Q+A / Story (2): ROME: “… let the universal breathe alongside the intimate on equal footing.”
In the first part, on the occasion of the new ROME album “Hegemonikon”, we talked about songs falling from the sky and probably the blackest lyrics from Jérôme’s pen in a long time. That’s where we continue to pick up:
Orkus: At the end comes the idea of meeting under new flags. Do you remember how this composition came about?
Jérôme Reuter: Peace, joy, anti-aircraft gun more likely. I can’t get the song separated from Ukraine in my head now. Of course, this is related to the fact that I was in Ukraine during the final phase of the mix, and that colored everything a bit, of course. But that was all in hindsight. Of course, the “new flags” thing has now taken on a completely different flavor, which was not in the original intention of the song.
O: We haven’t even talked about the album title yet. Can you explain it?
JR: “Hegemonikon” is – loosely based on the Stoa – the naming of the central organ of the (interlectual) soul, which casually formulated determines our goodness or badness. One could say, “Hegemonikon” is the instance representing the I of man, as it were the “root of morality” and dominates the other soul faculties. Friends of philosophy will know that already in Plato (and in Aristotle) the doctrine of a hierarchical structure of the human soul with a dominating (rational) part of the soul is found. I like when Epictetus speaks of the “hegemonicon” as the “foundation of the morally beautiful and good.” The interpretation of the term has naturally changed over the centuries. Thus Origen interprets the “Hegemonikon” as the “heart”, so to speak, the symbol of human internalization. But what I liked most and what finally spurred me to choose this title was that the term also stands for the “world soul” among the stoics.
O: The addition of “A Journey to the End of Light” reflects the feeling of the album very well. How dark did it look inside yourself when you were working on it?
JR: This is not to navel-gazing, but certainly the last few years have been difficult in many ways. A few moments are for me purely private deep black colored on the album, but I feel it all rather as a liberating blow and for me the album has more light than shadow.
O: In summary, what would be the common thread of “Hegemonikon”?
JR: I think the motif of the vertical comes to the fore most clearly here: mountains, heights, birds of prey … the hierarchical.
Buy the album at:
Compact РJ̩r̫me about all the songs:
01. “A Slaughter of Crows ” – I’ve put bits and pieces of Ezra Pound into this. Somehow I needed this as a controversial patron saint to open my “hegemonicon”.
02. “No Second Troy ” – This unexpectedly turned out pretty “Violator” somehow, by my standards. (laughs). I just find it refreshing.
03. “Icarus Rex ” – I think this was the first song I made with my new analog synth. First there were the loops, and then I built the rest around them. And lyrically, some images have found each other quite surprisingly.
04. “Surely Ash ” – As I said, probably one of the blackest lyrics I’ve ever written – but this goes a bit too private. In any case, it was a very personal point of view that came into play here. The beauty of “Hegemonikon” is that you can let the universal breathe alongside the intimate.
05. “On the Slopes of Mount Malamatiyah ” – The necessary run-up to the Atlal. Briefly redefine the mood, and… camera running, haha.
06. “Walking the Atlal ” – Lyrically my personal favorite. There I am very glad, how the words have somehow joined together after all. Even in retrospect, it is still a mystery to me how this really happened. Anyway, I really like the result.
07. “Hearts Mend ” – Yes, this was the most difficult song, because strictly speaking it is very simple and should sound like that. And the steamer admittedly speeds past kitsch by a hair’s breadth. But it just had to be that way! I love that song, and we’ll have that firmly in the live set soon.
08. “The Ripping of the Veil ” – The little interlude to catch your breath between my two current favorite songs. There you have to put a piece of bread between two sips of red wine to neutralize.
09. “Solar Caesar ” – My favorite, because so somber and serene at the same time. We tinkered with it for a long time, too, to be honest. Anyway, there were some early forms of the song that we gradually discarded.
10. “Stone of Light – Mer de Glace ” – The mystical element. Clash of the Titans. The vertical ideal of sun, mountain and eagle. Somehow also a kind of centerpiece of the album.
11. “New Flags ” – In my opinion, one should end a record more often with a Hölderlin quote to sing along.
(Interview: Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg)
Ready to listen to the new album now?
