Interview, Gunnar Idenstam on Metal Angel

Described as "part hard apocalyptic progressive rock, part elfin folklore, part nave-shaking French symphony", the music of Sweden's Gunnar Idenstam defies easy categorisation. His album Metal Angel, released earlier this year on Toccata Classics, sees him draw together those influences and more besides, in a kind of concept-album that meditates on the different imagery of angels in popular culture. The result is a set of three suites for solo organ that showcase the instrument's monumental power in ways not often heard.

I spoke to Gunnar about this intriguing album and about the particular instrument on which it is recorded.

You refer to having a personal affinity with symphonic metal, and there are certainly plenty of moments in this music that resemble the sweeping orchestral textures of Nightwish, Epica and other such bands. Do you think the organ brings elements and possibilities to this kind of genre-crossover that the orchestra can’t?

Maybe the organ adds a more brutal quality, because of the fact that the notes and chords are unstoppable, haha, once you pressed a key. But most of all I think that playing this kind of music on the organ, the Queen of instruments, makes many people surprised, because they never heard anything like this on the organ.

To reverse the previous question, in a sense – when composing for the organ by itself, did you ever find yourself encountering limitations of the instrument compared to other possible sonorities?

I make use of the limitations of the organ! And I also have some tricks when composing and performing, to make the organ sound more ”alive”. For example: I always use different structures in my hands, and pedals, and each structure is associated with certain sounds. I also use different kinds of touch.

You’ve recorded this album on the organ at Monaco Cathedral – a huge instrument with some obviously French-inspired voicings that recall the great Gothic cathedrals of Paris. Did you have this specific instrument in mind when writing your music, or did you have to hunt for the right instrument once the composition process was finished?

To be honest I always write for this type of instrument. And after having performed in Monaco Cathedral a few years ago I realised that this organ, made by the Belgian organ builder Dominique Thomas, is one of my top 5 organs in the world! The action is extremely fast, the bass foundation is very powerful, it is not extremely large so each stop adds a new character to the sound. There are very poetic sounds as well as very powerful Trompettes en Chamade (horizontal trumpets) that I often play with my left hand in a Tutti, giving the impression of the brass section in the orchestra.

The thread that unites this whole album is, of course, the imagery of angels. But they seem to be the angels of Gothic statuary and graveyards, and the “guardian angels” of popular spirituality, rather than the beings found in religious texts. Given that you’re also using an instrument associated with the Church, would you say there’s any religious dimension to this music?

When I compose I feel connected with a power that is outside of me. The process is often very quick and smooth so I have the impression of just having to write down something that is already there. So for me, all good music has a spiritual quality. But the music always comes to me from a source without words, and the story comes after a while. And this story is about angels, any kind. I leave to the listener to be carried away by his / her inner images.