From the Shadow of the Violin to the Darkness of Carmilla: Esin Yardımlı Alves Pereira
After years of creating Celtic and Nordic folk albums, orchestral compositions for role-playing enthusiasts, and opening a gateway to medieval and Renaissance melodies through The Wandering Bard, Esin Yardımlı Alves Pereira now places her violin at the very heart of heavy metal. KIANIS – Homage to Carmilla is a dark and passionate encounter in which an overlooked female vampire finds her voice again through an instrument that has often been overlooked itself.
There has always been a desire for world-building at the core of Esin Yardımlı Alves Pereira’s music. Sometimes she wanders through the pages of a medieval song, sometimes along the mist-covered paths of Celtic and Nordic melodies, and sometimes she creates vast orchestral landscapes for role-playing worlds. Through The Wandering Bard, she follows the traces of historical instruments and ancient melodies, carrying a timeless emotion to modern listeners: the need to tell stories.
KIANIS – Homage to Carmilla opens one of the darkest doors of that journey. Inspired by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Gothic vampire novella Carmilla, written decades before Dracula, the EP is more than a literary tribute. It is also a statement of artistic identity. The violin becomes the protagonist of the story. Just as Carmilla has long remained in Dracula’s shadow, the violin has often been underestimated within the world of metal. With this release, Esin brings both of those overlooked voices into the spotlight.
Despite its concise twelve-minute runtime, Homage to Carmilla unfolds with a dense, theatrical atmosphere tinged in shades of deep crimson. In Esin’s world, medieval music, Gothic literature, and extreme metal become three different languages orbiting the same dark altar. We spoke with Esin Yardımlı Alves Pereira about her long-hidden metal vein, Carmilla’s enduring shadow, the creation of this new dark universe built around the violin, and the many facets of her musical identity.