Functioning under the alias Golem Mecanique, she is one of the most original figures on the contemporary music scene. Her work blends experimental folk, microtonality, and influences of early modern sounds while reaching into the darker aspects of music, literature, magic, and poetry. In her music, she uses unique instruments such as the “drone box” (a mechanised hurdy-gurdy) and the zither, both of which create an almost ceremonial space for her expression. Her work is both intense and delicate, revealing deep artistic explorations and reflections on transience, fate, and spiritual power. The new album Siamo tutti in pericolo represents the next stage of this unique journey, in which the creator, while remaining true to her roots, transforms music into a personal ritual and meditation on contemporary challenges.
In the interview, we talk about her artistic path, her creative methods, and her inspirations. We delve into the themes of sound experimentation, the search for one’s own identity, and spiritual reflection that are fundamental to her music. I invite you to take a journey alongside Golem.
Artur Mieczkowski
Artur Mieczkowski: Which sounds or memories from your childhood have been the most influential in shaping your musical identity?
Golem Mecanique: I was lucky that both of my parents were huge music fans. They had quite a collection and it was all the best you could find about rock and other musical sounds. My father had more rock’ish taste in music including Deep Purple, Black Sabbath but also Johnny Cash or Blondie. I used to listen to bands like this when I was 5!
I also listened to classical music and opera, and when I was young, I loved hearing Stravinsky as if it were children’s music. Maria Callas was like a queen to the little girl I was back then. This rich musical background became the foundation on which I grew as a musician and artist.
A.M.: Where the name of the project – Golem Mecanique – came from?
G.M.: When I decided to create a solo project I did not want to use my real name for various reasons and especially the one, that with a nickname you become what you create. It is easier to unleash your real self. At this time I used samples and tapes and field recordings. There were my little machines of weird music. I began to think about a name that will inspire something weird, something daunting. Something that won’t state about who I am. And it worked, because people thought I was a band, haha.
The Golem is a creature of jewish tradition and it’s backstory always fascinated me. It was like a fairy tale for me and, as others are found in vampires, I found myself in Golem! It was a name which can be treated as a shelter, as a home. The Golem is something beyond me. It is fragile and powerful, it is occult and protective.
A.M.: What led you to pursue your own unique path instead of following well worn patterns?
G.M.: I guess I am quite a wild creature haha! I am not interested in making what people are expecting to get from a songstress. I preferred to be the unknown and powerful book of the library than a pop magazine. The social media, the music mafia, the followers, the crave for success impose us so much. They force our looks, our ways, and our style. They dictate us musicians to look or sound alike. I am from the black metal/experimental family.This is my soil. And when you are deeply involved in this peculiar family you do not follow the usual path. You become a monster.
A.M.: How does the philosophy of minimalism permeate your compositions and arrangements?
G.M.: Minimalism was not my intention but it seems that it fits better with the Golem Mecanique with a hurdy gurdy process! When I make other forms of the Golem Mecanique with guitar or tapes it is more dense and there is lot of sound and instrument interactions.
When I compose or play with the drone box, I have to accept that she is the diva. Yes I talk about her as if she was a person, haha and she is! She is perfect and even my voice is useless sometimes.This eternal drone could last forever and it will be perfect without me. The minimalism is quite an answer when I want to give a mass. And I consider my music as sacred music. I make sermons. Dark and poetic sermons but you will always be invited to my falling church. The minimalism of one instrument and a voice determine the precision of the intentions.
A.M.: What significant changes in your approach to technology have shaped the evolution of your sound?
G.M.: I never really was into technology. I use tapes, haha! Technology is great and I do use music software, plugins and pedal effects but even then I make it minimum! Put some reverb in the reverb and that’s all!
I am a self educated musician and I had to learn quite all by myself. I began to use tapes as a music machines because I am from the tapes generation and it was obvious to me. Using computers was much further in the Golem creating process. And I only use it for recording sessions and mixing. I do not look for a sound or do this kind of research. I look for something that sounds as it sounds in my head.
A.M.: Has the discovery of a the ‘drone box’ opened new sound exploring horizons for you?
G.M.: That was the key change. I had a real instrument and it was so cool! And
what an instrument it was! Something so unique. It was quite a pride. With the drone box I came back to singing. I only used my voice as a pattern before. With the drone
box, I forgave myself and went back to being a songstress. When I began to make
music, I was always and only a songstress in bands. Not the decision maker. I was a real nightmare for me, the one who always has ideas! I was the front person and only this. I hated this so when I began the Golem my voice wasn’t the main part. But with the drone box I discovered that it was time to show the world what a dark priest
sounds like!
A.M.: How do experiments with field recordings and traditional musical forms affect the character of your works?
G.M.: They are tools to reflect my relationship with the world, with knowledge, and with the invisible. I am quite sensitive and very influenced by mysticism, occult and nature. Using field recordings is putting something invisible in a real existing form. I hope it is clear, haha.
My relationship with traditional music is something different. It is something that always inspired me in the way but I did not want to be a copycat. For this album I was inspired by Tarantella but in my own way. Tarantella has quite an explanation: the dance to exorcise the pain, when you are bitten by a tarantula. It could only impress me! It was not my goal to use traditional pattern in Siamo tutti in pericolo but it came by itself, in my way of using the instrument and its eternal rowing.
A.M.: How do you reach a balance between thorough preparation and spontaneity in live performances?
G.M.: There is 20 percent of spontaneity in live performance. I always work a score before any concert! I know what I am doing and what I am singing when I perform. Performing an album live is quite impossible because of the several voices I recorded but I am always preparing a score that is related to the album I play. The 20 percent of spontaneity are if I play on stage or among the audience, if there is light or only candlelight. As I say I come to give a mass, and a mass must be perfect.
A.M.: How does collaborating with other artists enrich your artistic vision and inspire you to find new solutions?
G.M.: I made a few collaborations in the past with Clara de Asis by instance. But at the time, I only put the Golem form in another duet form.
Lately, I began to work with Thomas Bel. I involved him in the Golem project and I asked him to add guitars on Golem’s already existing tracks. It was rather me who told him what I wanted. But then we began a brand new black metal duet and then I saw how to communicate new ideas, new form and how to be led by the other’s ideas. Collaboration is a difficult exercice for me because I am quite shy and I always think my ideas could be lame but I learnt with this collaboration with Thomas that I am not so lame haha.
I will begin a new duet with another artist soon and it enlights me in the way that it will feed other path, other desire.
A.M.: How does literature, film, or poetry influence your compositions, by adding more emotional depth to them?
G.M.: Art is Golem’s blood. I cannot separate art, literature, cinema from it. I read a lot, I watch movies anytimes, (I am a huge horror film fan haha) I have to rest myself in culture and art ways. I composed for Dante, for Poe, for Pasolini. I used Lynch and Tarkovski in my sounds. Music is the synthesis of all that feeds me.
A.M.: How can your works serve as a form of social resistance or a response to contemporary challenges?
G.M.: Being a woman is already a form of resistance in music or artfield anyway haha! I think the resistance is to keep going. These are not peaceful times. Dark medieval days are coming back again. I cannot believe how the shit is going so fast. Poverty, racism, war, oppression everywhere. We are musicians. We are powerless in front of people that really can make the difference and do not give a single fuck.(sorry for the language!) We must keep going on because it will be not fair to abandon this art fight. We must exist.
A.M.: How do you imagine the future of music amidst constant technological and cultural evolution?
G.M.: These things are going too fast. Streaming, platforms, followers. We are becoming public relation guys instead or recording our stuff but we need to do PR’s because it is our life and a perpetual fight. We work hard on our art and we want it to exist outside of our personal space. But the world is too fast for art. Even black metal or experimental music must follow this over-socialized life. I think it creates some difficulties we definitely do not need.
A.M.: Is there a particular song or moment in your career that symbolizes a turning point in your musical journey?
G.M.: There is a moment, yes. I was invited to a festival, Echoes, which took place in the French Alps. We were invited to play outside in front of the mountain via a huge sound device that broadcasted the sound throughout the mountains and we had to play with the echoes. For me and my drone box it was the most beautiful moment of music, of sorcery, of nature that I’ve ever had. I met my own transcendence. I think I really put a name to what I wanted to do with my Golem project at this exact moment. I think I accepted my fate that day. I accepted being a daughter of a cursed mountain, daughter of dark skies, daughter of mysterious ways, to create a cult of the invisibles and veils.
And I met Stephen O’Malley then and it changed my life. I became more confident because when someone with this aura trusts you it is really a thing!
A.M.: Your latest album, Siamo tutti in pericolo, refers to Pasolini’s words. Could you share how this inspiration shaped the creation of the album?
G.M.: I have been in love with Pasolini movies and poetry for ages, decades! His path, his wrath, his resistance inspired me a lot. His vision of love and violence was some quite an earthquake for me. I had this need to offer him a funeral mass. I had a vision of his body laying on a cold beach and I worked around the idea of what the day before and after his death looked like. It’s a really personal, conceptual album. But I think it can touch anyone who is sensitive to memory, melancholy and poetry.
A.M.: Are you still involved in black metal projects? In my opinion, this music still carries some kind of primal power and energy. How do you perceive the genre today?
G.M.: Oh yes!!! I cannot escape from black metal! It always finds me even when I let it down for other musical genres! My husband is a black metal musician, he runs a black metal label and when I met him I came across black metal. And I fell in love again with its anger and dark beauty. I listen to Satyricon while writing!!
We are planning to work on a new black metal album so yes I can say I am still involved in black metal.
A.M.: As the owner of Titania Tapes, what qualities do you look for when choosing artists?
G.M.: About Titania tapes, it began with musician friends I know and love their work. I invited them to begin the catalog, then I made an open call and people came to me! I was also focused on women in experimental music because they are hard to find and hear!^^
The only criteria is experimentation in all its fields: field recordings, electronics, ambient, black metal.
I accept any experimental genre, except perhaps music geared toward the techno or dance floor scene. Many artists happen to come from metal, doom, or drone backgrounds, making Titania quite the dark shelter for experimentation. However, the catalog also includes sound poetry and vocal experiments to bring some light and balance to the whole!
A.M.: What are your future artistic plans and would you like to try new forms of expression?
G.M.: I am thinking about the new forms of Golem. New projects and collaborations are coming too, based on doom and black metal music. But it’s still secret haha.
A.M.: Thank you very much for the interview. I wish you the best of luck with your plans.
G.M.: Thank you!!! It is always dense to think about what and who we are.