Why I love Anekdoten, by Black Moth's Federica Gialanze

By Natasha Scharf
( Prog )
published

When Black Moth’s guitarist Federica Gialanze discovered Anekdoten, she developed a passion for modern Swedish prog

a press shot of anekdoten

“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 side-project 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.”

Anatomical Venus is out now via Candlelight. See facebook.com/themothpit for more info.

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Natasha Scharf
Natasha Scharf
Deputy Editor, Prog

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.