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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