IRFAN INTERVIEW (italian version)
by Giancarlo Bolther

Would you like to introduce us the band with your history?
In the very beginning Irfan was planed to be a side project of Ivaylo Petrov(solo artist at that moment), Kiril Bakardjiev(from the band “Zaratustra” at that moment) and Kalin Yordanov (from the band “Isihia” at that moment).It was ment to be an experimental audio and video project, but when we met with Denitza Seraphimova ( from the band “Om” at that time) and started to record the song “Monsalvato” with her in February 2002, the real Irfan band was to be born. Soon each one of us left his previous projects and bands and we began to create our music in this very new project.

Can you tell us about the songs of the new album?
Our second album will be quite different. A lot of oriental moods and flavours from one side, and lot’s of medieval sensibility on the other, but in a new and quite different way.

How do you manage the compositive process?
The four of us are equally involved in it.

What kind of music you are shooting for?
We collect and listen to a lot of world music, early music, jazz, industrial, new and dark wave, ambient and electronic music and even hard core.

In the album there are a lot of folk/traditional influences, can you tell us more about your interest in folk music?
We’re quite connected to the Bulgarian folklore traditions, but also have a deep interest to those of the Balkans, Asia Minor, Caucasus, Near East, Central Asia, North Africa, Northern Europe, Central and North America. We believe that those disappearing traditional cultures are the last surviving elements the spirit of the old sensibility and view of life, of the old, archaic models of thinking, ethics and behaviour. That is why we’re so much interested in exploring it.

Listening to your music I've found also a lot of spirituality and I believe that this is an important key to understand your musical project, can you tell me more about?
We believe that the composing and performing music is a spiritual act. In the medieval art of the eastern Christianity, every act of the artist was thought to be a spiritual action in which the artist/composer was just a vehicle and a mediator of the supernatural message. That is why most of the authors were anonymous.

How important is for you the spiritual aspect of life? Would you like to tell us more about your beliefs?
For us, life without it’s spiritual aspect is quite senseless. It’s like an empty form without a content…

Do you have a philosophy? Your vision of the world is...
…that it is an interesting place to live in…

What kind of response are you experiencing from the audience to your music?
We hope that the wordless message of our music will reach the hearts of the people that are going to listen to our album.

How have you get in touch with the label Prikosnovenie?
We like the style and the line of this label, that is why we’ve sent them a demo with our first songs. They liked it and invited us to participate in their label compilation “Fairy world Vol. I “. And after that came the contract.

Which artists have inspired you most?
There are lot’s of different artists from the Antiquity to the present days that have inspired us. But you probably are asking about the music composers and performers Here’s just some of them(past and contemporary): Ioan Kukuzel, Hildegard von Bingen, Kassia , Jaufre Rudel de Blaye, Walther von der Vogelweide, Alfonso X El Sabio, Luis del Mila, Alonso Mudarra , John Dawland etc.; Luis Delgado, Soeur Marie Keyrouz, Jordi Savall, Jan Garbarek, Mari Boine, Brendan Pery and Lisa Gerrard, Susan Deyhim, Anouar Brahem, Hector Zazou , Vas, Denez Prigent, Madredeus, Massive Attac, Depeche mode , Ministry, Faith no more, Coil , Swans , Bill Laswell etc.

What is the music scene like in your country today?
The Bulgarian music scene is a pure reflection of a post-communist Balkan society in a hard period of passage and transition…

What we can expect from Irfan for the future?
A second album from the label Prikosnovenie, and let’s hope a little European tour.
Thanks!

GB

Reviews (in italian): Irfan; Seraphim; The Eternal Return