Bienvenue sur / Welcome to

Profilprog (PP): Hello Sabine and Lanvall thank you for giving us your time to answer our questions
EDENBRIDGE: You are welcome.

PP: A new record, three years after the previous one, your rhythm is always the same, isn't it?
Lanvall: Pretty much. Due to the circumstances the new album comes out even earlier than planned, as we wanted to tour for “Dynamind” in 2020 but that obviously didn't happen. So, we changed our plans immediately and I strated to write the new album.

PP: Since your debut you have used five bass players and four drummers why? Are these positions difficult to hold in EDENBRIDGE?
Lanvall: Good question but we are speaking of 24 years. When you cannot make a living as a whole band, perspectives and plans are changing over the years. Some got family and needed regualr day jobs, with others we couldn’t move on due to various reasons. But the main figures always stayed the same haha.

PP: Have you kept friendly ties with the former musicians?
Lanvall: With some of them yes, with others the contact broke, because they tried to play stupid games, so there was no reason to hold on friendly terms. But in the end that doesn't matter. It is like with normal friendships. They come and go, and only real friends will stay forever.

PP: What can you tell me about new bassist Steve Hall? is he British as his name suggests?
Lanvall: Well, he is not that new, as he is in the band for over 5 years how :-) Steve Hall is his stage name, and he is from Bavaria. The best bass player we ever had and a great show man!

PP: How did you choose the main theme of the new album? is it a personal or collegial reflection?
Sabine: I think that the development of consciousness is essential for mankind. We are now at a point, where technical development is advancing in a way, that the Consciousness cannot keep up the pace with. So, it is about realising, we are creators and not victims of our life situation and to decide what we really want as mankind. I believe it is important in the 21st century to take self responsibility for your own feelings to further perceive, we are more than our bodies, our feelings, and our thinking. Everybody needs a sense in life to shape it liveable. Where people follow their mission and therefore feel sense and contentment, they are already on the way to „Shangri-La“. The more people remember, the bigger the probability, the rest will also recognize, what everything is about here on earth.

PP: You use particular instruments in your music, sitar, bouzouki, swarmandal, is it out of passion or out of curiosity?
Lanvall: Those instruments always had a big role in our music. I have many of them at home and when the music has space, I use them. Among those mentioned I also have a pipa, a shamisen, a hammered dulcimer, a kacapi, 2 mandolines, a saz, all used in the past.

PP: The intervention of Daniel TOMANN EICKHOFF in "Savage Land" is magnificent, it airs do you agree with this idea, do you think of repeating in a next album?
Lanvall: Very possible when the music needs a flute‚ ‘‘Savage Lan‘‘ is also a very unusual song, very tribal and lost in reverie before this completely insane Jethro Tull like flute solo. He is flutist in the renowned NDR-Radio Orchestra in Hamburg and a big fan of us. Last year we met us personally on a hiking trip in his home in the Tyrol and got on great with each other. I heard him perform live on a JT song and so I thought this might be worth a try as the parts were perfect for it. What he delivered in the end was sheer madness :-)

PP: Are you part of the bands that can make a living from their music?
Lanvall: Yes, I do for 20 years now, but I also have a studio. I lately composed a symphony, which was live premiered in June as a commissioned work. I did film music for a great project here in Austria from 2014-2021. It is called “Above Austria”, where my home country is shown from the helicopter perspective. We did 5 seasons, and it was one of the most successful series ever produced on the National Austrian Culture TV Channel.

PP: Do you have any hobbies outside of music?
Lanvall: I do love hiking and skiing, being in the mountains is one of my best ways to reload the batterie’s and gaining fresh energy and inspiration. And I am a big motorsport fan, especially Formula 1.
Sabine: I also love to be in nature and by the sea. I do love photography and the communication with friends.

PP: You managed to create a strong iconography from your beginning, was this a determined plan?
EDENBRIDGE: No, but the visual aspects are always important to transport the message of the music. So, you would never see us with ordinary street clothes on stage and during a photo session :-)

PP: Can you tell me about Voiciano your side project?
EDENBRIDGE: The idea of Voiciano was born during our acoustic show in Vietnam. Sabine and I performed 3 Edenbridge songs live in a big theatre in Hanoi with just vocals and piano. 3 years later I found out that I had collected a bunch of great ideas which did not fit to Edenbridge and so everything started. In 2014 we released the album “Everflow”, with great guest appearances by Jim Peterik, Arjen Lucassen, Karl Groom, Erik Martensson, Gandalf and many more. We still love the album. After that we were again busy with Edenbridge, but we are sure, there will be another album, if the time is right and we have the ideas for it. This also started the lyrical cooperation between us.

PP: Are there any records that have marked you in recent months?
Lanvall: I love the new Threshold album, which will be out in November. The new Journey record is great. And I just discovered a French-Canadian band called Mystery, great stuff.

PP: And in other areas? Books? Films?
Lanvall: I do read a lot of biographies. Fates Warning “Destination Onward” was great, also Steven Wilson's autobiography. Currently I am reading the one of Kate Bush.

PP: What are your plans for the coming months?
Lanvall: We have an album release show in Montreux on September 17 around the renowned September Musical Festival with a free entry and we are near to reveal the tourdates for February 2023, so busy times.

PP: Thank you for your collaboration and all the best for EDENBRIDGE
EDENBRIDGE: Thanks a lot for the interview.