Sopor Aeternus and The Ensemble of Shadows reviews, music, news

Sopor Aeternus and The Ensemble of Shadows (Latin:sopor aeternus "eternal sleep" ; often referred to orstylized as Sopor Aeternus or Sopor)is a darkwavemusical project based in Frankfurt founded in 1989 byAnna-Varney Cantodea. Since the project's beginnings,Anna-Varney'swork has garnered a cult following,notorious for its extremely personalized, melancholic andpessimistic nature, drawing on a number ofdifferentmusical and visual styles.Cantodea identifies as female. She was assigned male atbirth. She has never undergone surgery to change sexand does not intend to.Cantodea's pseudonym is derive ...read more

Sopor Aeternus and The Ensemble of Shadows (Latin:sopor aeternus "eternal sleep" ; often referred to orstylized as Sopor Aeternus or Sopor)is a darkwavemusical project based in Frankfurt founded in 1989 byAnna-Varney Cantodea. Since the project's beginnings,Anna-Varney'swork has garnered a cult following,notorious for its extremely personalized, melancholic andpessimistic nature, drawing on a number ofdifferentmusical and visual styles.Cantodea identifies as female. She was assigned male atbirth. She has never undergone surgery to change sexand does not intend to.Cantodea's pseudonym is derivedfrom several sources. Firstly, the common name Anna,and secondly the Latin word cantodea, acomposedneologism meaning "I sing, goddess". (As a side note, theLatin term for "female singer" is cantrix.) She had beenusing the stagename "Varney" prior to 1997, that nametaken from the Victorian Gothic horror story Varney, theVampire; or the Feast of Blood.The sound of Sopor Aeternus is rooted in renaissanceand baroque music, maintaining frequent use of brassinstruments, woodwinds, strings,pipe organs, bells, andguitars. While earlier works used drum machines, lateralbums feature live percussion. Cantodea's work hasshown aprogression towards livelier arrangements andmore wall of sound production, compared to earlierworks; more recent albums have alsoemployed a slightlymore mainstream sound, incorporating electronic andslight gothic rock sentiments. Though considered bygenre adarkwave band, Cantodea has stated that sheignores this notion and simply creates "...-music for deadchildren [and otherwise woundedsouls], that is all." Onseveral occasions, Cantodea has re-recorded andrecycled elements from previous songs; other times,motifs are used;the most notable example is "Birth -Fiendish Figuration", which has been re-recorded at leastfour times.Cantodea has clearly stated that she creates her musicabout herself, solely for herself. Major themes includedeath, unrequited love, karmicpain, loneliness, sadness,spirituality and failure; more recently, Cantodea hasfeatured occultism, sexuality and romance into her lyrics.Astrong recurring theme is transexuality, especially theremoval of male genitalia. Several albums featureCantodea nude with a vagina (whichwas edited in inpost-production). Many allusions to spirituality andRoman deities appear in her lyrics; aside from Jupiterand Saturn,Morpheus, Hades, Uranus and Charon havebeen addressed by name. Other supernatural figuresmentioned include the Sister of Self-Destruction, theGoat, the Old Man and the Lord of the Darkest Side.http://www.soporaeternus.de/ « hide

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