FEDERICA GIALANZE
When Black Moth’s guitarist discovered Anekdoten, she developed a passion for modern Swedish prog.
“I’ve always been interested in alternative music, but I developed a passion for atmospheric prog and 70s prog rock when I moved to the UK from Italy 16 years ago. When I came to London, my best friend gave me a bunch of mix CDs which included bands like Porcupine Tree, Paatos, and No-Man. He’d included Anekdoten’s The War Is Over from Gravity as well, and I fell in love with their songwriting. It was a difficult time for me so their atmospheric, melancholic music hit the spot.
Back in the 1970s, there was a massive prog scene in Italy and my dad used to listen to some of those bands. As far as I’m concerned, Anekdoten take it to the next level. What I enjoy about them is the sound of the Mellotron and electric organ. They’ve got pretty much everything; they’re heavy, they’re fuzzy, they’re atmospheric and they can be quite dark as well. None of their songs are less than seven minutes long and they really tell you a story, they’re very engaging. I’m most emotionally attached to Gravity, that’s when they found their trademark sound. There have been times when I’ve listened to three albums of theirs back-to-back without stopping – they’re incredible and definitely my favourite band from the Scandinavian scene. Unfortunately I always seem to miss them live. The last time I had tickets, they cancelled the tour and I was so gutted. Their Official Bootleg – Live In Japan album is probably the closest I’ve got to the live experience and it’s incredible. If we ended up on the same bill as them, it would be a dream come true.
I would totally recommend listening to Nicklas Barker’s sideproject Morte Macabre. He did a covers album of horror movie soundtracks called Symphonic Holocaust. That’s another album I can listen to over and over again.
Prog rock has influenced my playing in the way odd time signatures have made their way into my music. I’ve never really had an outlet to be experimental, but it’s something I want to take a bit further in the future.” NRS