Draft:Novarupta (band)

For the volcano, see Novarupta.

Novarupta
Alex Stjernfeldt during Novarupta's performance at "15 Years of Mayhem" in 2021
Background information
Origin	Gothenburg, Sweden
Genres	Blackened sludge metal, post-metal
Years active	2019 (2019)–present
Labels	Suicide Records
Members	Alex Stjernfeldt

Novarupta is a mixture of band, project, collective, and art, created by Alex Stjernfeldt (Grand Cadaver, CHILD, Young Acid, SKRCKVLDET, ex-The Moth Gatherer, ex-Let them Hang). In his words it can be described as "a pretentious art and music collective with an open creative forum". Thematically it is based on the four elements - fire, water, air, and earth - with an album dedicated to each element. To date, albums for the first three elements have been released. Alex stated that once all four albums are released, the project will cease to exist. Their sound changed from blackened sludge metal on the first two albums to post-metal on the third album.

The two constant people in Novarupta is Alex Stjernfeldt, who creates the music, and Arjen Kunnen, the artist who creates the artwork. Each song features a different vocalist, with no singer performing on more than one song. Once most of a song is musically complete, Alex passes it to vocalists who have influenced his musical career and who he feels would best suit the song; they then provide the lyrics. Completing an album from conception to the finished product takes about a year. However, the time required for writing the music for each song varies from a day to six months.

Alex said that Novarupta was never a touring band. While the COVID-19 pandemic halted touring for many bands, for him it just gave him more time in the studio.

During an interview he stated "with Novarupta expect the unexpected".

History & the four elements albums

The idea of what will become Novarupta was born around 2018, after Alex left The Moth Gatherer. As he needed to continue creating slow, heavy, and emotional music, during a visit to Stockholm to watch Ulver he began discussing with Claudio Marino on writing a song. They also came up with the idea of using guest vocalists for the band.

Disillusioned Fire

The first LP, Disillusion Fire emerged from a period in Alex's life where he was in a dark place mentally, prompting him to create music reflecting his mental state. He wanted to write some "dirty" heavy music, reminiscent of what he was listening to while growing up. The lyrics, portrayed within his personal space void of light, should also be dark, oppressive, and violent, telling stories of living with depression, personal struggles, and the harsh realities of the world. However, they should also carry a message of hope, emphasizing that one is not alone, that there is a way forward, and that one is stronger than they realise, as they can persevering and carry on despite living with mental illness. He wrote the lyrics to two songs, and the vocalists for the rest of the songs wrote the rest of the lyrics.

Initially, Alex did not have a clear idea of the album's sound, as he wanted it to be an open creative process for everyone involved. This approach led to a very organic and natural result, which he attributes to the open-hearted and honest conversations amongst each other. Although he hadn't initially planned on linking the album to an element, working on it he realised that not only the lyrics had a fire theme, but the entire album felt aggressive, like the violence of flames. Hence the concept of the album being connected with fire came naturally to him. When the album was complete, he felt that it was only natural to continue with the idea of producing four albums, each representing a different element.

For this album he was influenced by his time at The Moth Gatherer, as both the album and the band were close musically. When he left The Moth Gatherer, he had already started writing new music for them, which he eventually used for Disillusioned Fire. He stated that the album was confusing and mentally challenging while working on it, and he hated recording it. In his words:

To me, the album is the painful beauty that shines through the prisms of imperfections of mankind in a world on the verge of collapse, a journey into the dark parts of the soul and mind, but also a journey of survival, realizing that it is ok to feel this way, that you are stronger than you think. The music is drawn from these places where the esoteric oppression thrives on your psyche. The world took me for a freak, so I used that to create a frequency.

The album was recorded at "No Wave Studio" in Gothenburg. The first complete song with vocals was Urang Medan. After Martin Wegeland recorded the vocals, Kristoffer Folin, the sound engineer who worked on it, said that he wanted to work with this music. Alex informed him that the band had no label and thus no funds to pay him. Eventually though the two made a deal where Kristoffer would mix the song for free in order for Alex to use it and find a record label. Once the mixing was done Alex sent the song to Suicide Records, who appreciated them for their quality in music. Suicide Records immediately arranged a meeting to discuss a potential collaboration, and Novarupta eventually signed with them. Initially the agreement was for a single album, but it later expanded to cover the entire four-album journey together.

The album was released on 29 April 2019., with the album release party taking place two days earlier.

Originally Alex have no plans to perform any of the Novarupta songs live, When the opportunity arose though he seized it, and the first live took place on 8 November 2019. Alex stated that arranging the first live show was the biggest headache and stress he ever experienced. One major challenge was finding musicians to play with him - as he puts it if he played everything by himself he would look like a circus freak. He reached out to the guitarist Victor Wegeborn (The Moth Gatherer), a friend of his played the drums, and Christian Jansson (Dark Tranquillity, Pagandom) was the bassist. Interestingly, Christian had actually won the album at a radio contest, so when he and Alex got in touch he simply said "I know all the songs by now". The final step was the "simple" task of getting 8 vocalists together at the same time and place. Before the live show the musicians did not have a chance to rehearse with the vocalists, so the first time they all heard live with vocals was during the soundcheck. The band consisted of 12 people - 4 instrumentalists and 8 vocalists - which made it quite special special. At the time Alex was unsure if there would be another Novarupta live show. He rules out the possibility of performing a song without the original vocalists.

Marine Snow

When Alex had already written the music for the first 2-3 songs for the second LP, he realised he felt like he was in the depth of the abyssal sea, feeling the pressure of the water. Additionally, the music had a more wavy character compared to the first album, leading to this album being written around the theme of water.

Recording Marine Snow was a different experience than Disillusion Fire, as the whole process of writing, recording, and going back and forth for corrections was blurry and hazy, and suddenly the album was complete. During the recording, the songs felt like flowing, making this album more coherent. In his words "it feels like a journey from the shore to the depths of the ocean".

For the first song of the album, Broken Blue Cascades, Alex was inspired by the minimalistic tribal sound of Killing Joke. The track begins with a psychedelic guitar and the sound of waves, making it a fitting opening track. As the album's closing track, "11°22.4n142°35.5e," ends with the sound of waves, it creates a cohesive opening and closing for the album. Josh Graham was chosen for "Broken Blue Cascades" because of his gravelly and menacing voice. For the song Trieste, Alex used material he had written in 2010, which was originally written on an acoustic guitar but later adapted to electric guitar. From the time he started adapting the material to what ultimately became Trieste, Alex had Martin Persne in his mind as the vocalist, believing that his delicate voice would blend well with the heaviness of the song. Martin found it challenging to provide the lyrics, as he struggled to find the right approach to the song.

Another memorable song during the lyrics-writing process was the Every Shade of the water, which was a collaboration between three people. Alex first sent the song to Robert Lamu, who worked on it for quite some time but felt that the final product wasn't quite right, largely because he was singing mostly in Swedish. After the two discussed it, Alex passed the song to Lea Amling Alazam, who had showed interest in working with Novarupta. She wrote the lyrics within a week. Alex then sent the song back to Robert, who felt that the song was where he wanted it to be, and completed it with the overdubs.

The album was released on 13 November, 2020.. It was nominated and won at the Manifestgala 2021, an annual gala honoring artists and musicians from independent record labels. Alex did not expect to win, but he is still proud of the win. He said that it is an honour for him that his work was recognised by the indie community.

Novarupta's second live performance was on 15 October, 2021, during Suicide Records festival 15 Years of Mayhem.

Carrion Movements

The third album is based on air. Before its release, Alex stated that this album won't be what people expected. He noted that listeners of the first two albums are somewhat anticipating a "Novarupta sound", and he intended to destroy this expectation. He explained that while it would still be a Novarupta, it wouldn't be in the familiar style. During an interview, when asked what type of vocalists he was looking for, he hinted: "I don't know how much I should say. Maybe I'm not even looking for vocalists this time." Indeed Carrion Movements includes two instrumental tracks.

During the recording of Marine Snow, Alex got the idea of incorporate tracks with a soundscape foundation. With the help of his friend Peo Bengtsson, he created those "kinds of weird ethereal, astral sounds" in Carrion Movements. While writing the tracks, which was hard for him to find the right sound, and playing with soundscapes, he noticed that some riffs and hooks were recurring in his music, resembling movements. This was the inspiration for the name of the album. In the writing process he found sounds with a lot of reverb and no distortion that felt airy to him, hence the connection of the album with the air. Despite other artists playing with the concept of air, Alex stated that he did not have any influence by any of them. Musically, he drew inspiration from Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven and John Murphys' film scores.

The initial plan for Carrion Movements was to create a single long song that felt organic and interesting. After a year of working on the first song, the second was written almost effortlessly within a weekend. While this approach was unconventional for Novarupta, and might not have strong commercial appeal, Suicide Records supported his vision.

Up to that point the plan was to release one album each year, but the vinyl shortage that began in 2021 delayed tthe release. Carrion Movements was eventually released on 22 April, 2022.

[4th album]

In a 2020 interview, Alex mentioned that he already knows the title of the last song on the final record but was struggling with how to represent musically the element of earth. By 2022 he revealed that a significant portion of the fourth album is already recorded. As this album is the final one for Novarupta, it needs to address the questions: "What’s my goal? What’s my statement? What’s the legacy?". While working on the album - and having recorded and discarded around 15 songs - things feel into place in the weirdest way possible.

The album will focus on the earth as the environment, and how both the listener and the vocalist interpret it. Despite the goal of releasing one album each year, Alex will not stress about the timeline for this one - since it is the final album, he wants to go out on a personal high note.

Novarupta legacy

Alex stated that after the fourth album is completed, it will be the end of Novarupta, but not exactly. While there will not be any more albums, in his words "the band will not be anymore but it will exist".

April Fool's songs

Novarupta has released three songs on 1st April: The Colour Void in 2019, Wear You Down in 2020, and Satanic Volcanic in 2021. Alex explained that he initially started recording the beat/snippet of The Color Void just to annoy his girlfriend and party with himself on a weekend, but he ended up having a song. As the 1st April was approaching he decided to publish it as April Fool's joke.

Aferwards, he liked the idea of using April Fool's Day as a "meta-joke" for Novarupta. He clarified that while the songs themselves are not jokes, they are not part of the main Novarupta either. In his words, "it is a way to expand the Novarupta universe without affecting the main canon".

Suicide Records Compilation album

Novarupta contributed to the Suicide Records compilation album In the Loving Memory of You, alongside 15 other bands: Skitsystem, Knivad, Demonic Death Judge, M:40, Downfall Of Gaia, The Moth Gatherer, Fredag den 13:e, Besvärjelsen, Novarupta, Fabian Brusk Jahn, Rainbird, Ulmus, Division of Laura Lee, GUHTS, and Firebreather. This initiative from Suicide Records founder, Roger Andersson, aims to, in his words, "respectfully reflect the emotions that arise when someone close chooses to end their life". All proceeds from the album will go to the Swedish suicide-prevention non-profit organisation, Suicide Zero.

Artwork

Novarupta's second permanent member is the artist Arjen Kunnen, who creates the artwork for the albums. The artwork is very important for Novarupta, as they aim to make people curious enough to pick up their albums not only for the music, but also for the visual appeal.

Members

Studio members

Pyroclastic Flows

• Alex Stjernfeldt (Guitars, Bass, Drums)
• Tomas Liljedahl (Vocalist - Stones)
• Jörgen Sandström (Vocalist - Pyroclastic Flows)
• Claudio Marino (Vocalist - Tumskruvar)
• Joen Segerstedt (Vocalist - Tumskruvar)
• Ossian Reynolds (Vocalist - Tumskruvar)
• Mikael Stanne (Vocalist - Mare Tranquillitatis)
• Jonas Holmberg (Vocalist - Only the Dirt Will Know Our Graves)
• Martin Wegeland (Vocalist - Ourang Medan)

Marine Snow

• Alex Stjernfeldt (Guitars, Bass, Drums)
• Josh Graham (Vocalist - Broken Blue Cascades)
• Lea Amling Alazam (Vocalist - Every Shade of Water)
• Robert Lamu (Vocalist - Every Shade of Water)
• Martin Persner (Vocalist - Trieste)
• Mike Paparo (Vocalist - No Constellation)
• Arvid Hällagård (Vocalist - 11°22.4n142°35.5e)

Carrion Movements

• Alex Stjernfeldt (Guitars, Bass)
• Svante Karlsson (Drums)
• Jussi Hämäläinen (Violin)
• Peo Bengtsson (Soundscapes)

Live Instrumentalists

First Live

• Alex Stjernfeldt (Guitar)
• Victor Wegeborn (Guitar)
• Christian Jansson (Bass)
• Patrik Herrström (Drums)

Second Live

• Fred Burman (Guitar)
• Andreas Baier (Guitar)
• Alex Stjernfeldt (Guitar)
• Christian Jansson (Bass)
• Albin Sköld (Drums)
• Patrik Herrström (Drums)

Discography

Studio albums

• Disillusioned Fire (2019)
• Marine Snow (2020)
• Carrion Movements (2022)

EPs

• Iron Ghosts (2023)

Singles

• Pyroclastic Flows (2019)
• Ourang Medan (2019)
• Mare Tranquillitatis (2019)
• Broken Blue Cascades (2020)
• Every Shade of Water (2020)
• The Color Void (2020)
• Wear You Down (2021)
• Satanic Volcanic (2022)
• Feel My Love (Novarupta Reimagining) (2023)

Compilation Albums

• In the Loving Memory of You (2024)

External links

• Instagram page