MAGREB talked about life, magick and Brazilian Kimbanda with David Hexen, the mysterious man behind ritual musical project Dathura Suavolens.
What about the new DS album, “Ars Malefica”, when it will be released? The teaser is highly impressive, but it’s been shown like four months ago.
Ars Malefica should have been released a while, I admit delay. However, an economic crisis hit Brazil, and since DS is a project that does not generate profits, I had to give a greater focus on personal life. Creating is a process that requires time and patience, but I hope to release it this year. Inside it you will find a dark world of curse, the darkness of the Brazilian night with its terrors and seductions. I’m still deciding if it will contain only new songs or will contain great successes of the project.
Does Dathura Suavolens is a studio project only? Do you have plans to perform live, probably with the voodoo band of sorcerers? Russia is really eager for this kind of art. Seriously.
Not for now, I desire to perform live, but in the future, with the right support from fans and friends, we may think about it! Till there I’m focusing on transform DS from an audio experiment to an audiovisual project. I’m focused on stop using samples and to create a little more.
When I started this project I just wanted to express my friends an idea that seethed in my head (the Hekas range). I liked the idea and my Covine’s brothers stumbled into the project and added much to what came next (Averni). At that time we were focused on a work that united elements of Kimbanda with Witchcraft, we performed many rites at dawn in cemeteries and nature reserves, and from that was born Averni.
What is, perhaps, the most impressive thing about DS albums for us is their perfectly calculated duration – just as long as it needs to transport the listener into the unknown and sidereal. DS albums are like artifacts, each one is different, and each one is unique. Is it a concept, about the duration? Will you ever release the LPformat material?
I like to compare each song with a piece of a broken mirror, when they are transformed into “albums” it is because those experiences that occurred in sequence were somehow glued to the mirror shards trying to restore their orginal form. All DS’s albums speak literally of my journey through the many ramifications of magical knowledge, each album is a phase of my learning.
What are your sources of inspiration for DS’s music?
Classic and Traditional Witchcraft, Kimbanda, Umbanda, Catimbó (one survival of european witchcraft in brazilian lands). Brazil is always our main aspiration for being our Terra Mater, but England, Mexico, Africa entire, Arabian tales, ceremonial magick… and many other variations of the magickal Art have my interest when I’m composing.
Well, based on your location in Sao Paulo, your FB account, and, more important, by Exus and Pomba Giras that are joyfully dancing through all DS music, we’ve got an assumption that you’re Quimbanda practitioner. Could you tell us, what this tradition means to you in your life? How did you get into it? Do you practice any other kinds of magic?
It is true I know many kimbanda houses at São Paulo, but despite I know too much about it, I’m not a kimbanda practitioner, I’m a lone devotee of Exu and Pombagira in all its forms. As a child I had visions of them in my crib, these visions have marked me and was one of the many reasons for my approach with witchcraft and then with Kimbanda.
Could you name to us any respectable Practitioners and/or notable notsowellknown books about magick?
Currently I read and admire the articles and books of Nicholaj Frisvold de Mattos (publisher Scarlet Imprint). I also read books of Christopher Warnock on traditional and medieval astrology, and have enjoyed a lot of the work Humberto Maggi.
It seems to us that Sao Paolo today is the place of very impressive Quimbandaoriented magical power and renaissance. Could you tell us about the communion and what’s happening in the area nowadays from your point of view?
I would say that it only seems. São Paulo have many Quimbanda houses but they are hidden from the general public, the recent opening to the public is given on account of social networking. In times of crisis, whether economic or emotional, it is common for people to seek spiritual means to facilitate their ways. A large part of these houses that are open to the public are as theatrical performances, with very little axé (magickal power). In my journey I found only two kimbanda houses that make real changes in the lives of its adherents.
What are the most important things for the Individual in his life?
I believe that if you want to progress in any way you need Will to endure the many stones of the road, and a powerful imagination, to get rid of the many challenges in craftiness, and finally, the responsibility to carry out all that is proposed . No matter if you’re the trickster (trisckster) or the judge, we all have our crooks and hooks, but if you have these qualities, you are safe to go ahead.
Could you name some books that really impressed you recently?
Thesaurus Magicus – Humberto Maggi
Exu and the Quimbanda of Night and Fire – Nicholaj Frisvold
What is the most unexpected/notable/inspiring thing or dream that happened to you recently?
Ars Malefica is based on a dream I had. I dreamed I was in a cemetery and among the graves there was a temple to a goddess who cried blood and had black eyes like the night. She showed me a desert and with many human bones, after that I decided that the album name would be Ars Malefica.
Àsé!
