With La Porta Ermetica, a new supergroup in the Italian underground scene has been formed that is dedicated to ritual and occult music. Their debut release “Si Sedes Non Is” caused a stir with its dark, mystical atmosphere and clear thematic direction. On the successor, the tape “La Bugia”, which was released a short time later, they continue this concept and pay tribute to the book of poems of the same name by the Marquis Massimiliano Savelli Palombara, an occult-inspired polymath in the 17th century. Inspired by alchemical and hermetic traditions, the project refers both with its name and through its sound experiments to the magical door of the Roman Villa Palombara, which was also designed by Palombara – and, with the appropriate receptivity, acts like an auditory portal to an unknown dimension. The band consists of experienced members of the Italian underground scene(s), including Claudio Giammarini (Ain Soph, Circus Joy, Malato), Adriano Vincenti (Macelleria Mobile Di Mezzanotte, Cronaca Nera) and Devis Granziera (Teatro Satanico). Reinforced by Elisa Pambianchi and now also Martino Cappelli, who have just launched their new band project Dear Company, they succeed in using traditional instruments, ritual sound structures and a cinematic aesthetic to create a timeless atmosphere that is deeply rooted in Italian esotericism. We recently spoke to the band about these and other topics.
Since you have all been active as musicians for a long time and some of you live in the same areas (Rome and Veneto), you have probably known each other for a long time. How did you come up with the idea of founding La Porta Ermetica?
DEVIS: Veneto is quite far from Rome, so we do not live in the same area. But it’s true that Claudio, Adriano and I have known each other for a long time in the Italian industrial scene and we’ve done some work together in the past. Nevertheless, LA PORTA ERMETICA is a project conceived by Adriano and Claudio; I can only add that Adriano contacted me with a clear vision in his mind. He was interested in creating an Italian esoteric industrial project, somehow inspired by the first wave of the old Italian industrial musick scene. I suggested that we call it LA PORTA ERMETICA, because it refers to the long occult tradition in our country, to Rome, the capital of Italy, where Adriano, Claudio and Elisa live, and also to those hermetic subjects that are of particular interest to Adriano, who is a passionate student of the subject.
CLAUDIO: We have been friends for a long time but only now have we been able, also thanks to technology, to realise a real musical project together and not just a sporadic collaboration as has happened in the past.
Your album “Si Sedes Non Is” and the tape “La Bugia” are full of mystical references. What inspired you to refer to the poetry and the Porta Magica of Marquis Palombara?
ADRIANO: The inspiration for Marquis Palombara and Porta Magica, and for the city of Rome in general, came from the choice of name suggested by Devis. We decided to explore certain themes musically, and this Roman focus took shape with the choice of name.
CLAUDIO: We wanted to play together, we wanted to return to certain sounds that we hadn’t heard for many years and that were part of our past anyway, Devis’ choice of a band name did the rest, so it was natural to start with Marquis Palombara.
Do you see a main difference between these two releases? Were they recorded at different times and with different intentions?
DEVIS: Different times. LA BUGIA came with more awareness and focus as it was composed at a later stage.
CLAUDIO: The tracks of the EP have sonic shifts that are a prelude to what will be the next album of La Porta Ermetica.
ELISA: The timing of the releases mostly reflects the timeline of the compositions, so yes, SI SEDES NON IS was conceived before LA BUGIA, even if some material was moved from the first work to the second. In my opinion, our work, including the unreleased tracks, shows an increasing connection between the individual proposals in terms of ideas and sounds.
Could you tell us how the Gemini 23 remix came into being? Was it solely a means of promoting La Porta Ermetica?
DEVIS: For almost every LPE track we work on many variations and remixes. The “GEMINI 23 remix” was just one of the versions of the self-titled track that we released in June 2023. That is the reason for the name, as Gemini is the astrological sign of June. The same track is on the album SI SEDES NON IS, but with an alternative mix. We decided to release the “GEMINI 23 Remix” on that date because, according to esoteric tradition, Gemini is connected to Mercury, the deity of communication, and we wanted LPE to take advantage of these Mercurial magickal influences for its debut.
What role do your respective experiences from projects such as Ain Soph, Teatro Satanico, Macelleria Mobile Di Mezzanotte and other groups play in the work of La Porta Ermetica?
DEVIS: Hard to say. I guess that it is impossible to separate ourselves from our previous musical, cultural and occultist experiences. Somehow, in one way or another, these experiences will always sway our minds.
ADRIANO: Every kind of experience and sound research I have done so far, also with my other projects, is part of my artistic vein and my approach to the subject, which is always new in relation to each project. So, for me La Porta Ermetica is still a part of my artistic sound journey.
CLAUDIO: Our experiences, like having being part of AinSoph and currently playing with Circus Joy and MALATO cannot be erased, in fact it is this mixture of genres and musical influences from our different experiences that creates the sound of La Porta Ermetica.
Your music often has a seemingly out-of-time quality. How do you create this impression, if it is intended?
DEVIS: In my opinion good musick should always sound a bit “out-of-time”. Otherwise, it is just fashionable entertainment.
CLAUDIO: Out of time? Perhaps ours is a sound that has not been heard for a long time.
I once wrote in a review of some other band that the lo-fi character of some of the recordings contributed to a certain “authenticity”. How important is it for you to avoid sounding too perfect?
DEVIS: As far as I am concerned, I do not care about “lo-fi” sound. If my older audio productions sounded “lo-fi”, it was only due to the poor quality of the cheap technology I could afford in the late 80s and 90s. Having said that, I must point out that we love to play live during the recording studio sessions. So often there are some glitches and slight slip-ups that we keep in the final audio production because these mistakes add that kind of human feeling that is lacking in too many ordinary musical releases.
CLAUDIO: If we’re talking about the 1980s, the low-fidelity sound was due to the technology of the time, which was very expensive and not affordable for everyone, although I’ve always liked the dirty, sick sound. In these modern times with cheap, affordable technology, if you make a low-fidelity product, it means you want to do it that way and you have to work at it.
It almost goes without saying that the tradition of ritual music of the 80s is an important background for La Porta Ermetica, since Ain Soph was itself part of this tradition. Which other bands and music projects of that kind did inspire you? Italy had quite a number of creative occult and ritual industrial groups in this era…
DEVIS: ROSEMARY’S BABY from Verona, in Veneto, the same region where I live. There are not so many people who remember them because this project only lasted a few years. “MAGIA SEXUALIS (Rito di conclusione)”, the last track on SI SEDES NON IS, is a tribute to this project.
CLAUDIO: I always admired Sigillum S from Milan
ADRIANO: Ain soph, Capricorni Pneumatici, Sigillum S, Lashtal, Rosemary’s Baby, Cordi Cinti Serpente, Choronzon Club, Gerstein, Thelema and many more. Perhaps they are the easiest to find in terms of releases. Surely there have been projects that have been relegated to a few copies of cassette releases, now almost irretrievable. Surely in the future, like with our first album with the tribute track to Rosemary’s Baby and the collaboration with Capricorni Pneumatici, we will have the opportunity to create something in the wake of these projects or with members of the same who are still active.
Are there any other contemporary projects that in your eyes evoke this particular mood?
ADRIANO: There are certainly good projects out there, but my personal focus is on Italian industrial occult music of the 80s, which is what we are looking at most in this project, rather than new proposals.
CLAUDIO: Apart from the Roman project New Processean Order, in which Spectrae, one of the members of Ain Soph, plays, I am not aware of any Italian groups that are currently making musical reference to the esoteric genre.
It says that La Porta Ermetica is “A new Esoteric industrial project (in 80s esoteric industrial style)”. Did you deliberately set out to create music that is closely tied to the 80s (underground)?
ADRIANO: The project was born out of this inspiration. In a seminal article in 2002, Devis outlined a kind of brief history of Italian esoteric industrial music in the 1980s. This essay, titled “Italian Crowleyan Industrial Music memories”, published in the magazine Dimonia by Sottomondo Edizioni, which I read at the time of its publication, has always stimulated me, and in the course of my sound research I thought of starting – from what Devis had written – a completely new project: La Porta Ermetica. In this essay, Devis mentioned many projects from the 80s, some of which were very difficult to find, having been released almost exclusively on cassette and never reissued. This publication, together with the sound research and the collecting fever, made me contact Devis and Claudio to create a new project, La Porta Ermetica. Not a mere replica of these sounds, but a thematic and sonic re-enactment of them.
Was there also a stronger connection to international representatives of this kind of music (Zero Kama, early Current 93 to name just two) back in the days? Do you see La Porta Ermetica also in this broader European occult tradition, or would you say it’s a project with a specific Italian characteristic?
ADRIANO: I believe that the project has clear Italian inspirations by choice, so that in the future we will continue to move in this tradition, notwithstanding the fact that we know and appreciate the work of pioneering bands such as those you mentioned. I would also add the first Coil and Zos Kia among the names you mentioned.
Your pieces like “Prologus Hermeticus” and “Sane Occultism” seem like a sound meditation and would also fit into a dark, atmospheric film. What are your goals in creating such moods?
ELISA: There is a cinematic atmosphere to our music that comes from our background, so some tracks will certainly reflect this more than others. However, our attitude is always meditative and our aim is to lead the listener into a deep self-reflection.
How do the composition processes and the recording of your pieces work? What role does technology play for your music? Has the way you record (and compose) been affected by technology and your past experiences within other bands?
DEVIS: My friends live in Rome, while I live in Veneto, so modern technology certainly makes it easier to work remotely. In terms of composition, we do not follow very strict rules. Usually, one of us records a demo. Ah… here is the only rule we actually follow: all the demos must be inspired by esoteric themes or a similar mood. Then we share the audio with the others and everyone can work on it. That is why, as happened with GEMINI 23, we produce different versions of many of our tracks.
The track “V.I.T.R.I.O.L.” refers to an alchemical principle. What significance does the knowledge of alchemy, hermeticism and occultism have for your music? Do you see yourselves as mediators of these topics? This concept also played a part on Ain Sop’s “Ars Regia”.
CLAUDIO: V.I.T.R.I.O.L. (Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem) was composed by me after reading a book by Paracelsus in 1984 and was released on an audiocassette for ‘Misty Circles’ under my own name and later reissued on a rectangular mini CD for OEC Records in 2006. I was delighted when Adriano and Devis suggested we do it again with LPE. As we were writing Ars Regia with Ain Soph at the same time, the concept of V.I.T.R.I.O.L. was taken up, but the two tracks are completely different, only the title remained the same.
Your works almost seem to be a kind of sound archive for ritual practices. How do you deal with finding the right balance between authenticity and creativity?
DEVIS: We play musick inspired by esoteric themes, but we are not a cult or a coven or anything like that. That has to be clear. However, it is obvious that if we are interested in such topics, we have some knowledge in dealing with them, but this knowledge and possible practice is only and exclusively related to the individual members of LPE and not to the LPE project itself.
Many of your sounds seem to live from physical noises such as chains, bells or percussion. What role does the selection of sound sources play in your work?
DEVIS: I guess that’s my fault, it’s due to my involvement with the TEATRO SATANICO project. If you have ever listened to any of the albums that TS have released over the last six/five years, or if you have ever had the chance to attend a live gig, you will have noticed that we have started to use frame drums, tam-tams, gongs etcetera. Since I mainly work in my own home studio, it happens that I use the same instrumentation when working on LA PORTA ERMETICA tracks.
The title track of “La Bugia” focuses on Elisa Pambianchi’s voice. How do you create the balance between vocals, percussion and other sound textures, which is particularly successful in this case?
ELISA: In LPE I think of myself as another instrument rather than a singer, so maybe that is why I always find it surprisingly easy to fit my vocal interventions into the creative process. I must also add that the other members are extremely open and curious about what a voice can add and represent to a track. In this case for example, if I remember correctly, they sent me this excerpt of Palombara’s lyrics and asked me to record anything that might fit, so I decided to record a two-voice chorus (actually, there are two different versions of it) and then we added the drums and finished the track.
Elisa joined the group for this tape, is she also a firm member now?
ELISA: I was actually part of the project almost from the beginning, hence my participation in Sane Occultism and V.I.T.R.I.O.L.. I decided to be accredited as Tecla Nives in the first album only to avoid possible conflicts with the other project I was in at the time, but I am more than happy to share this journey with these great musicians and friends.
CLAUDIO: We wanted Elisa as a full member right from the start, but she was singing in another project at the time, so she appears on our debut CD as a guest under a pseudonym, but as soon as we heard that her band had split up, we strongly wanted her with us. The new work also features Martino Cappelli, an excellent guitarist who is now also a member of the band and who made his debut with us at the Rituals Over Limburg Festival.
In “Theme 2″ you reinterpret a piece by Ain Soph. What attracted you to revisiting this piece? Is it a reinterpretation/a cover song and could you also say a few words about how you set out to record the track?
ADRIANO: The cover of Thema II was inspired by a cover done by Macelleria Mobile di Mezzanotte in the early 2000s, which was published in the Ain Soph tribute Tutti a casa. The track was revisited throughout, and I thought it was a great cue for the project, in fact it was one of the first things we worked on.
CLAUDIO: Adriano always liked Thema II from Ain Soph ‘I’ so much that he played it with M.M.M. on the tribute album ‘Tutti a casa’, so when he suggested doing it again with LPE I was very honoured.
Are there other themes and references you would like to explore for future releases? Have you already recorded new material?
ADRIANO: Work on new material is ongoing; the project is very active, and we have plans for the release of a new album in the near future.
ELISA: We are currently working on the third album, which will hopefully be released this year, plus at least one more track that may be released separately. Our sound is constantly changing and evolving, and exploring it takes us in different directions, even if the main focus remains the same. Let’s say that in this unreleased material you might find a hint of ethnic stringed instruments…
CLAUDIO: We really like what we are creating and we want to keep on doing it, first of all for ourselves and then if other people like it, we will be even happier. Our next album will be named Horti Lamiani, the Latin name of the garden where Villa Palombara was built in the 17th century.
Interview: MG & US
Concert foto: Konchok Gyaltsen
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