Ô Paradis, and Waldteufel based on work by the German mystic and anti-Nazi Friedrich Hielscher.

''Heimliche Welt'' and ''Gefiederte Träume'' were 2004 reissues on LP of Allerseelen music first issued as far back as 1989.News 2004
''Heimdallr.ch'', 3 October 2004, retrieved 1 August 2020.

''Edelweiss'', issued in December 2005, is a compilation of tracks, many reworked in less harsh style, with Rosa, Gaya, Josef, and M. Precht as guest vocalists. A reviewer noted that Petak's newer compositions were often inspired by Megalithic monuments.

In 2007 Allerseelen released ''Hallstatt'', Petak's first album of substantially new music since ''Abenteuerliches Herz''. Using only male voices, and except for one song in English, only German, with lyrics by Goethe, Hermann von Gilm, Christian Friedrich Hebbel, Hermann Hesse, Friedrich Hölderlin, Alfred Kubin, and Nietzsche, it has an Austrian focus; the cover photo is of skulls in the chapel at Hallstatt. A reviewer noted that Petak was now calling his music krautpop or "industrial Folklore", and criticised his over-repetition of samples from "obscure recordings" to build atmosphere and for rhythmic purposes. With this album, Petak began using the name Gerhard Hallstatt.

The 2010 album ''Rauhe Seelen'' struck a reviewer as more romantic than previous Allerseelen releases, with a less jagged use of electronic sampling. The reviewer also noted that frequent collaborators with Allerseelen such as Dimo Dimov of the Bulgarian group Svarrogh and Marcel P. of the German group Miel Noir were in effect coalescing into a band.

Allerseelen's following album, ''Terra Incognita'', so named according to Petak because he did not know at the outset how it would turn out, was released in 2015 and includes reworkings of old tracks as well as new material, with lyrics by Nietzsche, Goethe, and Richard Wagner and several guest artists: John Haughm of Agalloch, Jörg B. of Der Blutharsch, Daniel P. of Arnica, Alexander Wieser of Hrefnesholt, and Robert N. Taylor of Changes. The album is illustrated with mountain photographs by Petak; the cover image is of a memorial chapel to Empress Elisabeth of Austria.Dimi Brands
"Allerseelen: ''Terra Incognita''
''Dark Entries.be'', 11 March 2019. .

''Dunkelgraue Lieder'', released in 2017, consists of digitally remastered, shortened versions of the tracks from ''Sturmlieder'' with the addition of the original and new versions of two songs that Allerseelen recorded for Agalloch's 2011 album ''Whitedivisiongrey'', and three other new songs. The album is illustrated with photographs that Petak took in Oregon in 2010.

The album ''Chairete Daimones'' (Ancient Greek for "Welcome, daemons") was released in 2019 and titled for a libation invocation revived by Nietzsche in 1871. In addition to Nietzsche, Wiligut, and Ninon Hesse, it includes lyrics by Elisabeth of Austria, Aleister Crowley, Walter Flex, Yrjö von Grönhagen, Yves Kéler, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Anaïs Nin, Ferdinand Raimund, Knud Rasmussen, Isabelle Sandy, and Petak's girlfriend, Aida de Acosta. A reviewer noted that the coalescence of Allerseelen into a group continued, with Marcel P. and Estella Plunket of Miel Noir appearing once more, together with other guest artists including Thomas Bøjden of Die Weisse Rose, Aki Cederberg of Halo Manash, and the Algerian singer Faye R.

Discography

Albums and EPs

Other media

Petak has also published writings in periodical form as ''Ahnstern'', previously ''Aorta''. Issues have included studies of cultural figures of the Nazi era including Wiligut, Riefenstahl, Otto Rahn, and Evola, and in one Petak praised the Romanian Iron Guard as a "spiritual movement with the objective of combating mechanistic materialism (''Panzermaterialismus'') and all world views that elevate the material over the spiritual". A 1993 issue covers the supposed magical defence of England from the Luftwaffe by English witches, which is also the unifying theme of ''Sturmlieder''. ''Ahnstern'' suspended publication after 29 issues; a compilation of material was published in English as ''Blutleuchte'' in 2010, and in French in 2011.

He also contributed to right-wing publications such as the German newspaper ''Staatsbriefe'', and along with other European neo-pagan musicians including Moynihan, to a 2001 issue of Philippe Randa's right-wing French journal ''Dualpha'' dedicated to Evola. He has praised musicians who pursue a "Nordic Nietzscheanism", thus making Black Metal music into a "pagan avant-garde, a Nordic 'occulture'".Stefanie v. Schnurbein, "Germanic Neo-Paganism—A Nordic Art-Religion?", in: ''Religion, Tradition and the Popular: Transcultural Views from Asia and Europe'', ed. Judith Schlehe and Evamaria Sandkühler, Historische Lebenswelten in populären Wissenskulturen / History in Popular Cultures 12, Bielefeld: Transcript, 2014, , pp. 243–60
p. 254

Early in the 21st century, the Bremen anti-right-wing project ''Grufties gegen Rechts Bremen'' evaluated Petak's writings, use of symbolism and sources in his music, and collaborations and judged him to be "an innovative right-wing culture warrior who should be taken seriously", but with a "self-contained" and "ethnically pluralistic" view of the world, neither a "fascist bully-boy" nor a "nostalgic fan of Hitler".

References

Further reading

* Andreas Diesel and Dieter Gerten. ''Looking for Europe: The History of Neofolk''. Trans. Markus Wolff. Zeltingen-Rachtig: Index, 2013. .

External links

Allerseelen
on MySpace

{{Authority control

Austrian industrial music groups
Neofolk music groups
Martial industrial groups