When you ask musicians to name their inspirations, most of them will think about other musicians first. Not me. Of course, I can use chords, ideas, sounds or moods from lost psychedelic gems to make them fit with my vision, but I think my music is better when I’m influenced by poetries, drawings, old movies or esoteric texts. My two last albums, 12 Visions and Dark Tales of Will Z., are influenced by two books: The twelve philosophical keys and Là-bas. The first one is a book by Basil Valentine, allegedly an alchemist monk, but probably an author short of money who decided to sell a fake manuscript to a rich man. Whoever he was, he had a great knowledge on subjects like alchemy, science and eternal life. The twelve philosophical keys are perfectly illustrated by Michel Maïer, the Doctor of Emperor Rudolf II and a great artist. The second book which influenced me is a French novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans about black masses in Paris at the end of the 19th century. I got to admit I was very surprised when I discovered bad reactions to 12 Visions. Some listeners were really chocked by themes inspired by the two [...]
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