“The link between spirituality, beauty, and uniqueness is at the center of the experience of chaos in music.
The voice acknowledges itself as a truly unique sound, as an event, and as matter.
And the listener ends up in the position to encounter and discover rather than know and understand.”
―Théo Lessour, Chaosphonies

The music of Aluk Todolo is hard to place. It spills over categorizations and escapes like quicksilver: psychedelic rock, krautrock, black metal, jazz, and noise are all somewhat accurate, but they don’t quite fit. The trio chose two words to describe it: occult rock. As they celebrate their twentieth birthday and the release of their fifth album, Lux, I finally took the time to unearth and translate into English this interview made in 2016.

Before a concert they played in Lyon with Sum Of R and Neige Morte, I caught up with Shantidas Riedacker (guitar) and Matthieu Canaguier (bass), and we talked about the album they had just released, Voix. From the dark, primordial source of the music to its manifestation in several forms and in several places, here’s a glimpse of the spiritual and material core of the project, and of the many voices that speak through it.

Go to part. 2 (2024)

This interview took place in June 2016 and was first published on Radio Metal.
A slightly ‘augmented’ version was was posted here as well.