Which bands were
you influenced by and why did you choose that name ?
SynKokes influences has been debated in the band, we do all have very
different backgrounds and all the musicians appears in SynKoke with strong
musical personalities. However, some people deserve to be mentioned. The classic
quartet with John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison, who
were innovative in the period where both the free jazz and the jazzrock started
and also composed with an extremely open mind towards all genres, will always
have a strong influence on my compositions. Coltrane and Jones also got this
energy, which is pushed to the limit, and than I mean both physical and musical.
Its a clear link to SynKoke from albums like "Live at the village vanguard
again" and "Sun Ship" with Coltrane.
Other works who has influenced us is "Rite of the spring" of Stravinskij, A
lot of the contemplative works of Arvo Pärt.
Our name is from the norwegian word Koke, which means boiling. And Syn, and
old greek word, meaning "together".
From our perspective it focuses on the energy we can make together, without
limit.
Where does your
band fit into the Norwegian scene ?
The norwegian scene is diverse and creative, but still it is parted into
sections like jazz, rock, classical, etc. SynKoke is strongly influenced by jazz
and classical music, but sounds perhaps more like rock? Its hard to find our
place, and most of all we want to be relevant to all scenes, which we feel we
are.
There is a sound
in the backwheel jamfør læreplan 97
Contains two songs,
a 7" vinyl. The most interesting thing about this release is the Backwheel
theme, who appears both on Hokjønn (Backwheelinterlude) and The Ideologist (And
Himself Too. And God) . Its released on Kokeplate in 200 copies, almost sold
out.
Side A: There is a
sound in the backwheel jamfør læreplan 97.
Side B: I Egypt
hade guden for lærdom hovud som ei ape.
Hokjønn from 2009
Hokjønn was very
important to define our sound. However, I consider it as a step towards The
Ideologist. A review of the Ideologist said that we pushed us to the breaking
point of how intense music we can make. In many way we got the same focus on
Hokjønn, but the compositions did not allow the same intensity. Its not better
or worse, but still just on our way to a darker sound.
The
Ideologist from 2011
Much inspired of Koral, Bankande
Glede and Nekrøniereted from Hokjønn, is The Ideologist a fulfillment of a five
year old vision.
We wanted to do an extreme intense
recording, without using Gibson guitars and vocals, without playing 4/4 and
without playing "as fast as we can prog". The Ideologist is a whole, the
compostions are closely related and the compostions process was very short.
The Ideologist is a collective term
for all humans who feel they got a truth which is relevant to other humans, the
answer to all these questions is in the Ideologist. The Ideologist is
self-sufficient.
The conclusion on the Ideologist
actually is a composition of Arvo Pärt, Fratres. Unfortunately Mr. Pärt denied
any use of our version.
You changed from Norwegian to
English on this album. Song titles at least. Why this switch over to English
?
We turned over to english on the
titles because we got a message to all humans. On Hokjønn the lyrics should be
considered as music.
For those of us unfamiliar with
your music; how would you describe you music ?
Our music is progjazz, like the
prog in the seventies we find a lot of inspirations and ideas in classical
music. Its both lyrical, massive and brutal. I´ve understood that you in
Progarchives has a lot of sub genres, do you have progjazz?
What have you been up to this
year, what is your current status and what is your plans for next year
?
2011 was the year of The
Ideologist. We finally released it in August, and went to a release tour in
Norway and UK.
We did the tour with the exciting
british World Service Project. After the release all the members have used time
on other projects: Pixel, Supermale, White Willow to
mention some.
I guess we´ll be starting on the
next album next year, but nothing is planned.
Thank you to Kristian for this interview
Their PA profile is here and their homepage is here