mercoledì 3 dicembre 2014

Blutengel fly to Italy for their new video: Asche zu Asche



Today I would like to talk to you about one of my favourite bands, Blutengel, focussing on their last single “Asche zu Asche”. 

For Italian speakers: you can find my article for the magazine “Berlino Cacio e Pepe” at the following link


I strongly believe that most of the readers of this blog know the band quite well but, anyway, I think that a short introduction is due.

Blutengel are one of the most famous German dark-gothic bands. They were founded in 1999 by the frontman, Chris Pohl, who had already been member of Terminal Choice and Seelekrank. After the turnover of several female singers, at the moment the only woman sharing the microphone with Chris is Ulrike Goldmann, who has been part of the band since 2005.

Chris and Ulrike are not alone on the stage during concerts: dancers and performers (at the moment: Viki Scarlet, Nicola Heinrich and Nadine Schneiderat) create a catching show, which recalls the topic of each song played.

 Photo by Marco Tridente

Blutengel have many fans here in Italy too: they follow the band in tour and at festivals in Germany, because unfortunately they have not been playing in our country for a long time. However, last month, we have had a clear sign that Blutengel are quite attentive to what happens in Italy too: Chris Pohl announced (via Facebook) that Ulrike and he would have flown to Rome to shoot the videos of two songs which will be part of their new album Omen (expected for February 2015).

In Germany there are several agencies for video production, but this time Chris Pohl was looking for something new compared to what they had shown until then with their videoclips (though they being very good). He had the chance to see the works of the director Carlo Roberti and he was quite impressed by the cinematographic style that Roberti creates, thus Chris decided to collaborate with the director’s agency: Solobuio Visual Factory. This last is not new to the dark-gothic scene, as they had already worked with bands like Kirlian Camera, Spiritual Front and L’Âme Immortelle.

The two Blutengel’s videos were shot between Rome and Tivoli in less than a week. The first result shown to the public is “Asche zu Asche”, uploaded on line on 13th November by Out of Line, the band’s label. The German-Italian collaboration was immediately appreciated in the web, scoring more than 55.000 views in the first three days.

The effect that both Chris Pohl and Solobuio wanted was fully achieved: “Asche zu Asche” looks like a thriller movie synthesized in the 5 minutes length of the song. The sexy killer, played by the Italian actress Claudia Salvatori, is hired by Ulrike Goldmann, acting the part of an icy dark lady, in order to kill some men. The turn of events is reached when the killer changes her mind: to put an end to her violent destiny, she shoots Ulrike, instead of murdering the chosen victim. In the last scenes we see Claudia Salvatori appearing, weapon in the hand, behind Chris Pohl, who had been watching everything from the top of a high building until that moment. The immediately following image shows the woman in her flat, trying to wash away blood from her hands. The viewer feels the suspense and asks himself if Chris could have been the real instigator and if he ended up by being killed too.

It is surely peculiar, especially for those who usually follow the German band, to hear one song of theirs and seeing it played by Italian actors under such an Italian style direction. It is a “fusion” which has satisfied both Solobuio and Blutengel. Furthermore it is nice to see fans’ comments in the several social networks: Italian ones are happy to see their idols appreciating the work of their compatriots at the point that they did not hesitate to come over to Italy to start a collaboration, the German ones, on the other hand, like the news introduced by the video in terms of idea and directions.


Deutsch-Italienische Freundschaft perfectly succeeded!


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