Lyke Wake - Interview With Stefano D. Serio

Lyke Wake has... been around for some time. Actually since 1981! That also goes for the label Aseptic Noise, which Stefano started to release his material. A project which pioneered Italian synth-and-ambient-based industrial-music. Alongside the likes of Ain Soph, Nightmare Lodge, and later Runes Order. Somewhere in-between traditional industrial music (TG and Coil) and kraut-rock/Berlin-school-based bands like Tangerine Dream and Cluster. A perfect marriage of sound and mood. In the days of dungeon-synth and retro-styles synth-soundtracks, the sound of Lyke Wake was/is the sound of today. This project is still, alive and kicking after 35+ years, and I was wondering if I should track down this esoteric and enigmatic project, and try to undercover some facts and mysteries behind it. 

In the beginning, the initials plans and ideas behind Lyke Wake. How did this project come to be?

The first tests as LW date back to 1980 and the first tape to 1981. At that time I only used tapes handled with homemade effects; a rather adventurous thing. Then I added a rudimentary electronic drums and then a synth. Throughout the first half of the eighties I let out a series of extreme noise cassettes. 

However, although at that time I mainly used very rough sounds, very noise sounds, the synth immediately became the characteristic sound of my expressive way. Soon all sounds were produced with synths; something not very common in those days, given that industrial musicians preferred to use sounds sampled from external environments. But the LW project was born precisely to express internal states, without points of reference. And it is still so today. The synth was the ideal tool for this purpose. It allowed me to create noise but also melodic lines. I made no distinction between rough sounds and softer sounds; the sound only had to be functional to expressiveness. If at the beginning my sound was characterized by a very extreme noise, with the passing of the years the softer parts have become prevalent. But not for this I believe that my sound has become less extreme, indeed. It was a very personal way of expression that has always made my project difficult to digest; but this was not important.

How did people/friends react to Lyke Wake in those early days?

Today the industrial, in all its forms, has its public, even if limited; in the eighties it was not like that and it is seen as something outside of music, not music, especially in Italy. My albums received acclaim from some but also raised a lot of criticism for the excessive use of noise, even by some specialized fanzines. After The Dark Sea Of Pain in 1984 and Lost in The Psychic Noise in 1985, many asked me what need there was to use noise so completely. They asked me: what's the point? And instead of meaning it had. It seemed absurd that I used those rough sounds as a form of expression! After a live-performance it happened that people came to ask for explanations on what I had played. It is true that, especially in Italy, the noise scene was not very large; there was MB, first of all, FAR, Industrial Zone, and a few others. But I would have expected fewer problems; after all it was experimental music and it was the time of punk. And to think that today I receive criticism because my sound is not enough noise. In short, always out of time, always under a black light; but maybe it's better this way.

How is it that the interest in experimental electronic/industrial-music has always been a thing in Italy?

I think that among all the Italian music scenes of the 80s, the industrial one was the only one to have its own precise identity and to compete qualitatively with the English one. Unlike, for example, the new wave and post-punk, where the Italian groups were the bad copies of what came from abroad. I consider the works of MB from Symphony For A Genocide to Endometrium / Carcinosis as the best the industrial not only Italian has ever produced; I like much less what he did next.

Even today the Italian industrial scene is of excellent level and many deliberately refer to the 80s. Compared to then the noise has become more extreme and today it is possible to produce works that once would not have had even a minimum of audience because they would have been incomprehensible. However, I find it strange that many projects go unnoticed and that instead deserve, in my opinion, greater consideration. Unfortunately, the negative aspect of social media is that, sometimes, the character is considered more than the quality of the music. However, now as then, the Italian industrial continues to have its own identity and a very high-quality level; and it is the only type of sound that has these characteristics.

Your favorite bands in those days, who were they, and do you still listen to them today?

As I said above, I listened to MB (Maurizio Bianchi), Nocturnal Emissions, Solar Lodge, FAR, Klaus Schulze, and a few others. Today I listen mainly to New Prog and Funeral Doom, genres that have little to do with industrial.

What kind of books and movies inspired/inspires you and why?

I have never had particular forms of inspiration, neither musical nor literary. Mine is a music that comes from inner states and the only problem I have is to transform the sensation into sounds. I never tried to do what others did; it may be a good way to compose music but it's not mine.

How is it that Lyke Wake was resurrected in 2010?

The album of the "return" is Mother, 2010. I had a very intense activity from 1981 to 1990, publishing numerous cassettes, a split LP with Nightmare Lodge for Minus Habens, and participating in numerous compilations, both on vinyl and tape; all things that had required a great commitment and a lot of passion. By the early 1990s that passion had died out and there was no point in going on; these things are either done because they feel like it or it is better not to do them. So I decided to stop the activity and also, almost totally, to listen to that type of music; I dedicated myself to other genres, such as, for example, prog and electronics.

But inside me, I always knew that sooner or later I would go back to making that music that had been so important and sometimes I liked to imagine what I would play. Then, suddenly, in 2010, after 20 years, the flame went back on, almost suddenly, just as almost suddenly it went out. Starting again after 20 years of inactivity I found myself facing a different situation. Industrial had become a well-established, but always narrow, scene with a well-defined audience; contacts and the circulation of music were infinitely easier thanks to the internet and recording the sounds had become very simple compared to the effort that was once made with all the problems that analog recording on prehistoric 4-track recorders presented. Another world.

Now there were other problems, such as the large offer of easily available music. If 35 years ago the projects with that type of sound were very few, today there are in huge quantities and it is difficult to orient yourself.

The Lyke Wake project is always the same; "Il disagio di chi si trova in un mondo non suo sapendo che il proprio non esiste" is always the phrase that identifies the LW world. For me, music is a way of expression, a way of representing the inner, psychic world. I play what I am. The sound has changed since its inception; just as people evolve, sound, if used as a real means of expression, also evolves. But the vision of the world and human nature can change but not be distorted; some things remain fundamental and unchanged. And so loneliness, suffering, and pain will always be central in LW's music. I have never had models to inspire me but I have always tried to develop my sound. It was so in the beginning and it is still so today. Certainly what I listen to influences my music but it is marginal. In the 80s I had chosen those sounds because they were ideal for my expressiveness and now I choose different sounds because they are more suitable for my current moment; but if things have changed on the surface, they have remained the same in-depth.

It is a normal evolution that proceeds progressively and without upheavals. In the works of the 1980s, I used massively rough sounds that made up almost all of the sound, almost always on a synth basis; over time I have used softer sounds because they are more functional to what I wanted to express, that is, more suitable for a psychic and cerebral sound and less physical. Then the synth sounds replaced all the other sounds and the rhythmic parts disappeared. I have almost always introduced a melodic line that has become fundamental. Now everyone tells me that I am no longer making noise, even if in reality my music is a union of soft and rough sounds. But the fundamental elements of the LW universe, that deep and total discomfort, have always been the same. There is a continuous line, which goes from 1981 to today, consisting of elements that characterize my sound and which I believe are easily recognizable and constitute a sort of trademark.

If the expressive modalities have changed over time, the substance has remained the same; here there is no place for light and after dark there is only darkness. And on the other hand, if music is used as a real expressive modality, it cannot remain unchanged over the years. Now I think my music has a strong symphonic and solemn component. Especially in recent works, Fall Of The Corrupt, Testament Of Pain and Crawling Through The Abyss Of Pain / SymphonicNoise this has been my specific need; I rationally choose how to express myself with sounds and so I decided to increase the symphonic part of the sound and its solemnity. It is a rational process both in the ideation and in the execution, as well as choosing the right words to express a verbal concept.

Do you have plans on doing more re-issues or would you concentrate on creating new material?

I prefer to make new material. Music is a way of expression and current expression is the most important thing. However, some small labels often ask me to reprint old material and, after careful restoration work, it is nice to bring back to light the sounds that have been a piece of life for me.

Any last words?

Next year I will release a new album. Its title will be ”At The End Of The Dream, Where Nothing Remains / Symphonic Noise”. It is an extremism of the concept of symphonic noise, already very present in the previous ”Crawling Through The Abyss Of Pain / Symphonic Noise”, in which the noise and symphonic parts are merged; a paradoxical union that perfectly expresses my current state. There will be the insertion of new sounds, such as the violin and the voice, always obtained however with the synth and the samples, and the flute played by Fulvio Biondo of Solar Lodge. I'll send you a copy as soon as it comes out.

Homepage:

https://lykewake.wixsite.com/lyke-wake