The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Adriaan De Raymaeker of Dorre

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I just mess around with guitars and amplifiers. I wouldn’t call myself a musician, because that would imply that I know what I’m doing or have a formal background in music theory/practice. I basically just started to fiddle around on cheapo gear when I was 15-16 or so and grew into heavier experimental music by jamming with friends. From there it kind of grew into fixed formation bands, where I ended up sticking with one dedicated project, Dorre.

Describe your first musical memory.

This is a tough one, I think my first real musical memory is a festival my parents took me to when I was five years old? I remember being lifted up on a chair by a very friendly woman and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers playing, it was loads of fun. The festival was Couleur Café in Brussels, my parents took me to all kinds of cultural events but I think this was the first full-on festival. There were a bunch of other bands playing but I only remember Ziggy Marley to be honest.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Again, a tough one, because there are so many. But I’d have to say it’s probably the first concert me and my partner went to together, The Mars Volta in de Vooruit in Ghent. She’d never heard of the band and I’d been a longtime fan, so I dragged her along to it and she absolutely loved it. I just remember looking at her while Cedric unleashed his voice on the crowd from about a meter away of his microphone and her eyes going wide in surprise and delight.

I’ll add a second one, because I could list a bunch of memories of gigs and festivals I’ve played myself, but I think the main one there would be Desertfest Belgium as it was and still is the biggest show we’ve ever played with Dorre. The feeling of playing for a full concert hall, even being the first band on the lineup for the last day of the fest, was amazing.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I’ve lost quite a few friends to suicide. I used to think that suicide was a cop-out, the easy way, a belief I no longer hold due to the struggles I’ve seen in many of my friends.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

A more focused view on what you want to achieve as an artist. Again, I don’t really want to describe myself as a musician, or artist, I just play music or a semblance of music, and when I move ahead in that, be it on a technical or a personal level, it just makes it more clear where I want to end up or what I actually want to be doing.

How do you define success?

Success, in the context of this questionnaire, is keeping a group of friends together while having output that everybody involved is happy with. Success, in general, to me, is what I already have. A loving partner, an inquisitive and kind child, a job that gives me fulfillment and freedom, a band that I can create with, friends that I can relate to and open up to.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

I don’t think there’s anything I would wish to unsee or unknow. I can’t say I’ve seen many terrible things in person.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’m in the process of creating a first version of it, but I would very much like to build my own full-scale recording studio.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

For the person consuming art: inspiration, relaxation and an escape from reality.

For the person creating art: an outlet for creativity and emotion and a platform to tell a story.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

In the last year, me and my partner have been working towards a more ecological and generally sustainable life. End of this year our cargo bike is set to arrive, which will replace about 80% of my car travel, I’m very much looking forward to zipping around with the kid in the cargo bike.

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Dorre, Fall River (2019)

Belgian usually-instrumentalists Dorre are set to play a release show Jan. 30 for their debut album, Fall River, at Het Depot in Leuven. The official release date is Feb. 1, and a lot of what the record titled after the Massachusetts town where the Lizzie Borden murders took place has to offer you can hear immediately in the first 10 seconds of opener “Satisfying Sadistic Urges.” It begins with sharply-toned, intense fits of starts and stops, metallic in their aggression, but with a tonal presence that speaks to what’s to come as a heavy work all the same.

They’re quickly under way in “Satisfying Sadistic Urges” — which, somewhat amazingly, is not also the title of a Cannibal Corpse song — and they maintain the directed sensibility through about the first two minutes before breaking to silence and minimalist blues licks, then crash back in and make their way back from whence they came with surprising fluidity given how far out they go. The four-piece of guitarists Etherik Heyns and Adriaan De Raymaeker, bassist Andrew Hockley and drummer Wolf Overloop don’t shy away from the violence of their subject matter on the six-song/33-minute self-released outing, but neither are they neglecting a sense of atmosphere in order to convey the more physical side of the music. As they pull back on the tempo with “Force the Victims,” they’re finding a balance between the sides — the airy guitar lead atop the slamming march in the second half of “Force the Victims,” for example — and it’s in toying with that balance that Fall River makes its encouraging impression.

They cap side A with the more progressively-styled “Maximum State of Emotional Arousal,” which feels loosened up and boasts some subtle but choice snare from Overloop that carries the band from the early meanderings into a more fervent and insistent chug, some more winding and toward a particularly noisy wash of guitar soloing. As they began side A with “Satisfying Sadistic Urges” on high-go, they do the same via the two-minute “The Greatest Amount of Life Force” on side B, which stops just short of leading directly into “Extracted at the Moment of Death,” on which Dorre welcome vocalist Laura Donnelly of Edinburgh, Scotland’s King Witch.

If you’re going to have a guest vocalist, Donnelly is an absolute powerhouse, and she brings a classic metal declarative sense to “Extracted at the Moment of Death,” tapping into Sabbathian patterning with the same penchant for melodies she showed early last year on her own band’s debut, Under the Mountain (review here). As they approach the midsection, a layer of lead guitar smoothly makes its way in and adds flourish, then the band breaks into a quieter midsection, that warmer lead tone gradually emerging again before they charge back with the nodding riff and the band’s well-earned big finish. It’s worth pointing out how well Donnelly fits with Dorre. In some cases with instrumental bands bringing in a guest vocalist, there’s almost a sense of their doing it begrudgingly, and so it doesn’t always mesh, but Donnelly sounds equal parts natural and righteous on the seven-minute track, and one hopes it’s not the last time these two parties collaborate.

In part because the album is short, the closing title-track — which is also the longest at 7:33 — is inherently more than an afterthought after the surge of energy that is “Extracted at the Moment of Death,” and it ends Fall River with a suitably creeping, moody malevolence, finding its footing early in a mostly-linear build that plays out across its span until wind-ish swirling noise brings it to a conclusion. It will be interesting over time to hear if one side or the other in Dorre‘s sound wins out, but the way they draw from their influences across Fall River, their steadiness of theme and their efficient delivery all come together to make the release function as ably as it does. There may be growing still to do, but the band already have a clear sense of where they’re headed, and I wouldn’t be surprised either if they continued to find their way in darker storytelling.

It’s my pleasure today to host the premiere of “Extracted at the Moment of Death.” Obviously it’s something of a standout, being the only song with vocals, but I think it still represents the album well, and basically any chance you get to hear Donnelly sing, you should take it.

Some comment from the band follows the track below. Please enjoy:

Adriaan De Raymaeker on “Extracted at the Moment of Death”:

This one started out based on an older track that had started to grate on us, we completely reworked it keeping only parts of the riffs. We did a couple of preproductions of it and while listening all of us just thought “this needs vocals”. We had played some shows in the UK and Scotland, King Witch opened for us in London and I knew I wanted to do something with Laura [Donnelly], their vocalist, in the future as soon as I heard her sing. So we got in touch, sent her the best pre-production we had and told her to go to town on it, giving her only the basic background story of what we wanted to be portrayed in the song. She killed it from the get go. We recorded the instrumental in Belgium, which was pretty tricky, I slammed my guitar through an organ simulator pedal, we dropped cases of metal scrap on the floor for snare accents, all kinds of crazy stuff that you probably don’t really hear in the recordings but made us very happy. Laura recorded with her partner Jamie [Gilchrist] based on our ProTools session and again, killed it. It was a great experience and something we’ll definitely be doing again in the future!

I especially like the very funky, groovy middle part of the song instrumental wise, it’s so different from our other stuff and it breaks the song very nicely.

After a two year journey of writing, rewriting, sound-searching, recording and collaborating with profoundly talented artists and partners we can finally say it’s here. We are very proud to be able to present our upcoming full album: a dark and murky sensory undertaking, wandering through the alluring town of Fall River.

The album will be released on the 1st of February on high quality, 180gr vinyl. The first pressing will get a limited edition, consisting of 100 coloured albums, as well as 200 black slabs of wax.

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Dorre Fall River release show event page

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Dorre website