(In April of this year the debut album by the Greek one-man dissonant black/death metal unit Kvadrat released its debut album The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion in collaboration with Nuclear Winter Records and Total Dissonance Worship (reviewed by us here). Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the person behind the band.)
Ivan Agakechagias is the sole member of Greek death/black metal project Kvadrat. Since 2015 Ivan recorded enough materials for only one EP, Ψυχική Αποσύνθεση (2012), and a split album alongside Moeror and Human Serpent (2021). It’s interesting that the goal was to collect money that will be used to cover some of the basic needs of the animals that were affected by the destructive fires that took place in Greece, including food, medical care, and the financial support of the early costs of anyone who is interested in adopting one of these innocent animals.
Finally, Ivan collected enough ideas for the full-length album The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion that was released on April 4th by Ivan himself, Nuclear Winter Records, and Total Dissonance Worship.
Disturbing, uncomfortable, and ruinous, this material spreads both well-hidden melancholy and distilled aggression.
Hi Ivan! How are you? What’s going on in your artistic life?
Hi, thanks for your invitation. Doing things as usual.
I found that Metal-Archives defines you as an illustrator. How this side of your creativity connected with music?
Two different experiences that’ve taught me a lot. Doing both at once for something was expected at some point. Kvadrat became my way to unite both under the same roof, and to attempt to treat both as one instrument and speak of the same things. There’re countless ways to exercise that connection. It is limitless. I’ve collaborated with bands and friends on occasion but I can rarely take commissions nowadays with my focus turned to personal art and actual work.
How did you come out with such a laconic name? Did you take it from your graphic background? Honestly, my first thought was about the Black Square painting by Kazimir Malevich. It just popped-up on my mind, especially as you perform quite blackened music.
Square is the most common shape in the urban world. That’s the terrain of my work, and it’s full of squares. Back when I was looking for the name this is what I searched for. One common element that is present everywhere I look.
So you created Kvadrat in 2015 as your solo-project. What was on your mind back then? What was your overall vision of it?
This sound/genre wasn’t as popular in the local scene when I got into it. So it was either one-man or no man at all. Goal still remains the same as then, making things I want to hear and see. I was drawn into this through vinyl records. Holding an LP in my hands for the first time in high school and thinking ‘how cool’, that was the big spark. And of course, the music I write is heavily affected to what I was listening to back then. An idea/vision may have existed in the beginning (and in every beginning) but these blueprints cannot remain the same through the years. Your influences and stimuli constantly change and so does your output. The final outcome takes its shape through everything.
You’re Kvadrat’s sole member — what was most challenging part of composing and recording The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion?
To do each instrument and each idea the ‘justice’ I had in my head, being accurate, that was dependent in the composition, the performance, the capture, the general approach. Learning to get what you want from everything.
There are different challenges in every aspect, it is impossible to isolate one of them. I will generally spend a lot of time on things that won’t survive the cut because they don’t end up working as intended, or affecting the rest of the flow differently than intended, visual or audio-wise. I won’t know unless I put all the work and spend significant time with them; it feels like an obsessive challenge to do better each next time that continuously increases the difficulty.
How does your music benefit the lyrics’ message? Do you feel that both elements of Kvadrat complement each other?
They both cooperate to create a restless atmosphere, nauseating and brutal like life itself. Words serve as thoughts and music as the emotion, a real connection between the two is important for me to truly feel the emotions and atmosphere. To sing it from the heart and break guitar strings on casual rehearsals. A true connection must be present for it to be cathartic.
Meanwhile your lyrics in The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion are written in both Greek and English, and as far as I got it, the texts deal with suicidal and generally nihilistic topics. Is it the main idea behind Kvadrat?
Lyrics resemble notes on a big wall – of sound in this case. Sometimes I imagine them as graffiti on walls, visualizing what I write and in what setting is necessary for me to write anything. Leaving something for a total stranger to read, it must communicate for it to make some sense. I can’t sit down with a track and stitch cool words and abstract verses to get this over with. I wrote about addiction, about depression, violence, anger, frustration, estrangement, generally about personal and social ‘bottom tiers’, whatever I felt rotting in my guts.
Do you feel some connection with the Hellenic black metal scene? It seems to be the biggest extreme metal phenomenon in Greece, and I wonder if you feel Kvadrat is a part of it.
No.
How ambitious are you regarding your musical projects? How much do you sacrifice to keep them active?
I don’t rush, I don’t feel the need to release every year or build a discography. For me art in general is always a slow process because it depends on my free time. I had to set commission work or playing/writing for other bands on hold to do what I want to do with Kvadrat. I don’t feel I sacrifice anything though; I do what I want to do. I know that in time I will be able to turn my attention again.
What are your further plans towards Kvadrat in 2024?
Plans are a fraud.
https://www.facebook.com/kvadratnoise
https://kvdrt.bandcamp.com/music