Dark Friends Series
Mombi Yuleman
Many of you know of Mombi Yuleman because he and I have collaborated for over a year now on various Dark Corners projects, and his work is referenced frequently in this newsletter. Deservedly so!
So it’s high time you get to know a little more about him.
Mombi has been making music for the past decade at least, and his dark compositions have been reviewed and featured on many blogs and podcasts in the ambient music community.
It takes only a moment of listening to his music to realize he is special. There are lots of musicians who can make good scary music, but I think what makes Mombi stand out is his ability to conceptualize and tell a story–to help listeners imagine their own unique movies through music alone.
But enough of what I think. Let’s hear from the dark composer himself. (Insert your own de-composing joke here.)
The Interview
So how did a nice, clean-cut, Norman Rockwell-kinda guy like you get into the business of making scary music?
(Mombi laughs.)
As someone who mostly listened to film scores growing up, many of my favorites were horror scores. I was creating my own small compositions on the keyboard when I was in my early to mid-teens. Naturally, when I started making music of my own, I enjoyed composing unique music of a darker nature.
The dark ambient genre contains many of the elements found in those soundtracks of old that I hold near and dear to my heart. After discovering dark ambient labels like Unexplained Sounds and Cryochamber, I knew what my musical calling was and composing THAT kind of music was what I’ve always been wanting to do all along.
This is probably a tough question to answer, but which of your albums is your favorite?
Well, on one hand Witch-Works is my favorite, because I finally got to compose that Halloween/Carpenter style soundtrack I’ve always wanted to do. But Storm-Maker Red Horse I sometimes call my ultimate favorite just because of what it took to create a soundscape of an ever-growing storm. I’m fascinated by storms and tornados and I feel like I really captured that essence with that one.
Yes, since hearing Storm-Maker, I’ve dreamed of hosting a public multi-media event in which a small live audience experiences the whole terrifying story of Storm-Maker.
Just imagine the soundtrack playing in a darkened room while fans and misters blow wind and spray water on the audience with strobe lights creating bursts of lightning, and projections of tornados and flying debris appear sporadically on suspended screens scattered about the venue. A demonic, laughing face in the clouds flashes and then–
Oh, sorry. Got carried away there for a minute. But it’s kinda your fault for making such a cool, frightening album.
Speaking of live acts, though, you actually have performed live. Do you enjoy the experience of performing before an audience?
I love playing at events and particularly open-air festivals. It’s wonderful and humbling to hear my music on such large speakers reverberating throughout a forest.
There’s a lot to be said about presentation when playing at events that have psychedelic deco and VJs (visual jockeys). I get into Mombi-mode quite heavily during my sets, and certainly, there is no lack of energy when I’m behind the controls.
For me, 2020 was to be the year of Wendigo, and I had planned to wear a stag mask at every show or festival I played for the duration of that year. But then, Covid. (photo from a 2019 event)
I really look forward to the day when I get to watch you perform! Let’s talk for a minute about where you get your inspiration.
Your albums can really be thought of as soundtracks for movies that don’t exist, or perhaps more accurately, for movies that exist only in your head.
What are some actual horror movies that you love primarily because of their soundtracks?
Oh, there are so many!
There’s an old saying about how film scores should complement a film and hardly be noticeable, an idea that I understand, and there are plenty of great examples of that, But I really like those scores that stand out in a good way.
The Omen trilogy particularly comes to mind. Great films, but they wouldn’t be nearly as memorable without their scores.
Exorcist II: The Heretic is a film I actually really like for its shear insanity, and the score by Ennio Morriconne elevated that.
Suspiria, too, for sure.
Oh! Candyman! Philip Glass just doin’ his thing but with creepy pipe organs and choir samples. Glee!
Jerry Goldsmith (Logan’s Run, Planet of the Apes, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Total Recall, The Mummy) was one of those guys who knew the art of subtlety as well as being catchy and rhythmic with his orchestral, synthesized blend. He almost always composed themes for a film that wouldn’t leave your head.
And then there’s John Carpenter, who is one of my greatest influences. He really impressed me from a young age with his scores to The Fog, Christine, Halloween III, etc. Often, the music was as much a character as anyone acting in the film. Brooding, suspenseful, synthesized chase music is just my cup of tea.
You also seem to have a specific interest in cryptids (creatures whose existence has been suggested in lore and mythology but not officially substantiated) and UFO’s. When did that interest originate for you and is this interest limited just to music?
As a child I was always fascinated with the unknown. Going to the library to check out books and look at the pictures and illustrations of UFOs will always be among my favorite memories.
The Legend of Boggy Creek terrified me as a child. When I composed Point Pleasant, it pretty much jumpstarted this fascination. I like to research the subject matter as I’m composing the music. It’s fuel for the fire and I enjoy reading and traveling when I am able to make the time.
After I composed Point Pleasant, my girlfriend and I went on a road trip out there (to West Virginia where the Moth Man legend originated) and stayed for a couple of nights.
On the way back, we went through Braxton County where the Flatwoods Monster incident happened. That really sparked some ideas which ultimately became Wraiths of the Appalachian. Not long after that, we attended a cryptozoology convention here in North Carolina.
The field of cryptozoology has really helped me branch out in terms of things to write about and broaden my perspective on the subject matter as a whole.
Can you describe what the process is like for you when you’re making an album? Which comes first, the story idea or the music?
I like to start with an idea and let the music take that idea and take off. But when I start with an idea, I’ll also have a feel for what the music should sound like.
Sometimes I will find the music starts to evolve into something it wasn’t originally intended for, and next thing I know I have to slap myself on the wrist and go back to the original sound I started with. However, when that happens, I may know that it can be used in a different project.
One of your albums, S.S. Moreau is a collaboration with another artist, Scott Lawlor. The idea of collaboration with another musician/composer is both fascinating and puzzling to me. How did the concept idea for Moreau come about, and what was the process like for the two of you to end up with a single album?
Scott had hit me up at some point and asked if I’d like to collaborate on a project. After much time went by we were able to finally get around to it. It really just started out with him recording some drones and him emailing them to me. Then I’d go over that with my own elements.
We didn’t really have an idea what the album would be about at first but after analyzing the sound of the first track we worked on I felt it sounded quite astronomical and spacey, so I mentioned that we should focus on making the rest of the album like that. A dark industrial space drone album.
There were some organic moments in there and I felt that obviously maybe it involves vegetation or an alien life form. I was brainstorming while creating and it just dawned on me how interesting it would be if we could make an ambient album about a biological lab floating around in space being governed by a crazy scientist who is plucking various lifeforms from other planets and such. Scott really liked the idea and we went with it ’til the very end.
Continuing with the idea of collaboration, you and I have worked together in a rather creative way. What were your thoughts when I first asked you if I could write a story based on your album, Witch-Works? Were you worried about what might happen?
I was more interested than worried at all. I really liked your book The Thirteenth Day of Christmas and I felt like a genuinely talented writer was taking the concept and going to do something really awesome with it. It turned out to be much more epic than I had imagined!
While I used your setting for Witch-Works, the ruins of an old toy factory set in the fictional town of Maria Bay, I added some characters and created a new storyline. What’s it like to have someone take your vision of what you had imagined and change it all around?
It’s refreshing actually. I’m all about telling a story through instrumental music, which means I leave a lot to the imagination, and I let people kind of conjure up in their head what’s going on.
So to have you come in and rearrange it and fill in all of those holes and pretty much turn it into the thing I imagined it to be is very satisfying. I say refreshing because it’s like experiencing an idea I came up with in a new way and with a different perspective. I just provided the chapter titles, you actually fully told the story and I’ll forever be grateful for that as, again, Witch-Works is one of my personal favorites.
Like the Witch-Works project, we’re doing much the same thing with your album Wraiths of the Appalachian. I’m taking the exact path of the journey through Appalachian country as on your album and incorporating the same mythic figures into my story, but with a twist. Without giving away too much, what can you say about this latest project of ours?
As with Witch-Works, it’s quite pleasing to have one of my soundtracks turned into an actual fully fleshed-out storyline. It’s a particularly fun one because I’ve been involved more in the creation of it what with the placement of background music and a speaking role. I’m also happy that we are able to work on a cryptid-related subject. Like the underground audience that enjoys dark ambient music, there’s an audience for cryptozoology and Appalachian folklore that I think are going to really dig this story.
The map on the back cover of the Wraiths album is a rather interesting shape. Can you tell us a bit about what emerged on that map once you literally connected the dots?
Well, I always wanted there to be a sort of old, deteriorated map on the back to show the Devil’s journey as he visited various “wraiths” throughout the Appalachian. It was a bizarre and happy accident that his journey just so happened to sort of make out the shape of a wolf or dog’s head, which was very fitting being that Snarly-Yow is a big part of the album with even a bigger role in the story you’ve written.
What other recent releases and upcoming projects would you like to share with us?
Well, right now I’m working on an album called Hours Lost inspired by the Betty and Barney Hill alien abduction case. I had been working on an album with a similar concept called Abductee, but it was one of those cases where it was turning into something other than it was meant to be. So I branched off and focused on Hours Lost. The tracks for Abductee will eventually be used for something, but I just don’t know what or when.
The soundtrack for Dark Corners‘ Dark Holidays was just released on my Bandcamp website. My album Beneath Bridgewater was finished at the end of winter and is to be released on Spun Out of Control Records at some point in the not-too-distant future.
So with all of this interest in the weird and supernatural, do you consider yourself a believer?
I became quite the skeptic as I grew into my 20’s. I still am one, but not your typical skeptic. I explore and research the strange and bizarre without being dismissive. Any skeptic will tell you there’s a lot about our universe that we don’t understand.
I think being around magical people, especially my wonderful girlfriend (DarkFriend Baruška A Michalčíková pictured right), has kind of opened up portals for me. I’m open to possibilities while utilizing reason and logic.
Reality is one great big beautiful mystery, much stranger than fiction, and as long as there are mysteries to explore there will be adventure and music.
(Clicking on the images above of Mombi Yuleman’s works will take you to his website where you can listen to and purchase his music.)
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