Some years back, whilst compiling the payload of Esrt-while Antrum edition 11, I ended-up conscripting an extremely obscure & opaque harsh noise/power electronics entity from Italy by the name of Pale Sister. At some stage in the e-exchange with the taciturn eccentric, a slew of links to additional projects by the same practitioner were revealed. I ended up confronting the recording Inclavatus by a one-man band dubbed Diononesiste. Very quickly, the album asserted it’s exceptionalism, perhaps most notably for me by it’s extraordinary drumming. The musicianship & marked-effort really stood-out, yet the whole thing was delivered under a rind of sordidly lofi, raw, bunker & ultra-necro construct/finish that was almost contradictory to the virtuosity & diligence at work. This, really just made the entire effort all the more cult, boosted even further by the fact that it was only available in physical format on a very unassuming & low-effort/visually primitive CDR as a cheap Xerox job (issued by Metzger Therapie <sic> with very little information). It turns out, that it’s all being done by one lone man (compositions, drums, bass, vocals, guitar & noise). In essence, this is just very’ very high quality Extreme Black-Death with Blackened-Grind (further hybridized with Death Industrial/Dark Ambient & Noise modals) but, the projects rebellious & explicitly non-commercial recording/presentation ideology transplants it to pariah status & banishes it to some remote no-mans-land/desolate haunted isle. It’s rare & extremely exciting to find such a quality musician with complete conceptual control setting his own standard amongst some forbidden water-logged catacomb complex. Although there is some standard material (in a high quality extreme metal manner), some of this stuff is off-the-rails, & reminds me of the most electrifying moments of classic Black/ Death/multivalent extreme metal & it’s core achievements in vanguard territory. It’s stacked with some brilliantly fast, intense & versatile blast-beats along with high-velocity, murderous, straight & driving double-kick-pedal marauding, all clawing at the crux of many of the collective genres core values & non-commoditized stylistic accentuations. The scars of a heavily embedded veteran with little interest for the surface or those that can’t withstand such depths is very apparent. A brief interview with the man behind the morose follows –
Daniele! Please give us the low-down on Diononesiste (particularly the Inclavatus oeuvre).. It’s derivations, the impetus behind the project & particularly it’s multifaceted construct, which draws on Black Metal, Death Metal, Grindcore, Noise/Dark Ambient & even edges of Noisecore. It’s a very’ very accomplished formula. Can you expand on the details of what spurred such a rare & distinguished conflation of styles & themes?
I have always been attracted by the mixture of different styles and worlds, the curiosity to see / hear what can come from their mingling, trying to go beyond any limit. And then there is the love for extreme music, starting from when I was 13-14 years old. 360° extremism, from metal to electronics to total noise.
These are the ingredients that I mix for my continuous research of the elusive and unattainable pure personality.
With “Inclavatus”, everything started with the drum recordings, followed by cutting out the superfluous and the addition of guitars, bass, vocals and sounds of various kinds. For the guitars and bass, I used a pair of amplifiers for each session to obtain a grainy and not excessively defined sound mix. It was particularly fun to record the vocals; not having a soundproofed studio in which I could scream at my leisure, I recorded it inside the van, which was in turn locked in a garage at my work, with permission, for a few hours: basically, I used headphones, a microphone and a mini disc to record the tracks … DIY surrealism. 😀
Please elaborate further on the directive-singularity of the project. You are playing drums, bass, guitar, performing vocals, Noise, composing, penning lyrics – everything. The standard is remarkable. What drove you to this ‘lone-wolf’ multi-instrumentalist strategy & how was it conducted?
The project has always been a one-man band, absolutely closed in itself, never making any collaborations, and no concerts. Few productions; 3 albums in 15 years. Diononesiste is extremism from all points of view. I prefer working alone; I can squeeze out the best of me without having to speak, give explanations, or provide motivations for choices and decisions to someone…and I’ve never been good at the art of diplomacy.. When I feel like it, or when there is a physical/mental need, I record long, totally improvised sessions that I then go on to chisel and shape for months, or years.
There is some astounding drumming on Inclavatus. The kind that really stands-out indelibly & permanently redefines possibilities & standards. What is your history as a drummer? How long have you been playing for & how did the activity progress? The guitar playing is also very highly accomplished, you’re basically leading with two instruments, not to mention everything else. Can you give us some spiel on multi-instrumentalism? – as you are clearly an exemplum of this specialist ability.
I’m essentially a guitarist, then I’m a drummer for fun… Since I was young, I’ve always enjoyed spending hours in the rehearsal room beating the drums. Then, you know, in the mixing phase nowadays, the computer works wonders.
To call myself a multi-instrumentalist would be a sin of pride; let’s say that I do what I can, as I can, with all the means at my disposal. I’m more of a pc nerd than a good drummer.
Are you working on any forthcoming Diononesiste material now? Can we expect anything in the near future?
After “Inclavatus,” I haven’t worked with Diononesiste again. Surely nothing new will come out soon. Let’s see what future stimuli will hold… I’m in no rush.
https://diononesiste.bandcamp.com/
A partially redacted, ultra-limited, hand-numbered 88 copy cassette version with all new artwork of Diononesiste’s Inclavatus will be released on Lo-fi Or Die/Jigokuki next week. Copies will be available from lofiordierex@hotmail.com (UK), brusaschetto@gmail.com (Italy) & the Gobbledy Gunk distro.