Recently Discipline Mag had the fortune of catching up with Melbourne artist Horace Rosenqvist AKA Aquilus. The Aquilus project has been around since the mid 2000s and since the release of its first albums ‘Arbor’ and ‘Griseus’ the project has been perfecting a truly unique balance between gothic orchestral composition and pummelling dense atmospheric black metal. We caught up with Horace to talk about the project as it stands in 2024, the release this year of their latest album “Bellum ii” and all the plans they have around touring and recording.
How are you doing today Horace , how is Melbourne winter treating you?
I’m in Mount Evelyn, the smell of wood fires burning in the cold rainy air is very beautiful and inspiring to me, so I do enjoy winter.
So I was hoping to ask today about the origins of the project and your first release Arbor. Could you provide a bit of background on how the project began? What were some of your influences?
I started writing for the (then unnamed) project around 2000/2001 that eventually resulted in ‘Arbor’, but I didn’t record it until around 2006, when I felt I was ready, when the overall quality was good enough for a release.
It was meant to be more of a straight forward “black metal” project, and I had several “EP” ideas I had created, but after expending my energy into Arbor, and having so many different genres I wanted to incorporate over time into the project by then, I threw away those earlier ideas and decided to concentrate all the different styles and ideas I had into one project, which after around four years, eventually resulted in Griseus being completed.
Tell me about the themes of the project, are there particular feelings or vibes you’re trying to communicate. I know for myself there;s a real sense of haunting isolation to it.
It’s mostly just a collection of experiences, and about beauty, longing, melancholia, and introspective thoughts expressed in the best poetic/lyrical way I can muster.
You’ve now fully released the follow ups to your 1st highly acclaimed album Griseus in the form of two album releases Bellum 1 & 2 (with 2 being released this year on Northern Silence productions). I would love to know how things have changed for
you over the past 3 releases.
Not that much really, I’m just trying to make the releases as best as I can over time, but the same old shit never really changes fundamentally.
I was hoping you could tell me about making the project a live project, when did that happen? Was that after the release of the first Belleum?
After the release of Griseus, I started looking for players to perform the music live, first finding Zeb for the drums (or him finding me rather, by an ad I put out) which was a perfect match for the music, and him then moving from Tasmania to Melbourne, by 2014 we starting performing, with an old friend of mine (Morty) playing second guitar and a bassist I found from stumbling around the city lost and drunk one night (Carey). Then gradually adding in keyboard (Sarah) and a violinist (Hayley) over the years, it has filled out the sound, creating more of the atmosphere heard on the albums.
What can people expect from the show in September?
We’ll be playing the main title tracks from Bellum I and II, “Into Wooded Hollows” and “Into the Earth” which we haven’t played live before.
I have to say the art used for each album is awesome, did you feel that 19th century gothic paintings represented the music you were into well?
Yeah I think it fits perfectly, I spent a lot of time looking for the right artwork. The painting used for Belleum 2 is by the artist Arthur Rackham.
So What’s the future of the project in regards to the live aspect? Do you guys have any future tour plans after the Melbourne show?
We’re playing Fortress Festival in England next year, and sorting some other shows abroad that haven’t been confirmed yet.
I was also wondering if you have any writing/recording plans in the pipeline?
I’m currently mapping out the next “metal” Aquilus album, while also working on an “acoustic” Aquilus album with various instruments and different compositions that I have amassed, that are too many to pepper across the standard Aquilus metal album ‘style’. (Or simply don’t fit in with that model).
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