•  "denn ich bin der wanderer
  der kein ziel hat
  und streift durch das meer
  dieser zeit"
  A wanderer with no purpose in the sea of time.. untouchable, quite much like a ghost. Wanderers in life and in music.. What is the purpose of this journey in the sea of music and sounds?

  Endraum: You can see and understand our music as an never ending search. A search for real moments. A search for dreams become reality. A search for making visions become real. Our music is floating, it is like the attempt to be on a wave that brings us forward, without going under. Maybe a wish.

   

•  Your latest release “traumstaub” was very eagerly expected. The main reason was that for the first time you would use real instruments. What was the reason for this choice at this particular point in time and after more than 10 years of creating music? How much do you feel the Endraum sound has changed compared to “zeitenlicht” of the early 90's for example?

  Endraum: "traumstaub" is a story which tries to fix moments between the dream and the still existing reality.
  It is the wish to hold on to something which is not seizable in reality. It is kind of an expression of despair and frustration about the rapidity in beautiful moments that can’t stay any longer for the future.
  But "traumstaub" is also the look back to our past, the past of endraum.
  "traumstaub" has to be understood as a contrast between dream and reality which is also a further part of our history.
  A phase in which dust become dream and dreams become dust ... one of the most important central themes on all of endraum releases. It is a deep inner view to make visions become real, to find a way of two individuals to make them real, existing.
  Also a very important thing is that we made „a step back“ into our past. "Traumstaub'' has also to be understood as a journey betwen our past and the near future.

   

•  “Traumstaub” is another journey into the vast empire of Fantastica... the place where dreams become reality and reality exists in dreams… What tempted you to make an almost concept-album based on the dream? ”in traumstaub gehullt..im inneren leicht..” In your own words, an attempt to connect dreams and reality, to hold on to the elusive moments and the past. How important is it to keep in touch with our dreams? Is there a risk of confusing them with real life? Can we survive without them? Michael Ende spoke of a dream-eater…

  Endraum: The confrontation of dream and reality is a never ending theme of endraum. Dreaming could mean to look for a better way of life. In dreams mostly everything seems easy. But the dream is not an escape from the reality. It is one of the most important things in life. It is the real side of your wishes. But in the “dreamworld” everything could be possible. And so it is the most important thing to live your dreams like reality. It means not to accept borders, to let melancholic things free, to live in a positive way with depressions, to accept the dark sides and to make them a real part of life.

   

•  Throughout your lyrics one can't help but notice a certain persistence with words ( words that have changed a bit from one record to another), words like lightness, quietness and stillness.. the shadows, the sea and the night. .the mirror,the dream.. the skin, the hand.. irgendswann.. Do you treat words as colours that enable you to paint your pictures and depict your emotions?

  Endraum: It is the inner world of Hovi, how he expresses himself and how he explains things. There is now the question of a „why“ or „what“... The most important thing is that it works, that his words are working.
  It is a language which is able to reflect the moods of endraum.
  Words are chosen like a music instrument, playing with moments, capturing in the same way like music is capturing our impressions.
  The world of language is nearly the same world of endraum's music: to make visions become reality. But also important is for the chosen words never be so clear, so that there will be enough space for fantasy. The power of unspoken things.
  It is hard to say that there is some kind of foreign inspiration. I would say that the inspiration comes with the unit of endraum. Of course there were and are big poets in literature ... but this is the past. The future is endraum and equal to that is poetry.
  There is also the thinking into colours. We have chosen the colour blue. It means for endraum a colour in which we are able to create, in which we are able to go further. Blue stands for „increase“, for „development“. Blue is something in front of „nearly open“.
  Blue is the only colour with light but without dazzle and it doesn’t make you blind. For us the colour blue stands for „infinity“. It isn’t black or white. It is something between sadness and happiness.

   

•  The content of the lyrics is very poetic and atmospheric. Romance, melancholy and lyricism are dominant. Apart from that, I see it as quite surreal from time to time (especially in your last two albums).Songs like “just one kiss” are pure paintings. Are there any influences, from literature and poetry, in your lyric-writing? Is there a particular poem maybe that you would like to disguise in music?

  Endraum: Of course, the first poem we had realized was in 1990 from Heinrich Heine's “fantastisch zwecklos”. But in general there is no real influence of modern poetry. I think we have realized our very own language of spoken words and music. The same has to be seen in the paintings.
  Our first step in 1990 was to ged rid of clichees, of real dark thoughts. So we tried to concentrate on our very individual desire, to create something very different from all the rest. You have to understand and to see the work of endraum like a three-dimentional picture, in which its main work consists of creating a landscape of atmospheres and pictures of sounds.
  The lyric catches one moment, explains it, makes it real, nearly touchable. The painting catches one thought and makes it visible. Endraum is like a vision in which the spoken word, the music and the picture has to be seen as a parallel working space. (my english is so bad – sorry)
  In most cases Hovi is starting to create a picture before the music is starting. We talk in first about the general idea of an album and then he finishes the picture so that there is some kind of „general orientation“ how the vision and how the music has to be ruled in a special way.

   

•  On "an yvon million" from your last album, you appear to have fallen in love with your dream… Not the usual lovesong. What does “an yvon million” stand for?

  Endraum: So this is a very dark moment in our life. Yvon million was a very good friend of ours, but he decided to commit suicide and he left his only daughter alone ... At that moment we woke up and we realized that death and life are very close together. And the worst thing someone can do is to hide his real ambitions and feelings. “an yvon million” is a song about about the work with yourself. The work how to express yourself and the work to catch moments and let them stay in your mind.

   

•  Also there is a beautiful instrumental in "herzklang spiegelt am strassenrand". "goyatlay".. mesmerizing and whirling, with all the different sounds coming in on top of one another. What is the secret of "goyathlay"?

  Endraum: "I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babies. I was living peaceably when people began to speak bad of me. Now I can eat well, sleep well and be glad. I can go everywhere with a good feeling ..."
  This song is dedicated to one of the famous indian leaders: Geronimo.

   

•  The cover artwork by Hovi is very special and imaginative. Is it an artpiece following the process of creating the songs or is it made for the album? Are there any artists in particular or trends in general which he appreciates and draws inspiration from?

  Endraum: The inspiration for this special artwork is the fixed sensation, a single picture in the „dream-dust“ (traumstaub) that was created one evening, just on the way to our work. It is a snapshot between the creation and the vision of „traumstaub“.
  It also tries to symbolize the attempt to catch very short moments of our past, present and future.
  It is also the idea to create a picture which is able to keep the shortness of just one moment, making it unforgettable, making it real.

   

•  In the videos you have made for some songs there is a certain stillness and unclearness. More like a series of stills rather than moving pictures. If you could have any director, living or dead, to make a video for you, who would it be?

  Endraum: One of the famous directors in film history is Andrei Tarkowski. A russian man. He gives endraum a lot of impressions how to work with silence, no movement and very deep thoughts. He is able to let the picture move without moving. He is able to tell a plot without words and all his films are full of silence.

   

•  Songs like “god's bow work with pale blue the silence” and “ein letztes mal” with the female back vocals, are beautiful. Is there room for more female voices in the endraum sound or do you feel that it doesn't fit to it?

  Endraum: In our work there could be a lot of space for different musicians. On "traumstaub' we have chosen only good friends and people who are very close to us. We worked with our polish friends from “god’s bow”. It was a pleasure to have them on our album, like it is to have good friends in life. But normally we do not think about involving different musicians or guests on our recordings. This is more spontaneous. So we let the time pass and then we make the decision how to work with other people.

   

•  You consider Joy Division one of your greater influences .Would you ever do a cover-version of their song?

  Endraum: The intensity of joy division and their touching music is the real influence for us. But in general it is the force and the power how joy division are building up there suspence. But they also have something very soft and destroyable. Things which are very rare to find in times like today. We already have done a very own version of „blue monday“. The first and maybe the last real touch of endraum to an unbelievable group.

   

•  What kind of music are you listening at the moment? Any favourite bands or artists?

  Endraum: We are boys of the so called „old school“. We are very close with our feelings to the so called „post punk“. Our main influence could be find in the music of joy division, and, for example, in the music of Weimar Gesang. It can be found in classical periods and it can be found in the modern world.
  Today's music to understand and to accept is not easy, because „it is easy“ to make music.
  I would say for the moment we are very touched by the music of mathieu bogaerts, yann tiersen, coralie clement, juliet greco, ...

   

•  You’re about to play here in Athens with one of the most influential bands of the avant-guarde scene, Tuxedo Moon. What do you think of them?

  Endraum: To play together with TuxedoMoon is like a step back into our past. A beautifull vision.

   

•  Throughout your albums, you appear very distant, introverted and sober. How important is performing live and communicating with the people then? What can we expect to get and feel while watching Endraum performing live?

  Endraum: We will present for the first time our full length movie called “nachtblende”.
  The idea of this movie (film) is to make our vision real, to show how things could be in the world of endraum, how situation can be fixed for a moment, to explain what the colour “blue” could mean. But it is only an “attempt”.

   

• " jetzt hier nah ... im mondhaus im wind ... weisgeronnen im schnee ...
  mein blick glanzt warm nah .. die umarmung..
  Spiegel in Spiegel"
  The Mirror in the mirror effect, the dream within a dream:
  Reality reflecting in imagination and imagination in reality, creating a universe of infinite parallel instances, emerging and occurring from each other at the same time. Furthermore, the person is ambiguous and blurry in this song (and all the others actually!).. It could be you, me, everyone, but also no one at the same time. Is this theory any close to your creation?

  Endraum:... be carefull. This is only an interpretation. We are sorry but it is not our wish and the idea of endraum to create something like an “instruction” how to understand.
  The most important thing is “how someone feels”. To see reactions, to get feedback about emotions ... this could be a kind of “guide” into the world and the lyrics of endraum.

   

•  Thank you, see you in Athens!

  Endraum: Thank you for a very intensive interview.
  And please excuse our bad english. We have tried to do our best ...

Interview by Maria Karagkouni

October 2004