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Infernal interview - Travellers' Tales

Author: Stuart Evans
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
FROM PARIS TO BERLIN MAY BE THE NAME OF THE LATEST ALBUM FROM INFERNAL, BUT GEOGRAPHY HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH IT.

The title of their latest record may wet the lips of seasoned travellers, or even arouse interest in European expeditions, but it's just a day in the studio for Infernal.

Denmark has been a newsworthy topic of late, mainly thanks to the soccer team's 4-1 trouncing of England, but Danish house export Infernal are making some reverberations worldwide

Infernal are Denmark's Grammy and music award winners, and they are causing quite a commotion with their avant-garde From Paris To Berlin club anthem.

Having recently conquered the Italian, German, Polish, Finish and Norwegian dance charts, From Paris looks dead set to carry the mantra across Australia.

At present the record is riding high in the ARIA dance charts and the HMV singles chart.

Since 1997 Infernal has been the endeavours of Lina Rafn and Paw Lagermann. Their third and latest album is titled 'From Paris To Berlin'. Since their inception in '97 they've produced a string of hits, nearly all of which have made it to the peak of the dance chart summits in a variety of countries.

Moreover, they've achieved two platinum and gold singles. Their impressive album resume isn't too bad either. Achieving almost double platinum on their inaugural album and following that up with gold, means the duo are highly regarded.

They have long been established as a force on the nightclub trail in their native homeland.The name From Paris to Berlin is something of a riddle as opposed to the duo drawing on past experiences.

"I haven't been to either Paris or Berlin," quips Lina. And after reflection, Paw says that he once visited Paris but was 10 years old at the same. "Yeah, I was way too young to go clubbing," he laughs.

They knew electronic music was the way forward, but finding the music which represented their distinctiveness proved difficult. Once the platform for a collective approach had been found, they proceeded to explore the realms of their own extremity.

Switching beats and genres become apparent. Hardcore, underground, old skool and slower chilled beats were thrown into the mix to form part of a challenge. They say that the tracks featured on 'From Paris' tell their own story, but are they happy with the result-

The answer is instantaneous. "Yes," they both reply.

"Well, the album came together through coincidence, and then the rest just came together easily," she states.

She adds that the working relationship between her and Paw is one of compromise. "It's just like being married," she says. "Only, without the sex!"

Whilst the From Paris single may be easy listening to electro house fans, the ascendancy soon switches to a track which features 300 sampled vocals of English and Hebrew origin. Oh, and adding to the shenanigans is a record which features a Swedish accordion player.

But that shouldn't come as a surprise to Infernal followers. One of the earliest records, the '97 release Sorti De L'Enfer, was a bagpipe-induced trancer.

Strange musical instruments are not new stomping ground. Paw explains, "On a previous track we used an Iraqi man who was playing a poem. He escaped from Iraq because he couldn't play under Saddam Hussein."

Infernal state that during the making of their album, they found an expression which summarised what their music is all about. "Bass driven music," they conclude.

Originally, the album featured an unlucky for some 13 tracks. Not being overly superstitious, they concluded that releasing an album with 13 tracks was just too risky a move. So, the solution was to record an introduction of the Swedish accordion player warming up.

Lina laughs "Yes, we don't know where he is originally from but he's very eccentric! When you get these people with a different view of making music, things tend to collide." Paw concludes, "It was tough to edit but he was the<
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