Name of band: Cruel
Wonders
Members: Vlad Shusterman and Tamar Singer
Members: Vlad Shusterman and Tamar Singer
Year formed:
2012
Location: Tel
Aviv/Jerusalem, Israel
“Our visual aesthetic is very much in vein with the Art Noveau and Victorian decadence. We're both film school graduates, so visuals are an important part of our project.”
Four years in making
and having shared stage with such heavyweights as ROME and Spiritual
Front, Cruel Wonders' debut sets classical poetry (ranging from
Shakespeare to Russian Symbolists) to sparse, doom-laden neofolk for
the post-metal age. The duo's sound is rooted in Singer's haunting
vocals and hearty strumming, while Shusterman's mesmerized riffs and
cavernous electronics evoke equal parts darkwave lull and doom metal
menace.
Intravenous
Magazine: Who are you and how did the band/project come to be formed?
We are Vlad Shusterman
and Tamar Singer, longtime friends who just started jamming one day
with a couple of guitars and some tomes of poetry for ready-made
lyrics. Vlad is a quite known producer actually (his
post-rock/electronica project Ghost Bike is signed to n5MD and been
making waves since 2010), while Tamar is a professional filmmaker
(Cannes festival nominee), a musical latebloomer who started playing
and singing at the age of 30. So, we came up with a few memorable
songs and decided to make a record.
IVM: How would you
describe your sound/style, and how did you arrive at it?
Female-fronted neofolk
with a healthy dose of doom and darkwave influence. In a tag - folk
noir, probably. Our music is definitely guitar-based, but we try to
spice things up with cinematic percussion, processed samples, various
noises - whatever works for the atmosphere.
IVM: Who and what
are your primary influences both musical and non-musical?
We're both huge fans of
left-of-field metal and dark folk, obviously. Tamar is into lots of
acoustic and proggy stuff, Vlad is big on ambient, drone and
industrial. Our visual aesthetic is very much in vein with the Art
Noveau and Victorian decadence. We're both film school graduates, so
visuals are an important part of our project.
IVM: Do you perform
live and if so where can we see you perform in the near future?
Our live performances
are quite rare, since there is regrettably not much interest for dark
folk here in Israel. We're still somewhat of a household name in the
genre, locally, so when big name acts from abroad come to play here
we're usually called upon as the opening act.
IVM: What is your
current release and where is it available from?
We are releasing our
debut album Gentle Doom (named after a line from a Shakespeare
sonnet) on the 10th of March through Bandcamp. There are nine songs
with lyrics by classical poets, book-ended by two ambient interludes.
It can be streamed and pre-ordered on a pay-what-you-want basis at
cruelwonders.bandcamp.com/releases.
IVM: What have been
the highlights of your career so far?
Opening for ROME and
Spiritual Front, two famed acts we deeply admire.
IVM: What are your
plans fro the future?
Making another record
we're proud of, hopefully.
IVM: Finally, is
there anything that you would like to add?
Just that we've been
enjoying your zine. Keep up the great work!
Links:
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