ARTIST OF THE MOMENT: The Allegorist
Stories can be incredibly powerful - may they be spoken, written, composed or painted. They exist to guide, entertain or deceive ourselves and others, to bring ideas into the world or to be a refuge from reality like a castle in the sky. The impact of a story is timeless - to say it with Walter Benjamin “a story …does not expend itself. It preserves and concentrates its strength and is capable of releasing it even after a long time.” Anna Jordan, better known as The Allegorist, surely has this unique capacity to tell such impactful stories in a multidisciplinary way.
Her most recent album “Blind Emperor” introduces the listener to a mythical land and follows the protagonist leading the search for a brighter tomorrow. Released on Jordan’s own label Awaken Chronicles this is already Anna’s 4th album. The strength of the “Blind Emperor” narrative is further shown in the accompanying video for “The Sacrifice” which won the award for the Best Music Video 2021 at the Nottingham International Film festival. Fascinated by The Allegorist’s approach and ability to synthesize the perennial themes of human existence we connected with Anna to delve into her process and creative roots.
Hi Anna, lovely to meet you. I often like to start the interview asking from where and in what state of mind you are connecting with us?
Hello and thank you so much for the invitation! Right now I’m at home in Berlin Kreuzberg.
You are referred to as an holistic artist, creating in the fields of sound, visuals and light, word but also being a painter. Our readers mainly will know about your Project “The Allegorist” which we will talk about in more depth in a minute. Please tell us a bit more about the other areas you work in and how they interact with each other.
I’ve been a visual artist since 2005 and have studied, though not in the classical sense, art since. I’ve been gradually adding and exercising more and more disciplines because I was always looking for a deeper understanding of life and ways to express my thoughts and feelings.
I have approached music in a similar way, multi-layered, with questions looking for answers and the desire to express what is impossible to express otherwise. This is how The Allegorist became an explorer of meanings via speculative fiction and a creator of stories told through electronic music and other media. I’ve seen all my releases as books or movies consisting of tracks as chapters or episodes, based on philosophical contemplation, illustrated with visuals and a narrative. When I’m creating a release, with every element of different media I’m telling a little bit of the story, and with all elements together the full story manifests itself.
With each release, I’m exploring a new theme and I’m telling it in a new story. Every story has its own world, a new narrative, its own characters and its own sound. For each release I’m writing a new script and developing a sound that can tell it the best.
What strikes me personally is your unique ability to write, tell stories and even to develop a language. “Mondoneoh” was brought into the world to unite all nations. How would you describe the process of developing this and is it accessible somewhere?
Thank you! I grew up in a little Hungarian town, and for a long time I didn’t speak foreign languages. I dealt with that whenever I heard popular songs, I just imagined what they meant based on what the words sounded like or formed my own idea of what it meant to me.
When I started to make music I was living in Berlin. I didn’t yet feel comfortable with my German and Hungarian didn’t feel relevant anymore as it wasn’t part of my daily life. I also didn’t really speak English at that time.
The obvious decision would have been English and I could have forced myself, but it didn’t feel right to me to choose a language just because it is popular and dominates the musical landscape. I wanted my music to speak to everyone the same way.
By choosing a specific language inevitably comes a cultural reference as well and I wanted to avoid a sort of ranking of languages and make my music accessible to everyone equally.
First I just tried to make sounds that would express my feelings and the story I was about to tell in the most authentic and natural way, as if the human race would have no languages. I have also opened my soul to use the vocals as a hub, connecting with other spirits, as an instrument of the universe.
Soon I have realized that it all comes so natural to me, the muttering of faraway and cryptic words, the cries. I’m baffled whenever I try to alter them, because I think they sound silly, how I’m not allowed to. Because if I would alter them, they would lose their meaning.
When I’ve realized a certain pattern and that the words form a language together, I’ve chosen the name ‚Mondoneoh‘ for my fictional language.
I put together the name from three elements. The first is 'MONDO', which means a collection of dialogues between a pupil and a Zen Buddhist teacher, designed to obtain an intuitive truth. The purpose of 'NEO' is to update values, which transcends the hierarchical, gender-biased, outdated aspects of traditions, to one equal and diverse community. The letter 'H' symbolizes a bridge between past and future, dark and light, yin and yang, the micro and macro, nothing and everything.
The language it’s not yet available, but there is a growing interest, so at one point I might put it together in a more tangible format.
Your latest release “Blind Emperor” is anchored in a mysterious tale written by yourself. There is also a poem, “The Sacrifice”:
„For one empire to rise, another must fall.
For us to reach the highs, through dark holes we must crawl.
For the vision in the deep, we need,
we sacrifice and bleed, to make the leap.”
It seems to be about choices, maybe painful ones. I was wondering if that comes from a very sober, realistic position of “we can’t have it all”?
Yes. The Sacrifice is the lead track on the album Blind Emperor. It speaks about the challenges of making a groundbreaking decision and defining what our priorities really are. In everybody’s life there are moments where we can’t have it all. They might seem at a point as a sacrifice and maybe they really are one. In my opinion there is something really beautiful about that. Because these are the moments that actually matter and define us as a person, who we really are. Our undeniable true core becomes clear and we have to let fall all the lies.
From the music producer perspective I have built the track around my vocals which I have layered together into a massive choir. I did quite a lot of sound design so it can represent us all. Our feelings, our pain and dreams. Our stories.
“Awaken Chronicles” - your label - is about untold stories waiting to be found and the main outlet for your own productions and collaborations. It saw a significant amount of releases just in the last 2 years. How do you envision the near future?
I’m already writing new scripts and developing new sounds for new releases. I’m really keen to finish and release them during the next years.
I read in an earlier interview of yours that your process is mainly following intuitions and feelings, instead of a set concept from the very beginning. Was that also the reason to release it yourself and be more independent?
I’ve always been an independent artist. I have released two albums and a few tracks on compilation albums on small labels. Their involvement was to upload my music at their digital distributor and perhaps make a very limited edition of tapes or CD-s.
What I was looking for when I launched my label was to have the ability to channel and share my works with the world without waiting for validation and the timelines of others and to have the ability to form the narrative of my artistic vision on a more conscious level into a specific direction.
On your socials it’s mentioned that you are an independent artist. The perspectives of independence and freedom have significantly changed and polarized in the last couple of years. What does true independence as an artist mean to you?
I think our language is lacking words for different types of artists, and there should be more definitions. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that isn’t necessarily visible to those who are not involved themselves.
I think total freedom does not exist. We will always be dependent on something, even if it’s just let’s say water. But of course the degree of dependence can vary and also what we choose from all, to be dependent on. Every choice has its price and all of us have to figure out what we are comfortable with and what really matters to us.
In my case, I have continuously decided The Allegorist to be an art project, nurturing it into a freedom, where I am able to share my works with the world and can protect its clean value. The price for this is that I have to do all the admin and other aspects of the work myself too and therefore my project has a limited reach. But my effort is pure and that is what matters to me. I would like to work towards partnerships on an equal level and hope to involve more partners who I share a similar view with, to grow together in the future.
We started this interview with you being a “holistic” artist. My experience with “Blind Emperor” led me almost to a stronger word. I find it a very total experience, in terms of the soundscapes, the visuals in the video, the tale and poem. It’s an immensely spiritual and emotional experience. How did it feel to be in that creation process, in that space of creating this “world”?
When I start to make a track or album I never know where the journey will bring me. To create an album always takes many years for me and I put together the pieces one by one, building the ideas and the concept slowly. I never decide on anything before and often let myself be guided by intuitions and feelings on the way. Although I really enjoy the freedom art is giving me, I also have to be patient and open to let the artwork be born in a way it wants to and become its own in a way.
Your compositions use a wide range of electronics - but we can also hear classical instruments as well as a wide use of choral and vocals. Who do you partner with for these parts?
I haven’t partnered up with anyone musically, I have recorded, composed, arranged and mixed all my music myself. My productions are mainly electronic. Sometimes I like to add acoustic elements by sampling my acoustic instruments, like a guitar, violin or flute, even though I can’t play any instrument.
I also like to work with field recordings. I've been recording sounds if I’m on the way regularly for a lot of years now. My own sound library is growing nicely, so it’s becoming easier to add them into my workflow. Sometimes I also record sounds like a foley artist, using different materials and design them later on.
The vocal is an important element in my music as well. I put a lot of effort into developing the different characters and building the choirs solely by my own vocals, editing and layering the different recordings. There is always a lot of painstaking, time-consuming and complex sound design involved in my workflow.
Born in the eighties in Hungary you come from a background of socialist scarcity and found yourself likely growing up in the former east countries “racing” into capitalism, facing one extreme turning into the other. How did that influence your path and work?
I was growing up with very limited resources and the mindset to do a lot with very little, and the dedication to stick to a few choices I’m able to make, has stayed with me until now. I think the approach to value ideas and concepts more than for instance tools, and the ability to drift into projects with a deeper painstaking precision looking for a longer term outcome rather than pursuing a fast result has been partly an influence of my past coming from Hungary.
Looking back, is there a lesson you have learned and would share with other artists that pick up their career?
There are a lot of ways an artist can go and it depends on what is what you really want. There isn’t only one answer and one way to go and to do this. I think every true artist has its own path and there isn’t one formula that can be applied to all of us.
If somebody wants to become a true artist, while it is great, important and necessary to learn from each other, I also think the most important is to be truthful to oneself and not to follow others.
It might feel like a risky and scary thing to do, to walk a road nobody has walked yet before, to be you all the time and sometimes feeling lonely, but there is also a sort of insurance to it. Because even if everything fails, you have been truly you, and isn’t that what we all are meant to be, to be ourselves?
If you were to share a piece of music or art or a book that deeply inspired you lately, what would it be?
I traveled a few months ago to California and the Death Valley National Park. There, I’ve been reading about its history and the indigenous people who have lived there, and some of them still live. I find it inspiring how the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe are still fighting for their land, the dedication to their home and the way they feel connected to the land and to nature. I’ve read following quote from one of the elders of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe:
„In our religion we don’t practice within four walls. Our religion is written in all these mountains and in the valleys, in the waters, in the wildlife - everything that belongs to the Creator. So, we’re in church everyday.“