The Mercenary Trap

Emil Hartmann and Mihai Plămădeală (photo: Victor Velculescu)

Sibiu, August 2011, Captain's log: The meeting with Emil Hartmann in front of the Ibis Hotel, the ex Conti(nental), represented, whitouth any doubt, the event that reminded us of the movie made by Sergiu Nicolaescu four decades ago, The Mercenary Trap. One of the mercenary of those days, the most handsome, smart and strong one, today a movie/theater insider and a master in swordsmanship somewhere in Germany, is Emil himself. The movie (as we recall) starts or ends with him. Nomen Est Mihai did not met the nobleman Hartmann for seven years, since the band wore, in a series of concerts, costumes and clothes from the past provided by Emil. The joy of the recap was authentic, unaffectionate but also in fighting trim, according to each other’s infinite vanity.

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Sleep in Graphic

Graphic and Nomen Est Omen at Şoimoş (photo: Florin Mărginean)

In 2009 Nomen Est Omen performed in the Fortresses of Arad County, strictly speaking. The homonym project, extremely interesting, materialized in a roving festival. Going from one site to another was made with the bus of the Philharmonica, but sometimes, as it was the case at Şoimoş, the musicians had to track on a narrow path to reach the fortification, on the top a super hill. All this in costumes, carrying the instruments on their back, about 45 minutes of walk. We arrived at about the middle of the concert performed by our friends from the band Graphic (from Arad), and after their concert it was our turn to play. We remember especially two things: Benny, the percussionist of the named band, carried a boulder (as Sisyphus) from the base of the hill, in order to have a stool during the concert and Nomen Est Adam, our colleague (bassoon player) who fell asleep in the grass while The Graphics played. After our concert started, suddenly a storm arose, but this is yet another story. The communion with nature was at its peak.

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Railway

Sinaia, mon amour (photo: Mihai Plămădeală)

Coming back in our capital city from the Sighişoara Medieval Festival 2010, the train stationed no less then three hours in Sinaia. Meanwhile, Nomen Est Omen took delight in blackberries wrapped in paper cornet, peanuts in bags and many more wonderful things. Nobody bought a key trinket with compass or a thermometer (shaped as a deer), nor a fanny pack tailored as a shoe, but everybody felt ok even so. From the platform Mihai took a picture of us standing at the window; we took him some pictures from the train, while he tried to keep the balance on the railway. His picture came out much more convincing, hence the idea that in life it’s better to look up.

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Soprano & Base

A magical exchange  (photo:  Bodor Sandor)

The children are our future and the future sounds good (or at least we would like to think so). Asked by many parents to make a picture with their children, as a fairy, princess, entertainer or actress as those from the Mall, Nomen Est Anca once made a magical exchange with a little girl from Sibiu: she gave her the drum and took in exchange the flute. Thus resulted twenty seconds of musica universalis and an nice picture. After this artistic moment, the kids probably went to bed, dreaming to grow faster, while we went to The Owl, where we ate pancakes with vanilla – fantastic as the Wonderland of Alice.

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After the Parade

What you see from outside, you don’t see from inside (photo: Victor Velculescu)

It’s easy to be wise after the parade … The parade of the “Transylvanian Fortresses” Festival from Sibiu was impressive in 2010 and 2011. It is a great feeling to march in front of a wide public of (tens of) thousand of people, on a central route three-four kilometers long, to be finally presented on the stage in the Grand Square, in all dignity, as a participant artist. Nomen Est Omen, as many other bands, ensembles, reenactment groups or theatre companies, was photographed by many cameras, more or less professional. Finally, when the party was over, we took a picture for our hearts, to have it in our own collection, but also to find out how we looked in that evening. “What you see from outside, you don’t see from inside”, as Dorian Radu (he is a friend of ours, we don’t think you know him) said (in a song from 1989).

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An Arc Over Time

The Northern side of the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral from Sibiu (photo: Victor Velculescu)

2011 was the year of Nomen Est Omen’s tenth consecutive participation to the festival “Transylvanian Fortresses”, Sibiu. Scheduled, by tradition, in the last weekend of August, the medieval gathering makes our band to associate the end of the summer with the presence in the beautiful gothic city on the Cibin river. To find again and again, in the same season, the Grand Square, the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral or the Liar’s Bridge, gives you a keen feeling of time jump. “The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older”. We promised ourselves to take a picture in 2012, in the same relative position we took a year ago, in front of the northern side of the Lutheran Cathedral, dressed with the same costumes. That is, if destiny has not already decided that we will skip Sibiu next year. As an old saying says – the devil laughs when the man makes plans. 

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