Eluveitie – interview met Chrigel Glanzmann (vocals, folk instruments)
Chrigel Glanzmann: “In these ancient cultures, we are not talking about an end to the world, an apocalypse or something like that. We are rather talking about eternal cycles, eternal cycles of death and renewal, at the end of the day of the whole cosmos.”
Eluveitie heeft zich na de eeuwwisseling opgewerkt tot één van de meest respectabele folk metal bands. Het is bovendien altijd een avontuur om hen op de voet te volgen, want elk album werpt een ander licht op de locale mythologie uit wat vroeger Gallië was en nu o.a. hun thuisland Zwitserland. Deze keer was het lang wachten op de opvolger van ‘Ategnatos’ (2019), maar wanneer dit beloond wordt met een topper als ‘Ánv’ dan kunnen we niet klagen. Daar hoort natuurlijk een voortschrijdend inzicht vanwege onze mentor Chrigel Glanzmann bij en dit is ons verhaal over het huidige Eluveitie.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 30 april 2025
I am glad that you have a new record coming up, entitled ‘Ànv’. Was it hard to make? It took so long or was it because of the pandemic and so?
There are many reasons. It really took a very long time. I don’t remember exactly, but I think I started working on the concept for this album in Summer 2019 already. Then we were still on tour with ‘Ategnatos’. Since then so much incredibly happened that everything just took longer. Of course I have to say that the whole album was planned a little unusual, because we already did two stand-alone singles in 2022 and these singles already opened the thematic cycle of the album. That was originally planned like this, but that everything took so long, that, of course, was not planned. Once we wanted to end the touring cycle, we didn’t actually exactly ended the touring cycle for ‘Ategnatos’, the pandemic came, the lockdown and then it was just like ‘bam, three years gone’. I remember we recorded those two stand-alone singles already one full year and we still hadn’t released them, because we could not shoot a video clip. Everything was organized and then, a few days before the video shooting took place, there were some new measurements or contact restrictions or something like that. So we had to postpone the video shooting again, I don’t remember how many times it was postponed. I think maybe four or five times or something like that. And then, in the years of corona, also in my personal life a lot happened. I just could not focus on the band and music as much as I wanted to, for at least three years. So that is another thing. All in all, it just took a long time.
Like you said, the theme was already there in the two singles, but I think it is also lyrically a little bit of a continuation of the former album, or do I see that wrong?
You see that perfectly. I am deeply impressed that you see that. You are actually the first one. You are right. Thematically it is a totally stand-alone album. It has its own topic, based on an ancient text that is more than 4000 years old, like a prophecy or something, it is all based on that, but the whole thing the whole theme is strongly linked with the themes on ‘Ategnatos’, because both albums are deeply rooted in pagan or Celtic mythology and spirituality. Both come back to the same pretty deep and also very personal topics. Somehow both albums are extremely personal ones as well and they are probably like some kind of expression of also personal experiences.
What can you give as an example of this personal touch on the record?
Many things in the mythological topics that ‘Ategnatos’ was dealing with, of course it is simple mythology, ancient scriptures and everything, but of course these ancient scriptures are not just stories. It is always some kind of wisdom that someone has been taught by the druids. Of course they go very, very deep and if you go to them, they will challenge you very deep in your entire existence if you want to. In that sense the topic was very personal. It is much about personal development. ‘Ategnatos’ was the archetype of mythological images of death and rebirth and a lot of it obviously also refers to death and rebirth in a non-material way and also in an everyday way, so that you might experience it every day. In that sense the whole topic is something very personal. And for ‘Ànv’ it is based on that ancient text. There is another pretty strong aspect to it which would be our relationship of humans to the rest of us, which we normally call nature. This ancient text has some very strong words on that topic and also there it is pretty informative for personal life. It challenges your thoughts or things that you just grew up with and are used to. It challenges to question things and make you change things.
I think it also gives a kind of comfort to discover those connections of us with our ancestors… I think that is also a very important topic in the global feeling you get from the album…
Pretty much yeah. I would agree with what you just said. I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘link’, but rather that it shows how little these ancient words actually have lost their significance and importance, even today. They have not. They are still very important and very informative for us today, no matter how old they are.
But not so many people realize that these days…
I guess. That ancient text that I was referring to, it fits extremely well with our time right now, in this year. It is kind of crazy. It is actually an eschatological text which means it contains teachings what today we call maybe ‘the end of the world’. Obviously in the way the druids taught it and it is very similar in most ancient prescriptions. The teachings were always very similar. They had different metaphors, but the core is very similar anyway. In these ancient cultures, we are not talking about an end to the world, and an apocalypse or something like that. We are rather talking about eternal cycles, eternal cycles of death and renewal, at the end of the day of the whole cosmos. So this ancient text contains basically something like this, a lure about the end of the era in that sense. Obviously it talks a lot about humans, about how humans and mankind will develop. It talks a lot about towards the end of the era, humans will kind of grow away from everything that is suitable for the nature of their souls actually. So they strongly start focussing on material things only. They will lose qualities like truth and love. But then again, one of the main focuses of this ancient text is actually mankind’s pretty ambivalent relationship to nature. So this ancient text basically says that towards the end of the era, mankind will start like systematically exploiting other species, even themselves as well. They will start completely losing respect for life and nature. They start exploiting mother nature and then this ancient text talks about the consequences of these things and that is a pretty crazy part. I mean, for instance it says that globally soil will run dry, which we see happening today and it is drastically becoming a really serious problem. The ancient text talks about global pollution of the air. It talks about dead zones in the oceans. It talks about global climate conditions going completely out of hand. It talks about globally appearing floods and wildfires. It talks about growing appearance of pandemics. It is pretty crazy. If you read this text, it is mind-blowing in a way, given the fact that it is written down such a long time ago. Also in that sense, these ancient verses are actually very current for us today I would say.
It is frightening if you discover things like this…
It is kind of frightening, also kind of revealing in a way. Somehow it is comforting, because it is something that is written in the prophecies of times. I remember when I read this text for the first time, I was crying tears like an idiot. I could not believe what I just read. It is mind-blowing.
What does the title ‘Ànv’ mean and stand for in this respect?
In our culture, gods are something non-monotheistic. There are an infinite number of gods and goddesses. They are something that we need, here on earth as long as we are here on earth. In our culture, there is the mother goddess, which is the mother to all gods and goddesses and she simply represents the planet, mother nature, mother earth. Her name is ‘Ànv’. That is also what you see on the cover and also what was already on the cover of the earlier single songs we released in 2022. She symbolizes the mother goddess, mother nature.
I also had a feeling that the theme spreads out, not only on earth, but also into a cosmos. You can see it wider.
That is what we do believe, I don’t know if it is true or not. That’s what we believe, that’s what the druids have been told. Everything what they thought, they thought it also with one eye on the entire cosmos, because all is one. It is like one organism. If you cut your small finger, you won’t die, but still kind of your entire body feels uncomfortable, because there is pain in your small finger. You know what I am trying to say, it is like if anything happens anywhere in this cosmos, it somehow is still affecting anything else, because everything is linked together. In that sense… the best thing you see is what the moon does with our sea. Everything belongs together, it is like an entire organism, like one body. Whatever the druids taught, they always taught, also thinking on the entire cosmos.
How do you look back at the recent tour in February, 22 concerts called ‘Ànv Rising pt. 1 tour’? It was a kind of introduction of the new album I think and it were selected concerts, isn’t it?
It was wonderful to be honest. There is nothing special to say about this tour, but it was like a perfect beginning of finally starting touring again. Other than that, we love touring with those bands, Ad Infinitum and Infected Rain. We have been friends for a long time with them. It was just a very smooth tour, very relaxed, a very good atmosphere and apart from that there is nothing much to say. No bad show, it was just a really nice tour.
The next tour in October/November will be a bigger production, with Amorphis and Arch Enemy…
Let us see, I am really looking forward to that one as well.
After that tour in February, it seems that the musician, who has been playing folk instruments, Matteo Sisti, has left the band…
Yeah, that is true, unfortunately.
Then you have to work in another one again…
Yeah that already happened somehow (chuckles). Matteo has been thinking and also talking about it to us since quite a few years already. He is a musician through and through and he will always be playing and creating music I guess, but he is also – how do you say? – a kind of hermit. In his private life he is not often around people. Touring from city to city… he enjoyed it of course, but somehow he also grew tired of it. He was just more and more going for a quiet life alone somewhere out in nature. He was thinking about this for many, many years and so we knew that that day would come somehow. Since a few months he started talking about that he wants to quit now. We were still hoping that he would stay for some more years, but this tour was the last one he did. Now he is actually building his own house on the top of some mountain somewhere. He lives there completely by himself with his dog and enjoys his time. He loves quietness and peace.
To occlude we have to introduce a new member, Lea-Sophie Fischer on violins and hurdy-gurdy…
That was a pretty lucky coincidence I would say. We have been in need for a new violin player for a long time. At the same time it was the corona years, so at the same time we did not have any shows, so there was no hurry. The thing with Lea-Sophie is that we’ve known each other already for many, many years. The only thing is that we never thought of asking her, because we thought she is actually in a band that plays a lot of shows, but her band actually split up. I did not know that, but we heard about it and then, of course, we asked her and she immediately said ‘yeah cool’. That was a lucky coincidence, she is an incredibly passionate musician and it is amazing to create music with her. Even with song writing, she had quite an impact on this album.
Yes, it is an extensive band, many things can happen…
Oh yeah, I forgot to say… you asked me about it, about Matteo, I told you that Matteo has been thinking and talking to us about it since years already and at the same time he already introduced one of his friends to us and since then – since two or three years already – he is training a close friend of his to take over and fill his shoes. The tour with Arch Enemy will be that guy’s first tour with us and then we’ll see how it is going with him on stage….
We will find out in Brussels… Well, I think I can write a next nice article about Eluveitie. Thank you for your time…
Very nice. Thank you so much.
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