"...but a greater understanding." [Satyricon, Repined Bastard Nation]
Hello. My debut CD "Threads" is at the mastering stage with the independent French label Slaughter in Art. Just the layouts to complete, then there will be Gesamtkrieg on Swiss soil with a very absinthe-induced release party. Probably in August or September 2008. Get some Alka-Seltzer in for the morning after - you have been warned ;-)
Hails to all Geheime friends [Hi my moosette!] :: Grym :: Lausanne :: 4th June, 2008
As quite a few people have now asked, I will try to explain here a little bit about the name GEHEIMESTAATSPOLITIK.
Geheime StaatsPolitik is German for "Secret State Politics", by which I mean the dirty underhand political dealings perpetrated by governments worldwide. This is a motif of some of my songs.
In fact someone who wrote to me explained it better than I can: "Well your name shocked me at first... and then I read the explanation you gave to it... fascinating concept... I think this Gestapo spirit has taken over in UK and US as they have created this spy society culture... where neighbour is watching neighbour..." - cheers Aki. And Zebulon, the anti-lizardesque metal madman [he knows he does not know, and therefore he is not actually mad at all, just an extremely talented and creative individual] who wrote the same sort of thing, but in, er, Inuit, I think. And 'Ant' of Dark Villager fame, who contributed enormously to the fine tuning of this text.
I did choose the name deliberately for its similarity to Geheime Staatspolizei - better known as Gestapo or "Secret State Police", which was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. When I studied history at college I was particularly interested in the concept of 'denunciation', whereby members of the public denounced [or "informed on"] people against whom they had a private grudge. Fellow Germans, Jews, Poles... all types of people suffered as a result of such denunciation. Contrary to general supposition, the Gestapo did not have a huge number of staff in proportion to the German population, and much of its work was aided through this process of denunciation. Therefore I suppose you could say that the band name is an extension of the old "don't tell tales" spirit that I agree with, but on a global scale. That's how I meant it anyhow. But I admit also there is a shock value and I was capitalising on that a bit too, hence my sometime preponderings regarding a name change...
Anyway... While I was watching that film about the porn millionaire Larry Flynt [ to see if Courtney's bod was nice (it wasn't) ] I noticed the judgment from Judge Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of America, and I thought it was apt so I noted it down: "At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the importance of the free flow of ideas. Freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty but essential to the quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole."
Yep. Totally agree, dude. As long as you've made some efforts to be reasonably informed, you can say whatever you like as far as I'm concerned. So, now I will speak my mind...
History of this musical project and brief words on the songs:
GeheimeStaatsPolitik started on 8th July 2005, the day after the terrorist bombings in London, with an angry song called "52". Warning: sensitive people leave the room. Strong words ahead! I was extremely fucking pissed off about these bombings because my brother works there and my parents live there, and I was predominantly worried about them. Luckily they were not anywhere nearby when the terrorist aresholes detonated themselves. Scream your shredded lungs out forever in the eternal darkness, you motherfuckers. Martyr my fucking arse [which is presumably what they said when they joined up?]. "52" was an exhalation of relief the following day when I found out that my family was OK. My sympathies are with the families of the 52 murder victims, and even more strongly with those who live on scarred by this atrocity. This is the end of my tirade... sensitive people can come back into the room now.
A good friend, classical music lover and nurse/psychologist in training [ only one year to go... stick at it Doktorrrrr ] really liked this song, and so with a bit of encouragement from her I composed the instrumental "Auf dem Weg zurück aus der Lichtung des Schneewaldes", which is a sort of short story in music about a man who has to take another man into the forest and kill him; it is supposed to represent his thoughts as he returns from the middle of the forest. It was inspired to some extent by the bleak coldness of Robert Harris's book "Fatherland" and John Le Carré's brilliant "A Small Town in Germany". I also wanted to make something with mad arpeggios and with a Russian sort of feel to it. Ironically I composed it on my laptop PC on a beach in Sardinia, but never mind. My thanks go to the outstandingly talented cz of Vinterriket (who hates Myspace héhé) for correcting my appalling German.
At the same time I cobbled together "L'aube au Chien qui Fume" from a good old Yves Montand war song. I used a little artistic license to displace it in place and time; it was written after WWII in 1949, but I imagined it being sung in the great Paris restaurant 'Au Chien qui Fume' in 1940. In terms of structure the song is slightly strange, because the noise we hear before the middle break is apparently a genuine recording of a V1 rocket, and the long quiet part where Yves' vocals fade out in the middle is there because the V1 cut off its engine about 1 minute before it landed. Then the bomb explodes, and the song continues in a different key. At the start of the song, the lyrics are very sad, but the end of the song is quite optimistic. The continued sounds of battle counterpoint this unrealistic optimism.
"4 England" is a more traditional folk-style song with just guitar and voice, about my disappointment with England, and touching on some of the reasons why I have chosen not to live there any more...
BBC News 3 June 2008
Stabbed girl 'had been harassed'
...the teenager, who had turned 15 on Friday, is believed to have returned home to the block of flats where she lived when she was attacked.
Paramedics arrived at the scene within four minutes but were unable to revive the teenager, who suffered multiple wounds, a London Ambulance Service spokesman said.
A 21-year-old man was arrested nearby on Monday and is being questioned by detectives over the killing. Arsema, an Eritrean national, is believed to be the 16th teenager to have died violently in London since the start of the year.
"Threads I and II" are about the fear of nuclear war that I was instilled with growing up in the UK in the 70's and 80's.
"A heathen conceivably" is a pure tribute to The Wicker Man and Karjarlan Sissit... Yeah... Mix it up, why not!
Did I write any others ? Can't remember.
So, what do I think about on dark evenings ?
I'm practically unpatriotic
I prefer the bizarre and neurotic
I can't ma'am and smarm
Kowtow and salaam
I prefer my obeisance erotic
[Andrew Motion]
Will you love me now
-you, whose feeling of dignity is a matter of subtraction?
Will you love me
-now that I have revealed your un-nakedness?
Will you love me now
-you whose perception of justice equals your will to corrupt?
Will you love me
-when I cut through all the layers of your vanity?
Will you love me now
-you, who cling to a heart so fragile even your gods must suffer for you?
Could you love truth?
Could you love truth even in secrecy?
[Ihsahn]
......Israel hits Lebanon in new raids
.....Israeli warplanes launch air attacks across Lebanon as troops battle
....Hezbollah fighters in the south
...Stressed out in Beirut
..Press eyes resolution
.In pictures: Bloodshed goes on
[BBC World Service, 7 August 2006]
..Israeli troops kill two Hamas gunmen in Gaza
.Bomber shot dead during suicide attack in town housing nuclear reactor
[BBC World Service, 5 February 2008]
"The more [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Matan Vilnai told Israeli army radio.
[BBC World Service, 29 February 2008]
- Wow, very diplomatic choice of words... See below " GeheimeSP getting stuck into a political debate:" for more of my thoughts on this...
"Huh! So this is war... Wow !"
Amusing cynicism (I think) from the song 'War' by Burzum.
Further reading for those who like reading lots, and also one of the many reasons why I like living in Switzerland part 1:
Swiss still braced for nuclear war BBC News, Switzerland, 16 March 2007
Many historians will agree the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War, but in Switzerland the threat of nuclear war has left an unexpected legacy.
The Sonnenberg tunnel contains the world's largest nuclear shelter If you are driving through Switzerland, south to Italy, you are likely to take the route via the charming town of Lucerne and that means driving through the Sonnenberg tunnel.
Those tunnels around Lucerne can be quite irritating, especially in fine weather. Just as you are enjoying a spectacular view of the lake and the mountains, you are plunged into darkness.
But when you get to the Sonnenberg, make sure your eyes adjust, and take a closer look, for this is much more than a tunnel. In here is the world's largest nuclear shelter.
Under Swiss law, local governments are required to provide shelter spaces for everyone, and in the early 1970s Lucerne was short by several thousand. The new Sonnenberg motorway tunnel, just being built, seemed a neat solution: kit it out as a nuclear shelter as well and it could hold 20,000 people.
The Sonnenberg, in theory, is able to withstand a one megaton nuclear bomb, as close as half a mile away "Actually we got the idea from you British," explains Werner Fischer, the local civil protection chief, as he shows me around. "Londoners used the underground as shelter during the blitz."
Well maybe, but believe me, there are things in the Sonnenberg that you will never find down the Finchley Road tube station.
It starts with the doors, which are a metre and a half thick (5ft), and weigh 350 tonnes each. The Sonnenberg, in theory, is able to withstand a one megaton nuclear bomb, as close as half a mile away.
One megaton is 70 Hiroshimas. That means the Sonnenberg residents would have emerged to a world reduced not to smoking rubble, but to ash.
Inside, the tunnel is a surreal monument to neutral Switzerland's desire to survive a total war which would, naturally, have been started and waged by someone else.
There are vast sleeping quarters, with bunk beds four layers deep. There is an operating theatre, a command post, and as Mr Fischer points out, a prison. "Just because there's a nuclear war outside doesn't mean we won't have any social problems in here," he says.
Some of my friends have private ones in their own houses, used, these days, mostly to store wine, ammunition or skis.
There were even, it is rumoured, plans for a post office, until someone asked the obvious question "when the world outside is burning, who would you write to? What would the address be, not to mention who would deliver your letter?"
Then there are the coloured lights, indicating whether it is night or day outside. Obviously the country which produces the world's top watches would not like to lose track of time.
There are some truly impressive feats of engineering: the air filters, designed to supply those 20,000 souls with 192 cubic metres each of non-radioactive air every day, are indeed breathtaking. So large, the hall they are housed in has the dimensions of a medieval cathedral.
But while the Sonnenberg may be the biggest shelter, it is by no means the only one.
Many shelters are now being used a storage spaces In fact, there are over a quarter of a million of them in Switzerland, because, 17 years after the end of the Cold War [ ;-) ] , the policy of providing shelters for the entire population still stands.
Some of my friends have private ones in their own houses, used, these days, mostly to store wine or skis. My house, though does not have one.
An anxious telephone call to my local civil protection office brings a reassuring answer. "Actually your community has 40% overcapacity in shelters," I'm told.
It turns out that, should the unthinkable happen, I have got a luxury of choice. I can settle into a cosy neighbourhood shelter designed for 10. Sounds good, as long as my family and the neighbours we get on with get there first.
Or, there is a larger shelter, beneath the local fire station, which those without private shelters would share with the firemen. I can see it is not going to be the easiest of decisions.
And down on the main street of my village, new houses are going up, the bulldozers are digging remarkably deep and blast resistant concrete is arriving by the tonne.
But why add an estimated 4% to the house price, just to carry on preparing for a threat that has gone away?
Until the law changes, bunkers will continue to be dug.
Karl Widmer, deputy director of Switzerland's civil defence department, looks a little sheepish when I put this to him.
"We asked ourselves this question," he admits. "But then we thought, we've built all these things, so let's just carry on. And there could be new threats around the corner."
"What threats exactly?" snorts a Social Democrat member of parliament. "Bird flu? Terrorism? An underground bunker won't protect against that. It's time we stopped this nonsense, all we're doing is building very expensive wine cellars."
Later this year, the Swiss government will decide whether to continue the shelters-for-all policy, but this week, sirens right across Switzerland were tested, and the population had to check their bunkers were up to scratch...
The British Government kindly suggests that you 'protect and survive'. Et pourquoi pas?
Whereas a far more sensible Swiss motto is "If you want peace, prepare for war."
GeheimeSP getting stuck into a political debate about peace in the Middle East:
[Hi Aki. There is/are] some extremely good analysis and comments here... Good initiative Aki ! But please!!! Don't mix political debate with evangelism !!! God that's so annoying ;-)
My comment... not as detailed as I would like due to pressure of work, but...
"The more [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Matan Vilnai (Israeli politician and a former Major General in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He is currently Deputy Defense Minister) told Israeli army radio. [BBC World Service, 29 February 2008]
This is typically un-diplomatic... the choice of words, the tone... I'm sorry to say that I believe the problem begins here. Vilnai is a top-ranking Israeli politician, not some newspaper editor or pseudo-intellectual... In particular the use of the word holocaust seems fairly distasteful to me.
So, where does it end ?
I don't think it will. You have two peoples living side by side, utterly hating each other, one far wealthier and better equipped and supported worldwide, but about as diplomatic as an old-time Afrikaaner; the other with a fierce passion and disgust at those who have invaded their territory, with plenty of Arab feistiness thrown in...
It is a recipe for disaster.
The only solution I see is that Palestine must find a truly excellent leader, like black South Africans found in Nelson Mandela. It will surely take at least another 20 years to come to a kind of accord, even if they found such a leader today...
Only once this happened in South Africa did the rest of the world slowly take note, start to boycot sporting events etc.
So, start looking, stop bombing, guys !
And Israel, 'ek is jammer' [Afrikaans for 'I am sorry'] but you will look like the ruling white South Africans sooner or later. Do you want that ? Really ?? If not, I suggest YOU start looking for diplomats worth their name as well.
Posted by GeheimeStaatsPolitik on Monday, May 26, 2008 at 11:29 [Reply to this]
BBC News 3 June 2008
Bardot fined over racial hatred
A French court has fined former film star Brigitte Bardot 15,000 euros (£12,000) for inciting racial hatred.
She was prosecuted over a letter published on her website that complained Muslims were "destroying our country by imposing their ways".
It is the fifth time Ms Bardot been convicted over her controversial remarks about Islam and its followers. This is her heaviest fine so far.
The French film idol, who is 73, was not in court to hear the ruling.
The fine - equivalent to $23,000 [ £2.99 ] - related to a letter she wrote in December 2006 to the then Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, which was published on her website, in which she deplored the slaughter of animals for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
She demanded that the animals be stunned before being killed.
She said she was "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts".
In a letter to the court Ms Bardot, who is a prominent animal rights campaigner, insisted she had a right to speak up for animal welfare.
The prosecutor said she was weary of charging Ms Bardot with offences relating to racial hatred and xenophobia.
Good job I don't live in France, apparently. I suspect I would be fined $52'000 [ almost £4.50 at today's rates ] for complaining about being blown up.
Finally, one of the most interesting links on the web: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl%2Drevisited/
Copy (ctrl+c) and paste (ctrl+v) into a new browser window (ctrl+t) while you listen to the joy of Geheime Staats Musik ;-)